Posts Tagged ‘Blogworld and New Media Expo’

By Joe Klein

The 2009 Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas has come and gone over a week ago. But since then, the articles, blogs, comments and videos streamed out in droves during a week that saw a great deal of other new media developments that emanated out of another event, the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, that, unfortunately, we weren’t able to attend.

As we have done with our blog posts of previous new media related events, we’ll do our best to provide our own recap, which is, for the most part, a mash-up of our own experiences and those of others that have been posted online since Blogworld ended.

New Media Creative associates BRETT BUMETER and I both arrived early for the conference, on Wednesday afternoon. After settling into our digs at the Las Vegas Hilton, we decided to skip dinner and opted instead to proceed directly to the pre opening night LAS VEGAS TWEETUP at the Hilton’s Tempo Lounge, which started at 6:00 PM. We also wanted to meetup with our old friend ANDY EVANS, who is the CEO and founder of London-based NET COMMUNITIES and PODCAST VOICES. By the time we arrived at about 7:00, our friend Andy had also arrived and it was great to see our old mate for the first time since 2007. The meetup was in full gear with at least a couple hundred early-arrivers already drinking and networking to the max. A few tweets reported that over 300 tweeps attended this lively gathering, which was hosted by the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. There were drawings for free rooms and dining certificates at the hotel.

We hung out at the LV Tweetup for a couple of hours, played a little blackjack with Andy and then moved on to an impromptu soiree at the Wynn Hotel that was tweeted out by Brian Solis and a few dozen of his closest friends. This get-together was supposed to be in one of the hotel’s dining rooms, but too many wild and crazy bloggers and tweeters showed up, so everyone was re-routed to a large outdoor balcony patio overlooking the hotel’s famed LAKE OF DREAMS which features a pretty incredible three dimensional multi-media show on a small man-made lake with a large cascading waterfall. After this event, it was definitely time to head back to the room, relax for a bit and then catch some ZZZZ’s before the Expo got officially underway.

Here are some pictures from Wednesday night’s Tweetup and party at the Wynn…..

TIM STREET, ANDY AND JOE	JOE, TED MURPHY AND BRETT

JOE, JULIE VASQUEZ AND BRETT	JOE AND NICOLE SIMON

ANDY, EWAN SPENCE AND JOE	TODD COCHRANE, BRIAN YUHNKEE AND JOE

WARREN WHITLOCK AND JOE	VICTOR CAJAIO AND JOE

ROBERT GAINES AND JOE	TED MURPHY AND ANDY

ANDY AND FRIENDS AT THE WYNN	CC CHAPMAN AND JOE AT THE WYNN

LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN	LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN

LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN	LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN

Here is a YouTube video shot a couple of years ago of ”Winnie,” a giant animated frog who sings during the Lake Of Dreams Show. We missed this portion of the show while we were at the party, so it was cool to find it online. The video appears to have been shot from the same patio balcony that Brian’s party gathered on. This attraction really is a “must see” at The Wynn Las Vegas!

Thursday, it was off to the races, with the first full day of Blogworld conferences. (The exhibit floor didn’t open until Friday.) We dropped in on several, while, at the same time, met up with old friends and networked with new ones. There was a pretty nice luncheon for the full access show attendees that day, which also featured a “mini-panel” discussion with the head of social media at the Ford Motor company, SCOTT MONTY and columnist and tech market blogger KARA SWISHER . Not too sure whether having this little panel while people were still eating was such a good idea, because people were pretty much into having lunch and chatting it up with others at their table and not all that into listening to a new media and blogging business discussion as they ate. Not to mention, it was pretty hard to hear. Still, Scott and Kara had some good points to make and case studies to pass on. Oh, and the baby greens salad, steak and asparagus lunch wasn’t bad! Kara posted an article and video interview with Scott Monty which you can view here and a separate story and video interview with Blogworld co-founders RICK CALVERT and DAVE CYNKIN which can be accessed here.

