Big Keynote News

I recently spoke with Rick Calvert, Founder of Blog World and New Media Expo, who shared with me that they have selected Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV to keynote this year’s expo. Vaynerchuck’s keynote will consist of a standard talk followed by a live taping of an episode for Wine Library TV.

Calvert is still looking for additional keynote speakers on the same level as last year’s headliner, Mark Cuban. He’s also focused on finding a big name female blogger or new media expert. If you’ve got any suggestions or ideas, you can find him on Twitter or send an email to Rick [at] blogworldexpo [dot] com.

Blog World Background and Basics

Blog World is based out of San Diego (the event takes place in Las Vegas), and has been in existence since 2006. According to Calvert, a tradeshow coordinator for 30k - 100k people events by day, he was actively blogging and curious of finding a tradeshow to learn about ways to monetize his blog and become a better blogger. When he couldn’t find an event that met his needs, he decided to create his own.

Last year’s Blog World, the first of many to come, hosted over 100 speakers, 1,300 attendees, and 90 exhibitors. There was even a small controversy over Michael Arrington’s reported snub, which, according to Calvert, was actually taken way out of context and completely blown out of proportion. Such is the nature of the blogosphere, I suppose.

This year Calvert hopes to court more than 3,000 attendees and score some really interesting panels, speakers, and keynotes. His goal is to improve upon last year’s event and bring together blogger communities for learning, networking, and of course one big party on Saturday night.

Blog World and New Media Expo will take place on September 20 - 21, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Registration is now open, and is currently heavily discounted to attendees who register before June 20. Also of note is that speaker proposals are being accepted through May 14, 2008. Keep in mind that Calvert is very conscious of the conference circuit chatter about declining relevancy in session topics, so he’s looking for really enganging topics and excellent public speakers. He’s also working on getting streaming video coverage and chat rooms, think Meebo at SXSW, set up for each session.

Exhibitors

Below is just a small sampling of some of this year’s exhibitors:

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