I would love to attend one of these types of expos, but have no idea what I’d need to qualify. Would I need to have made a lot of money, have a lot of traffic?

This sounds really interesting to me, but I probably wouldn’t be able to go for a while. I’m just starting to get into blogging for real.. instead of payperpost junk!

I would love to hear of all the things that you find there and especially of things that you learn!

From my perspective, the web 2.0 is the most interesting conference because it most likely will feature the newest social networking companies. The affiliate summit is more for companies that feature banner ads. Those are the two I’m most excited about. There are no requirements to attending other than paying the entrance fee. Usually there are two levels of fees. The higher price fee is to attend all the conferences and listen to the guest speakers. The lower fee is to walk around the exhibit hall. To me, that’s the fun part! For some conventions, you can get in free, other conventions cost a lot just to walk around. I believe the cheapest price I saw was a $100 fee for one of the above conventions.

I think I’m going to put up on eBay an auction where I pay someone to take a picture with Turnip. Is that something someone would be interested in?

These sorts of things can be amazingly productive and energizing. Somewhat off-topic, I attended a writers conference a few years ago, held in a hotel. At the same time, there was a clown convention taking place in the meeting rooms to our right, so the halls were full of clowns in full dress and make-up, riding tiny bicycles and walking invisible dogs. One afternoon another group took over the rooms to our left: Sistahs in Hats. If you’re not familiar, it seemed to be a group of Black women wearing fancy dresses with HUGE matching hats–some so large they wouldn’t fit in the passenger area of a car. We left that conference with enough material to write for years….

Thanks for writing about these. I live in NYC and was disappointed to have to miss the BlogHer conference last weekend in San Francisco.

The Web 2.0 Expo looks great, but I would only do the Expo Hall only of Expo Hall Plus because anything else is a fortune. I loved when I used to go to conferences for work and they paid. At least I won’t have any travel expenses. I can even walk from my Apt.

There are many reasons depending upon your relation to blogging. From your point of view, it would be a chance to meet people in the industry and other bloggers. You can attend conferences and learn things, you can ask questions at the expo, see what’s new, and meet the people behind the various companies. For myself, I would interview people, sign up for every possible program I could to test them, maybe videotape the conference, and write like 20 articles from my experiences there. What exactly is the point of going to a party or going to the mall if you don’t plan on buying anything? For some people it’s fun, for others, pointless.

Tim, that coupon code was a fantastic deal! I think it might only be good until Monday, though. I signed up for the Sept. 16th Web 2.0 conference. I’m also a jersey guy, looks like I’ll be taking the ferry there.

Plastic turnips with your sticker on them, then.
How did you come to be called the turnip of power anyway?