BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2010 Smashes Attendance Records - Delivers the Year's Largest Gathering of Bloggers and Social Media Thought Leaders Anywhere in the World

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- October's BlogWorld & New Media Expo broke all previous attendance records, growing an astonishing 40% over last year – the largest one year attendance gain in the conference's history. More than 3,000 attendees traveled from around the globe to the world's largest gathering of bloggers and social media thought leaders.  

Highlights from BlogWorld 2010: 

• Closing Keynote Talk show included entertaining and thought-provoking commentary on social media from comedians Penn Jillette, Adam Carolla and Mark Malkoff, author and former Kodak CMO Jeff Hayzlett, host of GeekBeat TV's Cali Lewis and moderator Rob Barnett, CEO of My Damn Channel. 
• Mark Burnett, producer of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," made an exclusive surprise appearance, reviewing extended clips of TLC's new program.  
• Ford Motor Company announced a nationwide casting call for their new Hulu reality show "Focus Rally: America," a road rally show produced by Emmy Award winning reality producers. The winners of the show will receive $100,000 and 10 free cars to give away to their friends. 
• The BlogWorld #beatcancer campaign raised $20,000 and received 117,216 mentions on Facebook status posts, tweets, and blog posts – within a 24-hour period.  
• GourmetGiftBaskets.com broke the Guinness World Record for the largest cup of coffee. A giant 8'x 8' coffee mug held the 2,010 gallons of fresh coffee.  

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More businesses are engaging their customers using social media and blogging every day and are using these tools to generate sales, provide better customer service and actually talk openly with their customers. This trend was evident at BlogWorld, as new media thought leaders from Corporate America's leading companies participated as attendees, speakers and sponsors of the event. These included AT&T, Citibank, Ford Motor Company, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, PepsiCo, SAP, Sony Electronics, Southwest Airlines and YouTube.  

"For the first time the business, non-profit, military, parenting and all the other communities of the blogosphere have one place to go to discuss the latest trends and innovations in social media," said Rick Calvert, CEO and Co-Founder of BlogWorld. "Despite attendance numbers being down at many large expos this year, BlogWord's attendance broke every record in our history drawing more business leaders, more bloggers, more sponsors, more media and 40% more attendees than ever before." 

The number of conference sessions and community tracks expanded this year, and the show floor was sold out for the first time in the conference's four-year history. More than 300 speakers led more than 120 sessions throughout the three-day gathering. The wide variety of tracks helped ensure multiple topics of interest for every time segment.  Panels ranged from topics that included Blog Monetization, Social Media in Regulated Industries, the Pharmaceutical Industry's Role in Patient Blogging, Real Estate, Digital Broadcasting, and Digital Crisis Communications.  

One of the more popular tracks at BlogWorld was the Social Media Business Summit, geared towards bringing together the top minds in business to collaborate on creating and implementing winning social media programs.  Attendees, many of whom were marketing executives, learned the most effective ways to utilize social networking platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. They also learned the best ways to use their corporate blogs to build community with their customers, attract readers and other best practices.

The conference provided insights into social media's impact on the military and politics. General David Petraeus delivered a surprise video clip to kick-start BlogWorld on day two.  General Petraeus talked about the power of social media to connect soldiers deployed thousands of miles from home with friends and family, and the positive impact it has on soldiers' morale.  Mark Penn and Karen Hughes, the former chief message architects for President Clinton and President Bush respectively, followed Gen. Petraeus with a joint keynote presentation on the state of digital communications in politics.

The keynote sessions contained some of the most important content from the conference and addressed a wide range of topics. On day one, Scott Stratten's keynote assessed the features that distinguish the most successful bloggers; Brian Solis and Mark Burnett bantered back and forth about the future of unscripted drama on the web; and LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman looked at the importance of blogs and social media in turning the non-profit into an important social movement.  Jim Louderback, Dick Glover and Susan Bratton led a keynote on the future of internet video on day two; and Sonia Simone, Brian Clark and Darren Rowse discussed the business of social media and monetization on day three.

Next year's event planning is already underway with title sponsorship opportunities available immediately.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2010 was sponsored by premium brands such as: Southwest Airlines "Official Airline of BlogWorld & New Media Expo," Sony "New Media Lounge Sponsor" and more.

About BlogWorld & New Media Expo 

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of new media. Thousands of attendees learn about Content Creation, Distribution, Monetization and Social Media Marketing strategies, including step-by-step techniques and bleeding-edge tools from the most successful and influential Bloggers, Podcasters, Vloggers, Online TV & Radio Broadcasters, Social Influencers, New Media Pro's and Online Journalists.

For upcoming event info, visit www.blogworldexpo.com and get the latest new media news at www.blogworld.com

SOURCE BlogWorld & New Media Expo