Another year of the Web2.0Expo at Moscone Center has come and gone. Here’s a bunch of general thoughts and reflections from 4 days of panels, networking, and conversations.
Web2.0Expo panels are for rookies
That may be overstating it a bit, but certainly the content of the presentations and panels is somewhat introductory. I peeked into Niall Kennedy’s workshop on Tuesday for a bit and one of his slides talked about the fact that you can make a web application designed specifically for the iPhone. He wasn’t talking about the nuts and bolts of how you actually go about making such an app. Just that you can.
So he’s talking over the slide and I’m thinking to myself “duh…didn’t we all know this already?” But apparently, that’s not the case as I looked around the room and saw people feverishly taking notes. Clearly this expo serves to fulfill the need to provide the basic web building blocks and fundamentals to the masses.
Additionally, the presentations (aside from the half-day workshops on Tuesday) are only 50 minutes. By the time these presentations start marching into interesting territory, it’s time to wrap it up.
So what’s a guy to do? Luckily there’s plenty of content outside of the panels. Web2open had fantastic content and the conversations taking place in blogtropolus were, as always, priceless.
About the Blogtroplus – it’s the place to be
Even old media thinks so. Ad I told Ted Shelton and other folks from The Conversation Group, the day is coming when the determining factor in whether I attend a conference or not may be if there will be a blogger lounge. In addition to great people, the best food in Moscone happened to be in that very lounge.
Made new acquaintances
Making new connections is by far my favorite part of attending large conferences and networking events. And Web2.0Expo did not disappoint in this area. Among the new connections I’m happy to be able to call friends to some degree: Krisite Wells, Lavinia Evans, Dave Sawyer, Ted Shelton, Eve Peters, Cristina Gentry, Stowe Boyd. There’s tons more. If I’m forgetting you, I’m sorry.
The sad thing about this is that I’m now about to start sending these folks invite after invite to connect on the various social networks. It’s a pain and I feel a bit bad about it, but this is the world we’ve created for ourselves.
And connected with old ones
Great to see Chris Brogan; chat with Richard McInnis of Radian6; shoot the breeze with Jenn Vangrove; explore shoe modeling with Maggie Fox; explore Yahoo Pipes with Marshall Kirkpatrick, and tease Sam Lawrence about the accident that stuck him in a wheelchair for a few weeks.
Funniest thing I overheard
“What am I doing, honey? I’m playing Wii, drinking beer, and hanging out with a bunch of geeks in the blogger lounge. How’s your day been with the kids?” – Ryan Kuder
Funniest thing that didn’t happen
We’re at the Yahoo party on Wednesday night. My new friend Lavinia asks me if there is a coat check at the party. I scan the room and see Sam Lawrence in his wheelchair about 20 feet away. Knowing how good a sport Sam is, I suggest that Lavinia stride over to Sam and his wheelchair and simply lay her coat in his lamp. About 20 minutes later, I found out she wasn’t willing to do it because she thought he was a permanently disabled.
