BlogWorld & New Media Expo's Debut in New York City and Los Angeles Breaks All Previous Attendance Records

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the world's largest social media event, expanded to two shows in 2011, hosting more than 4,750 attendees and 335,000 online viewers across both events and breaking its previous attendance records. The expansion included BlogWorld West hosted last month in Los Angeles, November 3-5, and BlogWorld East in New York City held earlier in the year, May 24-26. In addition to the 3,250 attendees at BlogWorld Los Angeles, more than 200,000 people watched the live stream of the keynote sessions and an additional 700 attendees selected the virtual ticket option (remote access to the recorded conference).

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"BlogWorld West in Los Angeles was our most successful show to date in terms of attendance numbers, exhibitors and sponsors, the caliber of the educational sessions and the speakers we hosted," said Rick Calvert, CEO and co-founder of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. "The decision to take BlogWorld bi-coastal has broadened our reach and made the event more accessible to attendees all over the country and the world. We are looking forward to continuing this pattern of growth into 2012 and have some exciting news to announce in the coming months."

Highlights from last month's BlogWorld West in Los Angeles held at the Los Angeles Convention Center include:

• Record-breaking attendance of more than 3,250 people, from 41 different countries including, Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, India and more.
• An additional 208,000 people watched the live stream of BlogWorld's keynote sessions.
• BlogWorld's official Twitter Hashtag, #BWELA, generated 323 million impressions, 40,000 original tweets reaching 30.4 million people over the course of the three-day show, (Source: Hashtracking.com).
• An economic impact in Los Angeles estimated at $3.3 million in revenue and a total of 3,700 hotel room nights, (Source: LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau).          
• Entertainment-focused closing keynote talk show featuring Hollywood and Web Stars, including: Jace Hall, president and founder of HDFilms, with guests Aisha Tyler, actress, director and host of the hit podcast Girl On Guy; Rick Fox, three-time NBA champion, actor and producer of the Web TV series Off Season - The Lex Morrison Story; Justine Ezarik (a.k.a. iJustine), an Internet personality and popular YouTube content creator with almost 2.5 million subscribers and Tim Street, Vice President Mobile Video, mDialog and creator/executive producer of the Viral Video series French Maid TV.
• More than 300 speakers, 20 session tracks and 150 educational sessions. BlogWorld introduced several new session tracks this year, including Mobile, Music, Web TV, Travel & Tourism and Fitness.
• Unveiling of Technorati's 2011 State of the Blogosphere Survey, which revealed:
  • A majority of bloggers are in the 25-44 age range, a third are over 44.
  • 18% of bloggers surveyed are independent bloggers and use blogging as a way to supplement their income or consider it their full-time job.
  • Bloggers responded from 45 countries, nearly half from the United States.
  • 37% of Professional Full Time respondents say they derive their primary income from blogging.
  • 60% of respondents say they blog up to three hours per week, with the rest (40%) blogging more than three hours per week.
• Keynoters included by Peter Shankman, Founder of HARO; Amber Naslund, VP of Social Strategy Radian 6; Jim Farley, Global CMO of Ford Motor Company; Brian Solis, Principal of Altimeter Group; Shani Higgins, CEO of Technorati; Mikal Belicove, Contributing Writer & Blogger at Entrepreneur Magazine; Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image; Deanna Brown, CEO of Federated Media Publishing; Michael Stelzner, Founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner; Lisa Stone, Co-Founder and CEO of BlogHer.
• 85 exhibiting companies including brands like Ford, Southwest Airlines, .ME, Verisign/.tv, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Blogger, WordPress.com, Viddy, Stickam and more.

BlogWorld's Virtual Ticket, the largest social media conference library ever recorded, is available for purchase online at, http://www.blogworldexpo.com/virtual-ticket-la-2011. The virtual ticket includes audio and video recordings of more than 100 sessions, keynote presentations, official BlogWorld parties and access to exclusive interviews and extras.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2011 in Los Angeles was sponsored by premium brands such as: Ford Motor Company, Southwest Airlines, .ME, Verisign/.tv, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Technorati, Blogger, WordPress.com, Vanilla Forums, Viddy, Stickam, Johnson & Johnson, NewTek, Heineken, U4RIK, and more. Featured speaker interviews and news reports from the Expo will be presented by WeVideo, TechZulu and WebProNews, to name a few.

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 leading-edge tools from the most successful and influential Bloggers, Podcasters, Vloggers, Web TV & Radio Broadcasters, Social Influencers, New Media Pros and Online Journalists.

For upcoming event info and announcements, subscribe to e-news at www.blogworldexpo.com and get the latest new media industry news at www.blogworld.com.

Follow BlogWorld on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blogworld and www.twitter.com/blogworldexpo.

Media Contact:
Katherine Randall
Katalyst Public Relations
(858) 366-2962
[email protected]

SOURCE BlogWorld & New Media Expo