Our long time podcasting and blogging pal, MICHAEL BUTLER, also known as THE ROCK AND ROLL GEEK and director/host of the MEVIO MUSIC NETWORK, arrived from San Francisco just after lunch. We picked him up and returned to the LVCC just in time for the mid-afternoon keynote panel with web strategist JEREMIAH OWYANG, founder of IZEA TED MURPHY and “e-mom” WENDY PIERSALL. The panelists offered up a lot of dialogue and blogging, social media and the Federal Trade Commission’s new guidelines regarding endorsement disclosures. (The FTC story is one created quite a stir in the blogging community earlier this month, and was the subject of major news coverage the week before Blogworld.)

THE RNR GEEK

THE AFTERNOON KEYNOTE PANEL

Michael, Brett and I left the panel discussion a little more than half way through to wander the halls and drop in on a few other sessions going on at the Expo. Of course we bumped in to a variety of old friends and colleagues at every step of the way and I got Michael to shoot a few more photos.

JOE WITH THE BOURQUINS	LEWIS HOMES AND JOE	JOE AND CHRIS BROGAN

CHRIS HEUER AND JOE	MIKE MCALLEN AND BRETT	ROB WALCH AND JOE

We needed to end up at final event of Blogworld’s first day, the day’s closing keynote presented by new and social media guru CHRIS BROGAN. This was my first “announcer gig” of the conference for me, and my first public appearance as “New Media Joe.”  After a few opening remarks by Blogworld’s CEO and co-founder, Rick Calvert. I was introduced to the full room and “did my thing” with the Chris Brogan intro. Fortunately, I managed to get the crowd pretty worked up for what turned out to be a pretty insightful session by Chris. As tweets from the those in attendance (and others following the Blogworld stream online) flashed on screens behind him, Chris inspired those gathered for the keynote with his thoughts, observations and numerous tips for achieving blogging and social media success. The video of Chris Brogan’s entire closing keynote can be viewed by clicking here. Here are a few photos of the keynote, including one of good old New Media Joe introducing Chris to the adoring crowd!

“NEW MEDIA JOE’S” FIRST GIG!	CHRIS BROGAN INSPIRES THE CROWD

CHRIS BROGAN	MICHAEL AND CC AT THE KEYNOTE

After the closing keynote, we returned to the hotel for a recharge and to “freshen up” for the night that was just ahead, which was upon us in a flash. We picked up our pal Andy and headed over to the BELLAGIO Hotel, where we decided we would rather partake in their very elaborate buffet (which includes lots of sushi and seafood delights which we favor) so we didn’t have to worry about picking through “party food” later on. Besides, we were totally famished. After a pretty scrumptious feast, we proceeded on the THE BANK nightclub in the hotel, where the very hot TECHSET party, hosted once again this year by BRIAN SOLIS and STEPHANIE AGRESTA, was already raging on at full steam. Although the music was quite loud, and the crowd was pretty rowdy, everyone there seemed to be having a great time, including us! Here are some pix of the gang at Thursday night’s party at The Bank nightclub…..
 
 
 
 
 

We hung out at this fling for for a couple of hours before heading out and back to the Hilton. Our big mistake (or, more accurately, mine, as I was driving) was heading east on Flamingo Road from the strip to Paradise Road. Ongoing construction (which I thought had ended many weeks ago) still had the popular thoroughfare down to one lane in each direction and it took us well over half an hour to travel the three or so miles from the Bellagio Hotel back to the Hilton. Butler and I were exhausted by this time, but our mates, Brett and Andy still had lots of energy left and wanted to party some more! So, upon arriving at the Hilton, I opted to loan my car (and some spending cash) to the two “kids” so they could continue to revel through the night! God only knows (or maybe even he doesn’t know) what kind of escapades they chose to partake in until all hours!

Michael Butler and I proceeded to the Hilton’s Tempo Lounge (where the Wednesday night Tweetup took place) for a nightcap, and as fate would have it, ran into our good friend TODD COCHRANE and his own cohorts from RAWVOICE, who were in Vegas themselves to man their company booth and host their own Blogworld party on Friday night. We hung out with the Raw Voice crew for about an hour, and it was time to pack it in for the night. But, where were Andy and Brett, pray tell?

With the two main days of the Blogworld Expo still ahead of us, we knew that were was much more to come…..

In Part Two of our Blogworld Expo recap, we’ll share our experiences from the event’s two big days, Friday and Saturday. This “really big post” will also include loads of additional photos and links to numerous other reports that have been posted online over the last week Look for the next installment to be up and running right here, same company, same blog, in the next few days, if all goes as planned!

