BlogWorld Recap

Ok, well I had grand intentions of blogging from BlogWorld, but the full-blown suckiness of AT&T prevented me from being able to do it. Not to go off on a tangent, but I can't even TELL you how frustrating it was to be at a conference, trying to do one of the following at any given moment:

• Text a friend to figure out where we were supposed to meet
• Tweet something cool from one of the sessions
• Upload a photo to Facebook
• Check in on Foursquare or Whrrl to share my whereabouts and/or try to win something
• Blog about the awesomeness of the event
• Speak to my husband or kids on the phone

Yet despite the $120 a month I'm spending on iPhone and $30 on iPad connectivity, 90% of the time I was in Vegas I was unable to do any of the above. Not to be a total downer and complainer, but that just straight-up sucks. Apparently I'm not alone with my crappy AT&T/Vegas experience; my friend Sandra shared this story with me today, which talks about how AT&T ranks dead last in Vegas. Shocker.

But anyway...enough about that...the reason I'm so mad about my lack of connectivity is largely because BlogWorld was so awesome and there was so much I wanted to share about it, but after the fact it's all blended into a big fuzzy-ish memory. I knew this would happen; hence my triple frustration at not being able to write about it in the moment.

ANYWAY, the best I can do right now is say that I had an absolute blast there. Being there was like swimming in a sea of Kool-Aid and everyone was drinking it. Maybe in the for-profit world experiences like that are par for the course, but in the association world, they are so rare as to be basically non-existent. I'm sure I sound like a drooling noob by saying this but I don't care. I met cool, friendly people. I visited vendors who were talking about stuff directly relevant to me either personally or professionally. I got to tell the guy from Audible.com how awesome I think their iPhone app is. I got to ask the guy from Blogger if I'm crazy or did spell check just disappear one day? (I'm not crazy; spell check is indeed gone. Sigh.) I got to hear porn stars talk about how they use social media. I got to put faces with many of the names I see every day on Twitter. Hell, I even got to dance on a platform. I could go on and on but I'll leave it at that.

Was there stuff I didn't like? Sure. Was it basically a white man fest? Yes. Did I almost starve to death from lack of food and die of thirst from lack of water or coffee? Yes. Did I get to meet Jeff Hurt, at long last? Alas, no. But will I be going back next year? Absolutely.

Since all I'm able to do right now is be sappy about how great and fun it was, here are a few posts about the actual sessions and stuff:

• What BlogWorld is and what it is not
• 5 Tips Other Blogging Conferences Should Take From BlogWorld Expo
• Is it time for conferences to do away with panels?
• 10 ways to be a LAME-O at BlogWorld

Feel free to add a link to your wrap up post in the comments.