I just wanted to let everybody know who is working in the internet related field (or who is fascinated by the world wide web) that there is a great event to meet like-minded people and do some networking. It’s called Geek Dinner, an event which is happening every month in Los Angeles and many other cities throughout the United States. You don’t have to be a super nerd to attend, a little interest in all things digital is enough to mingle with this friendly and cool crowd.

I went to the 33rd Geek Dinner in L.A. which was held January 17th at the restaurant uWink located in the Hollywood & Highland Center. It’s a cool place (they call it an “interactive entertainment and dining experience”) where you can order through a touch-screen computer located on every table. The event had pretty good turn out. I chatted with many interesting people, and Heather Schlegel, the hostess-with-the-mostess, was working the room with her usual great enthusiasm.

For those who live in the Los Angeles area and are yet to join, you can check all the news on their website, the group page on Facebook – or get all the updates directly in your email inbox by signing up via  la-subscribe@geekdinner.org. And if you have a web service or your own event to promote, Geek Dinner allows you announce it to the crowd at the end of the event.

The next L.A. Geek Dinner will be this upcoming Tuesday, February 17, at the same location. You get get more info and RSVP on Upcoming.

Please spread it around and bring your geeky friends. As Anita wrote:

You know that the geek dinner is the gateway L.A. geek event. Once you start – you’ll just go hardcore on to Barcamp, Mixergy, Twiistup or one of Mahalo’s Movie Nights…

P.S. See more of my pictures I took at the Geek Dinner on Flickr.

After attending the Blog World Expo last weekend, I have to say that I feel enriched in many ways: I made new connections with interesting fellow bloggers of all sorts, learned a whole lot about blogging, microblogging, online journalism and social media at all these sessions and workshops – and I got new energy and inspirations as a blogger and online writer.

Although I lost my beloved cordless computer mouse (by Logitech) and customized mouse mat with a photo from the beach of Santa Monica, it was totally worth the 300 miles drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (yes, I went by car) and be a participant of this young conference (2008 was the 2nd edition).

There are countless things I will remember from this great event – but these are my 5 most important takeaways:

1. Bloggers are cool and friendly
Whether is a short chat or an in-depth discussion – I experienced the bloggers at the Blog World Expo as friendly, communicative and helpful people. Even superstar bloggers I admire like Robert Scoble, John Chow, Doc Searls or Copyblogger Brian Clark were very approachable, chatty and forthcoming with all the ‘regular Joe’s’ at the event.

2. Blogs are media
“Blogs are media and are changing the game in advertising and branding”, said Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra during his keynote address last Saturday morning. Indeed – based on all the impressive stats Jalichandra presented from his latest ‘State of the Blogosphere’ survey (in-depth coverage in a separate post), the numerous exhibitors at the Expo with blogging related products and services and the wide range of workshop topics (how blogs changed – or are about to change – marketing, advertising, corporate communications, customer relationship strategies, personal branding etc.), I got even more ‘evidence’ that blogs and social media represent a whole new industry which has a major impact on consumer habits and disruptive effects on the traditional business models of a wide range of industries.

3. Traditional journalism is f**ed.
Because of my 15+ years background in journalism and my undiminished passion for newspapers, I don’t say this light-heartedly: I believe that 80% percent of media companies which are still in the ‘dead tree’ business will not survive in the digital age with their current approach/attitude. Although I’ve seen some great and promising examples during the conference how some of the old media companies adapt to the ‘new world’ of blogging and social media (more in upcoming posts), I share Jeff Jarvis scepticism that the MSM will ever ‘get it’ (his recent post titled “Zell is not your problem – you are” is a Must-Read for every journalist!). Only a few corporations in this business are willing to make the switch from old-fashioned (one-way) reporting to a real conversion with the consumers.
Additionally, I believe that there should be new, independent powerhouses which outsmart the ‘big boys’ on the web – for diversity’s sake in the media business. Where are the promising new media companies of the future? Is it Huffington Post or Techcrunch? Will it be one of the big blog networks like B5 media, Pajamas Media, Giga Omni Media and UK-based Shiny Media? Or is it more likely going to be Google, the ‘closet media company’? Either way: like in politics – it’s time for a change!

