The company that I interned for this summer, Apture, took me on a trip to Vegas the weekend before school started. We were going to be exhibiting at BlogWorld Expo 2008 along side with Six Apart. (Woohoo, I use Six Apart software!).
As shocked as I was to learn there was a convention for bloggers, I was even more surprised that this was its fourth year. I did not really know that blogging was that big. Maybe it’s because I have maybe 3 readers (including myself). Apparently, people think blogging is going to change the world, make people rich, and make the internet a better place. Seriously, the last thing we need is more people on the internet.
Attending BlogWorld kind of changed this. I still don’t think blogging is a big deal, nor should it be. What I did learn though, is that there are enough willing and able people to pump money into it. Even if I don’t believe it, other people (who are much smarter and richer than me) certainly do. This is great news for Apture.
At the exhibition floor, I had the opportunity to talk to some of our potential customers face to face. Our booth was small but the location was great—Six Apart was the only gold sponsor of the event (there was one platinum) and so their booth is front and center. Talking with bloggers was different than I had expected. I didn’t expect them to be so excited about our software. I guess for people that write blogs regularly, Apture adds a lot of value. Probably the best quote of the trip was after we described our product to one guy, he got really excited and started asking questions. After we answered them, he decided he was going to use it on his blog. Before completely walking away, he turned to us and pointed to our monitor:
That is fucking beautiful.
Epic.
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