OK LAST POST ON THIS...
I decided that I'll probably never carry a laptop into a session on blogging ever again. I think a lot of the people who brought laptops in, were either not listening to the topics, half-listening or blogging around the whole time and I caught myself doing all of that. I went to the sessions and usually got something out of it. In the case of Henry's money session, I came to the realization that when you have a room full of people who are bloggers, basically people who want their opinion out there, you really can't get a word in edgewise. You had people in there who said that they'd never have an ad or you had some guy from Amnesty Int.....if you don't want to post ads, then why are you in a money session?
I'm also wondering why none of the "big" blogging companies didn't attend? SixApart, WordPress, and Blogger, these are the three main blogging application companies as of now. Why didn't anyone send at least a low-level representative who could get in the community? Anil Dash, you're trying to get people to join a professional network and you had a captive audience, well on the dinners and breaks, to face these people and get them to your product. The WordPress guys...coming off of your recent "scandal" why weren't you guys represented? Blogger, come on! You're the largest, why not send someone?
Honestly, I'm fired up now and it just gave fuel to the thoughts in my head.
Ok. The Dave Winer session.... it was like watching a flamewar in real time and I was on the front row. Now Dave does get offended easily, the other dudes weren't helping. Three of the 5 arguments were in dealing with fellow assholes. Don't know if the video is online yet, but you gotta see it.
Who I Met
Austin Chase Founder & Pres. of Blogmedia (Retired)
http://www.blogworks.com/
(Austin, I was trying to purchase musicblog.com for years, did the dude finally take the cash?)
M. Roboto * Life of the party.
Henry Copeland Very knowledgeable and glad to help out us bloggers, plus nice to meet him in person.
Bill Colrus - The Chattanooga Pulse* fellow chattanoogan, never met before
Keith Troup Very good listener, fellow WordPress Geek and a record producer.
B.L. Ochman Marketing/Ad/Pr Geek, and that's in a nice way.
Dana Blankenhorn * might be remembered at the guy who suggested that Ev leave Google...six months after the fact. Was cool and very knowledgeable during Dinner.
Lynnette Walczak
Jim Walczak** the main few people I got to tag along with here Jim and Lynette as well as Joe Lance
Joe Lance * fellow chattanoogan, never met before
Sean Hackbarth * Been doing this as long as I have, we're a rare breed, 5 years is rare.
candace corrigan from - The Nashville Nobody Knows and her hubby Nick very cool person, very smart great to talk with.
Crap, I left out Dave of Baseball Musings
More Links
BlogNashville Ends
BlogNashville: A Respective Disagreement Session with (by) Dave Winer
Graffiti I found at a watering hole a few of us went to (Dave included), after the end of the conference and before the dinners.
Yes, she is a cutie, the photos don't do her justice
And of course the blognashville list