Until we post again, we’ll end this one with two pretty cool videos. First, the promo video for the 2009 Blogworld and New Media Expo posted online by the events organizers, Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin…..

Next, my own personal favorite Blogworld promo video that I came across while poking around on YouTube! Great job and a great example of getting out the word using viral video!

 

 

 

All of us at New Media Creative are happy—and quite excited—to announce that the company’s founder, writer, producer, voice-over guy and blogger “NEW MEDIA JOE” KLEIN has been asked by the organizers of the BLOGWORLD AND NEW MEDIA EXPO in Las Vegas to take on the duties as the “Voice of Blogworld” and act as the live announcer for several of the conference’s more notable events.

Joe was recently contacted by the event’s co-founder and CEO, RICK CALVERT, to sign on and be the “voice guy” to introduce speakers at the keynote addresses and other functions at the Expo. Joe and Rick first met at the inaugural Blogworld in 2007 and have been friends ever since.

Joe is certainly no stranger to handling announcer duties. In November of 2006, he was the voice of THE VLOGGIES, the first-ever video blogging awards presented by Silicon Valley upstart, the PODTECH Network. Besides from acting as the show’s announcer, Joe wrote and co-produced the live ceremony with host and new media personality IRINA SLUTSKY of GEEK ENTERTAINMENT TV. The show, which took place at the legendary Swedish American Hall in San Francisco (which has been home to several new media related events), was a huge and unexpected success that created a buzz that lasted for months and, in many ways, put the PODTECH NETWORK on the map.

In his decades-long career as a commercial and music producer, writer and voice-over artist, Joe has voiced hundreds of local and national radio and television commercials, promos and major network television specials for NBC. He’s also performed as a voice-actor, providing looping and off-screen voices for major motion pictures and network television shows, including TURNER AND HOOCH and MURPHY BROWN among others. Joe joined the American Federation of Television and Radio Performers Union (AFTRA) in the seventies and became a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in the early eighties. He is also a writer and publisher member to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) since he wrote the music and lyrics to the hit novelty holiday classic CHRISTMAS IN MALIBU in 1988.

Joe took a hiatus from “the business” in the mid-nineties to pursue other interests, but re-emerged as a producer and voice-over artist in 2005, this time choosing to pursue a “new career” in “new media.” That same year, he founded The Podcast Voice Guys, a new media services company offering professional quality voice-overs to podcasters, new media producers and emerging networks. In 2008, the company expanded its service offerings, added new associates and was renamed NEW MEDIA CREATIVE. Under the banners of both companies, Joe has voiced, written and produced hundreds of promos, commercials and media elements for podcasts, videos, new media networks and other enterprises in the last four years. He’s attended and been a session presenter at dozens of new media related conferences in the last few years as well. In the summer of 2008, joined a host of other leading voice-over artists and “celebrities” at VOICE 2008, a prestigious exclusive conference in Los Angeles, where he presented a unique and informative session titled “Old Skool Meets Meets New Media.”

Joe has also kept busy applying his writing skills to social media endeavors, by posting numerous articles here on the company’s blog and tweeting on the company’s Twitter page.

Joe has become a recognized personality in the new media world over the last few years, well-known for bringing his wit and “Old Skool “ style to new media and social media projects and ventures.

Be sure to say a big “whassup” and hello to Joe if you’re attending the conference in Las Vegas. Joe loves to meet and greet!

The Blogworld and New Media Expo promises to be quite all the rave this year. With the acquisition of The New Media Expo last December, Blogworld became two, two, two shows in one! At least 4,000 are expected to attend the event at the Las Vegas Convention center and Twitter is already abuzz with tweets about the show and related events.

The Blogworld and New Media Expo is October 15-17. If you haven’t registered to attend yet, there’s still time! Click on the badge on the sidebar to the left!

Several months ago, Joe created the new moniker “New Media Joe” and a new Twitter account to match. Coinciding with his appearance at the Blogworld Expo, he’ll be starting to tweet to his observations, comments and opinions in the worlds of new media and social networking. He’ll also be posting blogs and tweeting from our existing company blogs and Twitter pages.

Look out Blogworld, here comes NEW MEDIA JOE!