Photo by kk+ cc by-nc-sa
I enjoyed BlogWorldExpo 2010, but there are a few things that could be improved. I'm listing them here in the hope that conference organizers and vendors do better next time.
Here they are.
1. Can We Get Some Good WiFi in Here?
Photo by kk+ cc by-nc-sa
I took this trip out to BlogWorldExpo without my laptop.
Just brought my WiFi iPad. Never got WiFi to work.
I had a complementary pass for WiFi at the Luxor hotel which was supposed to work at the Starbucks. It didn't
Never was able to get WiFi to work at BlogWorld.
This happens all the time. It would be nice if you could go to a conference where the WiFi worked.
2. Speakers need wired internet connections
For my session on Video POdcasting 101, the speaker's laptop didn't have a hard wired connection. It shared the WiFi for the conference.
I ended up using a presentation that included embedded videos that I could play from the hard drive.
3. Show floor Should Open on Thursday
My schedule for Friday was packed: Live broadcast, Session, book signing, interview, panel.
Thursday wasn't so full, but the show floor wasn't open.
I would have loved to spend time at many of the booths including Blogger, BlogTalkRadio, CoTweet, DemandMEdia, Ford, Jenn-Air, Lijit, Plixi, radioan6, Bluberry, Sony, Telestream, my sponsor .tv, and YouTube.
4. Project Keynotes on big screen
I was excited to take part in the Mark Burnett presentation and had to sit in the last row for the planned recording of my segment. But from the back row, I could see the need for the video of Brian Solis and Mark Burnett to be broadcast live onto the big screens during the session.
Note: I didn't go to the other keynotes. Those might have been projected.
5. Sponsored dinners: What's Your Story?
I went to two very nice sponsored dinners. At one dinner, Ford got up and gave a brief multimedia presentation about their social media success and plans for the coming year. It was just right.
At the other dinner, we got to meet everyone, but didn't get any information about the company.
I'm a proponent of keeping sales pitches to a minimum, but nothing at all?
6. Reduce the Barriers to Register for Parties
For one party you had to go through a Triple Registration.
This included:
- Signing up with a username/password
- Authenticating with Twitter
- Sending in a text message to register via cellphone
Too much.
7. Unconference?
Were there UnConference areas for people to put together ad hoc presentations?
That's a good idea for people who didn't get their sessions accepted or if someone has an idea to do something on the day of the show.