I’ve just got back into the Philippines, and figured I’d get cracking this week with this round-up from my recent (and second this year!) trip to the USA. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, and I’m feeling a little tired, but also very excited about the next few months, at the same time.

The trip kicked-off with a trip to San Francisco, where I met with a couple of clients, had lots of fun hanging out with my man, Corbett Barr and enjoyed plenty of coffee at Starbucks, which was situated right in the lobby of our hotel – to my surprise and delight!

After a few days, myself and Mrs. VBL jetted off to LA and landed to another couple of client meetings, a dinner and then it was all about BlogWorld. This was something that I’d been looking forward to ever since I attended last year and then subsequently missed the first ever New York event earlier on in the year. This time around, however, it was going to be a little different, as I was going to be speaking!

My BlogWorld Speaking Experience

Unlike some of the speakers I met at BlogWorld, this wasn’t my first time speaking in front of an audience, of any size. I’ve spoken at many different conferences, seminars and training events in the past and before I left for my trip to BlogWorld, I was actually confirmed as the Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Visayas Blogging Summit in Cebu City, Philippines which is taking place at the end of November.

All that being said, I always get a little nervous before speaking in front of a crowd (there’s something wrong with you if you don’t!), and BlogWorld was no exception. Especially as the crowd there is very savvy!

I had already got into the mood by shooting my video promo for the event, and had a load of people coming up to me, doing mafia impressions at the show, which was awesome!

All in all I was very happy with the way that my session, which was well attended and on the subject of working with VA’s to help build, grow and monetize your blog, played out. Not only did all the preparation for my session pay off, but I was very happy to see several friendly faces in the audience, as well as some of the biggest names in the blogging world, too!

I did have a little video shot at the session, and as I have had several requests to put something together, I’ll do my best to go ahead and do that in the next week or so, after I recover fully! 🙂

Why YOU Should Have Attended BlogWorld!

If you didn’t get the chance to attend BlogWorld in LA then you certainly DID miss out. The event just gets better and better, seriously. Just to make you feel worse than you probably already do, here are my top 5 reasons why YOU should have attended:

• Networking opportunities up the yin-yang!
• The chance to learn from the best in the industry.
• The opportunity to meet and greet your online buddies.
• Swag, baby – lots of swag on the exhibition floor.
• You would have been able to attend my fantastic presentation, obviously!!!

For me, the big take-away is being able to hang out with people that I get on well with, admire, respect and general enjoy talking to. Here you’ll see myself, Pat Flynn and Darren Rowse posing for a snapshot at some point in an hour or so of just ‘chit-chatting’ together. Good times.

If you still want to check out the fantastic sessions that made up the entire 3-day conference, then you can! Simply hop over to the BlogWorld website and purchase a Virtual Ticket. You’ll get access to every session, as well as a bit of extra stuff, too!

Thank You to Everyone!

There are way too many people that I met at the conference, came up to thank me after my session, shook my hand on the exhibition floor and in the corridors of the LA Convention Center, as well as in the Speakers Room throughout the course of the event, to thank here.

However, a few people I’d like to point out and say thanks to are Corbett Barr from Think Traffic, ‘Handsome’ pro-blogger David Risley and Srinivas Rao from BlogCastFM for their unwavering support. I’d also like to thank Darren Rowse from ProBlogger for not only showing his support by attending my presentation, but also for sitting down to record a quick, but memorable video Q&A for the blog (coming soon!) and my buddy, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, with whom I spent plenty of time with, both during the event and after, in his home town of San Diego, where we relaxed together for a few days, along with our families. SeaWorld, baby!

And last, but by no means least, I’d like to thank Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin, Deb Ng and the rest of the BlogWorld Team for all the fantastic support they showed myself and the other 300-odd speakers, as well as for their hard work in putting together an awesome industry event.

The next BlogWorld event will be in June 2012 sometime and probably in New York. Its a little soon for me to tell if I’ll be able to make it – but, I can assure you, if I can… I’ll be there with bells on!

Did you attend BlogWorld in LA? If so, tell us about your experiences at the show! And if you didn’t, what do you think you would have gotten out of it the most, if you had…?