Izea Fest 2008 and My Experience…

Alright as you all know that I was at Izeafest this weekend in Orlando. I am back at West Palm Beach for a night before I head back to Gainesville. But set aside what I am doing right now, let me tell you about a little of what I did at Izeafest, and what did I think about it.

First thing I would say is that I met some awesome awesome people. Aside from that, I got to see people who I just knew online. Made really good friends with Ian from Ianfernando.com. Aside from him, I really got to know how evil John Chow is hehe. More posts on this issue will be up either tomorrow or day after. But all to all this was an ok conference.

Things for Izea that they should note for their future Izeafest:

I personally think streaming this live is a turn down for users to pay for coming there. I personally think that I as a physical attendee should be paid more attention rather than the focus on the online community. It pissed me off that sometimes during the questions and answers session that my questions weren’t answered because we ran out of time due to some questions from the online audience. Why would I even bother paying to come there? (Suggestion: I think that you guys should stream it online if you want to, but definitely keep the online questions to the end if the physical audience have no question…)

Next thing… They gave away Scene It from Disney at a Webmaster Conference. I mean I am young, but not that young. And I was probably one of the youngest ones, so I know older people didn’t like it either. They gave away a lot of these. I don’t know what I am going to do with it, but probably give it to my 10 year old sister to play with it. Maybe, and hopefully they will have something tech related to give away.

The best move Izea did was inviting Merlin Mann from 43folders.com. All I can say is he inspired me in so many ways that you won’t believe. Not just me, but David and Amanda thought the same thing. I think I will be doing some newer projects toward the next January 2009. But I am going to say, that if you ever see him somewhere do talk to him. He is the best Keynote I ever heard. Phenomenal guy. I will write the notes that I took on his keynote.

Panel Organizations…Woof… I thought the Plugin Panel Organization was a bit funny. I had to answer a few questions for audience. I really liked the Big Money Bloggers Panel. I also liked the Blog Design Make Over Panel. I just wished I could’ve been in there. I think I could’ve done just as good of a job if not better than the rest.

Hopefully next year Izea will have power outlets on each table. They did got some for me later on the day. But I did catch John from JohnChow.com unplugging someone’s plug… The picture would be up when I get in Gainesville. Also, I beat John in Bowling. He was beating me till the whole game until the last frame, so you will see that covered later on the week.

I took Ian out to dinner with us to a Pakistani Fast Food in Orlando to give him a taste of something different. You should ask him how it was. I met with Zac Johnson, Shoemoney, Neil Patel, and so many more people that you won’t even believe.

I am a bit tired but Izea did a semi-decent job on the conference. Will hope to see you guys there.