I’m back from Blogworld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Beceause I drove, I had 5 plus hours in a car to gather my thoughts about the event. I tried to think about common themes I kept seeing.

Is there a “social media expert” in the house?

You couldn’t walk three feet without running into a social media “guru” or “consultant” at Blogworld. The funny thing was that many of the ones I had brief chats with had only been in the space for a year or so. Apparently getting yourself a blog and a Twitter account qualifies you as an industry expert nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, there was lots of bonfied talent there. But, more than not, it seemed like a lot of so-called experts trying to land a gig.

Performance Marketing and blogging are not intersecting

This year I expected more co-mingling with bloggers and podcasters and affiliate networks. There were a handful of people from the affiliate space there. I actually had a great chat with Eric Schechter of Clickbooth – the only network that had a booth there. I talked HD camera gear with John Chow. Additionally I chatted with Sarah Jankowski of Vintage Studios and Dush Ramachandran of Clickbank – both in the affiliate marketing space.

Why weren’t there more networks there? Do we place any value on bloggers and podcasters as a monetization channel? We talk a lot about getting the world to better understand affiliate marketing – is there any better place to give this stump speech than at the largest blogging conference in the U.S.? Additionally, I talked to dozens of content creators that are trying to earn revenue from their blog or podcast. Many of them have loyal, niche-based audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Seems like we should be trying to mine some of that distribution.

If content is king, technology is the queen

If you’re a creative type, you know that the quality and depth of your content is the key to even having a chance at success. The people I talked to at BWE09 all echoed that sentiment back to me. But what about when content is not enough? Bloggers and podcasters were spending time combing the exhibit hall for new technology partners to work with. We talked to fine folks over at Raw Voice about their technology platform form for podcasters. Not only are they providing hosting and great analytics, they are connecting content creators with advertisers. We also talked to David Lee from Wetoku. They are doing some really interesting things with remote video interviews using only a webcam.

There are lots of companies and people that I didn’t get around to talking to – that’s the just the reality of having two days and a finite amount of time and energy.

That’s my take on Blogworld. Were you there? What did you think?