First posted on Oct. 22, 2007 at linuxchic.net
UPDATE:
I have gotten emails from both Jeremy Write of b5media and Rick Calvert of BlogWorld regarding this blog post and the issues I encountered prior to the conference. Both were very helpful and generous. It's wonderful to know that people are listening and working to resolve the hiccups that occur when planning a conference. The conference is only four days away and I am still looking forward to it.
Now, if only my Moo stickers that I ordered over three weeks ago would arrive. ;)
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I completed my registration a month ago for BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas and bought my non-refundable airline tickets to get me there but it seems as though the BlogWorld registration process never ends. Every week I have gotten at least one email telling me that either a session I registered for has been removed and I have been thoughtfully placed into a different session or a session I never reserved a spot in and never even saw in the session list has been removed but never-the-less I have been thoughtfully placed into a different session. Every time I get one of these emails I frantically login to my account at the BlogWorld registration site. Once I found I had been placed into a session I wasn't interested in and it was easy enough to change to a different one but that only happened once. Every other time I have logged in I am still in the sessions I started out in. Unfortunately this is leading me to think that I will be in for a huge surprise when I arrive and receive my schedule. I have also received very kind emails to the email address on my account that has offered assistance to finish my reservation because they state that they noticed I never completed it. I have emailed a response with my confirmation number requesting that they also confirm I am indeed registered. I am still waiting for the email I requested.
Friday we finally decided it was getting close enough to reserve our hotel and airline tickets. I paid for my nonrefundable tickets at approximately 1pm CDT and at around 8pm CDT I had seen a Scoble link blog tweet that b5media was sponsoring an additional day of education that I might get to attend (one or two of the afternoon sessions) if my plane is on time. Is this the new conference norm to add an additional day less than 30 days prior the actual conference? Hotel and travel discounts for the conference have already expired so I am assuming many people have already made arrangements. I am getting a little disappointed in BlogWorld and I haven't even gotten there. (In all fairness, I am left to assume that this isn't part of the official conference since there is no mention of it from the BlogWorld Expo website)
There are a few sessions I am really looking forward to not to mention all my online contacts I am hoping to meet in person. After a few Facebook wall posts and Twitter messages back and forth, Chris Brogan is definitely on my list even if I can't attend his session since it is on the Entrepreneur track (Entrepreneur track is about six times the cost of the full registration and includes an additional day of sessions). I was hoping to get into some really advanced topics that don't get mentioned all that often such as dealing with blog commenters (audience feedback vs. trolls). I am also surprised blogging ethics aren't mentioned as being covered especially as it has been a hot topic this year.
Regardless of the hiccups so far I am still hopeful and excited to at least do some mingling. I am also hoping to pick up some tips from the new media veterans on building/maintaining a community since we have lots of new shows and sites coming down the pipe at Alternageek. If you are planning to attend BlogWorld make sure you stop by and say hi. I will be loaded up with Moo cards and Alternageek Moo stickers to hand out too! ;)
