I could draw out my Izeafest observations into posts that will run for days, but one thing about blogging is life goes on and I want blog about sinus headaches and my new Chacos.

So, I give you my highlights.

THE GOOD

Seeing my friends. It was the biggest reason for me going to Orlando. I had a great time hanging out with them and catching up on their non-blogged about real lives. If my friends had decided to go to Blogher or Blog World Expo, I probably would be recapping those conferences instead.

The keynote speakers: Jeremy Schoemaker and Merlin Mann. Both were inspirational and I felt as if both left me with an excellent charge for both my life and my blogging. You can watch Jeremy’s speech here and Merlin’s here.

Favorite panels: How to Grow Your Audience. This panel was moderated by Tony Hung. I had never heard of him before Izeafest, but he seemed really interesting. He guided the panel in a really interesting discussion about gaining an audience for your online presence. I thought the panel could have gone on forever. Lea Alcantara was really engaging, Tamar Weinberg had a lot of great input, I’m now following Steve Spalding on twitter, Alex Schek is a little bit scary (especially his international followers), and I was a bit in awe of being in the same room as Brian Clark. I really got the message I need to participate more and hope to work out a routine in the next few weeks. You can check out the panel online here.

I also loved the panel on Plug-ins and Tools. Sure, my friend Eric was one of the panelists, but the information I picked up was a excellent resource for me as a blogger. Jonathan Dingman had an excellent (long list) of plugins I had never heard of. The panel is available here.

THE BAD

It isn’t fun to dump on something I enjoyed so much, and sometimes there is so much good it is hard to see the bad. Unfortunately there was one thing I am going to say was bad:

The worst panel: Social Networking. There were three panelists: Lena West, Etan Horowitz, and Sean Bonner. The moderator was Michael Brito. He was the best thing about the panel. I felt of all the people on stage, he had the most authority to speak on social networking and I could have listened to him longer.

Instead we had a panelist who spoke at Postiecon last year and wasn’t well received then. And she opened with the fact that she is anti-social in social networking, which didn’t warm me up to her “authority” on the subject. I thought the panelists on the Grow Your Audience panel had more encouraging and useful things to say on social networking.

The panel kept going downhill, not really informing us of ways to be better in the social networking arena. Instead it dissolved into big non-discussion of what not to do and paranoia. See for yourself.

THE SUGGESTIONS

There is always room for improvement. And since I have the feeling Izeafest will be a yearly event and get bigger every year, I think the Izea team is open any suggestions people have. I have just a few. However, keep in mind I don’t think next year I will be able to go, so someone will have to tell me if they implement them or not.

Assist in getting people networking. This can be done in several ways. Have a lunch instead of a dinner, inviting people to sit at tables of similar niches (Food blogs at one table, Tech blogs at ten tables). Have small desserts for people in the same state or regions.

Give bloggers a choice for what they want to learn. While a conference in such a small scale as this weekend probably can’t do this, but when Izeafest gets even bigger (and I have confidence it will), I think eventually there will be tracks of sessions for bloggers to choose from, instead of the everyone stuck in the same room all day for two days.

More food! Ok, this is coming from the pregnant mommy blogger. But if Izea had found some snack sponsors to add to the coffee/ tea/ water table during breaks, I would have been thrilled. My suggestions include: Little Debbie (she’s local to me), Bear Naked, Sara Lee, and M&M/Mars.

Less of a bar scene. While I understand I could have just sat in my hotel room or gone somewhere else each evening, I chose to go to the Izea hosted events each night. The thing is, every event was held in a bar. Each night was good and the drinks were flowing, but the room was dark and the music was loud. It made it very difficult to break away from my group and approach other conference attendees. I did a tiny bit of networking the first night, but the conversation was peppered with “I’m sorry, what did you say?” and repeating myself because it was so hard to hear. It made it easier to head back to the hotel early (which might not have been bad) and just chill.

I had an excellent time at Izeafest. I plan on working out a real routine for my online activities and going over my notes later. I’m hoping to build on the relationships I made this weekend and maybe it will all make me a better blogger. Thanks to the Izea team for putting on a great conference.

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