That has never been done before. Over 100 speakers including A-listers and non A-listers, cross over traditional media types, corporate executives, PR types, and dozens of different communities represented. Political bloggers, mommy bloggers, god bloggers, tech bloggers, sports bloggers, milbloggers, business bloggers, PR bloggers.

That has never been done before. The overwhelming feedback we received was positive and that the industry needed an event like this.

Marc Levin at Yahoo told me as he first walked in “I had no idea it was this big”, Kris Krug told me “I feel like our industry is all grown up now. This is huge”, Henry Copeland of blogads told me “I had no idea there were this many companies in blogging”, strangers were hugging me and shaking my hand. We got MARK CUBAN to give the closing keynote via a message we sent him on Facebook. Fox News covered the event for two solid days, Hugh Hewitt did six hours of nationally syndicated radio with over 100 affiliates there, Paramount Pictures gave us a screening of a major motion picture (The Kite Runner) and brought the star of the movie in to do a Q&A, Microsoft gave bloggers and podcasters the first peak at their new Zune 2 a week before it officially gets released.

This is just the stuff that did happen. There was a ton more that almost happened for an event that was just an idea a little over a year ago. Next year will be at least twice as big.

I know I am rambling about BlogWorld but my point is about the industry not the event. I came away from the experience feeling very positive for our fledgling industry. Sure we all have a lot of hard work to do and as Chris suggests we each need to commit to helping grow this pie and spread this revolution.

This medium is about far more than making money this is about changing the way content is delivered and consumed. This is changing marketing messages into conversations and making businesses, government, and the MSM more transparent and accountable.

This is just the beginning.

I think new media is going where you and your core are going. Maybe that is monitization or maybe it is for fun. In that sense new media will be what you make it, with your community. That is what everyone has been saying all along.

I believe that the way to legitimize the community is to take it more seriously. Make commitments and keep them, treat others in the community as equals deserving of respect – this applies to individuals and events. Above all, I believe that we need to mix and match the business-minded, hobby-minded and community-minded so that we can harness the energy and spirit of the different groups and make the movement that much better and that much stronger.

We also must remember that podcasting isn’t about technology; it’s about people, the ideas and passion people have, and the expression of those ideas and passion by the people. It’s a social media which means it must include social people and involved people.

“this is the how to make money in blogging or podcasting conversation but with different platform”

We are all seeking a new way to make old money. This is not a bad thing since money helps with things like food and shelter and ( in my case ) medical supplies.

The Audience has woken up to the fact that it doesnt need to be spoken at or to. It has realised that within the audience are far more experts and professionals whos depth and breadth of experience outways the speaker from the front. Which is why ,Chris, you have asked the audience.

I actually dont have an answer to the whole malady but I have some observations for what is antagonising the symptoms.

Words like Fans, Followers, Leaders ,Experts are emotive and quite subjective. When they become part of the conversation leading up to or part of the conference then the Audience begins to feel discomfort.

The platform is no longer the opportunity to sell your business. The Audience values ideas and creativity now. A Speaker should not be trying to define credibility by promoting his own companies successes or assets.

Sponsorship should mean approval and validation , not an easy pass to sell at all the visitors. Having money or lots of readers, subscribers, does not equate to being an expert or having opinions that are more important than anothers. Success is very rarely linked to being a well rounded professional with great expertise.

Pedestals, the ones in our minds that we put people upon, lets truly understand what it is we are validating about an individual before we ascend someone to a higher emotive place.

So there we are I hope that helps and thanks for posting Chris , I really appreciate your ideas.

Nik

So you want someone to come to a conference? If you are a blogging rockstar and you *have* been able to become social/famous/monetized by sitting in front of your computer, how easy is it going to be to to get you to physically socialize with people at a conference? The whole reason to do this in the first place was to create reality without getting out of your pajamas.