3. Despite the social media madness – it all comes down to real life contacts
I’ve probably never been at a conference before when I’ve have the word “social media” so many times. There were soo many sessions where bloggers were urged not only to create great content, but also to promote it (and themselves) on social bookmarking, social news and social networking websites. At the end of the conference, I got the impression that networking on the web is more exhausting that offline. The question remains: How valuable are hundreds of “friends” on sites like MySpace, Facebook and StumpleUpon or 5000 Twitter followers really for you career or personal life?
My take: All the social media sites are great tools to expand your reach in networking. But lasting connections and real friendships are still made offline, during an inspiring one on one conversation, a great dinner and a glass of wine.

4. The blogosphere discovers the importance of Search Engine Optimization.
But in my opinion, Search Engine Optimization was the up and coming topic and this year’s Blog World Expo. In the majority of the 10+ sessions I’ve been, the topic Search Engine Optimization came up and speakers offered (mostly valuable) SEO tips for bloggers. And there several sessions like the “SEO, SEM & New Media” workshop which were explicitly about SEO. As an SEO Specialist, I thought it’s great that every blogger attending the BWE go the chance to become familiar with the concept of Search Engine Optimizions and get some basic recommendations how to make their websites appealing not only to readers, but only to search engines.

5. Immediacy is everything! And: hashtags rule!
At the Blog World Expo, instant communication and immediate news exchange was everything. I expected that people would use cool live blogging tools like Cover It Live. Instead, everybody was using Twitter for the live coverage of the workshops. I realized quickly that I could get great summaries about all the BWE sessions by checking out all the tweets in Twitter Search with the hashtag #bwe08. Even better was the fact that I could narrow down the search to the session I was attending by typing in the combo of #bwe08 and the sub hash tag #cred (for the “Establishing Blogger Credibility” session). Needless to say that everything else about the conference – including general BWE news, meeting requests of fellow bloggers, memorable quotes of the sessions, party info and even contests by exhibitors (with trendy tech prices) – could be found on Twitter. Since my return from Vegas, my interest in microblogging increased substantially, and I am currently exploring various ways how to incorporate it more effectively into my daily blogging and communication activities.

Bonus takeaway: Avoid the Sahara Hotel. I don’t wanna go into details, but its rooms are below your basic hygiene expectations. And please, dear Blog Word Expo organizers, drop it from your list of official conference hotels.

Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Blog World celebs John Chow and Tim Ferriss (Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda)

Richard Avedon once said: “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”

Truth or not – the good news is: Hundreds of little Avedons were among the attendees of this year’s Blog World Expo. Everybody took pictures of everything and everybody else (especially of the ‘celebs’). Since we live in the age of photo sharing, I don’t have to rely on my own snapshots anymore. As of now, 4587 photos related to the BWE have been posted on Flickr. Wow – and all these pics were taken in 3 days (if you include Friday with all the BWE partner programs)!

Since I was curious what kind of pictures my fellow bloggers were taking, I made the effort to browse through Flickr and find the accounts which include a great variety of this year’s new media and blogging conference in Las Vegas.

These are my 10 most favorite Blog World Expo photo collections on Flickr:

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Robert Scoble, Hugh McLeod and Stowe Boyd during the B5 Advisory Board Q&A

One day before the official Blog Word Expo started, B5 Media – one of the largest blog networks in the world – was running a training day for their bloggers, titled B5 Blogger Summit, that was opened up to any BWE registrants that wanted to attend.  Needless to say that I did not want to miss this great opportunity to get blogging tips from the pros and get to know the people behind this rapidly expanding blog network in person.

In the hindsight I have to say that it was totally worth to take this additional day off and travel to Las Vegas already on Thursday night in order to be fresh and ready for the first session on Friday at 9 AM. Here’s why:
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