There’s nothing like meeting in the first person for building relationships and sharing ideas. So I’m kicking off my Blog World coverage first things first – with the people who truly made my first trip to this conference truly meaningful. From pulling up a corner of carpet together in some packed out panels, to big and small moments of meaningful conversation, to spontaneous evenings of great company, these people represent moments of meaning in a fun yet busy few days. They’re people I genuinely connected with.
Some you’ve heard of. Others you haven’t. But all of them are truly genuine, thoughtful, great people I’d recommend getting to know online and tracking down at an industry event. So, here they are: My top 33 39 people to follow from Blog World 2009.
- Irene Kehlor (@IreneKoehler) – AlmostSavvy.com, super sweet lady
- Jennifer Kushnell (@ysnjen) – President of ysn.com, sweet social butterfly
- Bryan Person (@bryanperson) – Live World social media evangelist, awesome pal
- Jodi Gersh (@jodiontheweb) – Social media and content management
- Chris Hall (@hallicious) – Consumer innovation, blogger at hallicious.com
- Katja Presnal (@katjapresnal) – Consultant, skimbaco lifestyle, nice, savvy woman
- Sonia Simone (@soniasimone) – Remarkable communication, copyblogger
- David Spinks (@davidspinks) – Community manager at Scribnia & blogger
- Grace Boyle (@graceboyle) – Business development at Lijit, Small Hands, Big Ideas
- Davina Anthony (@dmacreative) – Designer, developer DMA Creative
- Mitch Canter (@studionashvegas) – wordpress designer, social media dude
- Doug Haslam (@dougH) – SHIFT communications, doughaslam.com, overall nice guy
- Amanda (@highimpactmom) – highimpactmom.com
- Maggie Fox (@maggiefox) – social media group, smart panelist
- Justin Levy (@justinlevy) – steak. and also social media
- JD Lasica (@jdlasica) – socialmedia.biz
- Natalie Wardel (@mrsnatalie) – social media, PR and overall sweet gal
- Robin Maiden (@robinmaiden) new media & podcast consultant
- Bill Rice (@billrice) – marketing, kaleidico.com
- Darren Rowse (@Problogger) – problogger.com, digital-photography-school.com
- Shannon Yelland (@shannonyelland) – job seeker
- Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) – newmarketinglabs.com & author, Trust Agents
- Stephanie Schwab (@stephanies) – Digital Services, Kaplow
- Connie Bensen (@cbensen) – Community strategist, social media, thoughtful panelist
- Ellen Rowan (@zaellen) – blogger and awesome mom
- Joseph Morin (@josephmorin) – social media guy and tweetup extraordinaire
- Jyl Johnson Pattee (@jylmomIF) – community builder, mom it forward, uber-friendly lady
- Jennifer L. Iannolo (@foodphilosophy) & Mark Tafoya (@chefmark), culinary media network
- Saad Mukhtar (@saadmukhtar) – business development, Scribnia, Navator.com
- Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) Ogilvy, influential marketing
- Zane Aveton (@zaneology) – blogger and uber bringer-together
- Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) – NYU journalism professor and big idea instigator
- Daniel B. Honigman (@dan360man) – media thinker and Weber Shandwick guy
- Becky McCray – http://twitter.com/BeckyMcCray
- Beth Rosen – http://twitter.com/bethrosen
- Melissa – http://twitter.com/ConsumerQueen
- Howard Greenstein – http://twitter.com/Howardgr
- David Armano – http://twitter.com/armano
- Jason Falls – http://twitter.com/Jasonfalls
Who do you want to see at Blog World next year or at the next conference and meet IRL yourself? Who would you add to this year’s list? If you were at blog world or on this list, you can follow me on Twitter so we can continue the conversation.
Update: You can follow this whole list now using TweepML: Top Blog World Pros
Update to my own list! How could I forget these ladies?
Becky McCray – http://twitter.com/BeckyMcCray
Beth Rosen – http://twitter.com/bethrosen
Melissa – http://twitter.com/ConsumerQueen
I’m adding them to the TweepML page so you can add them there!
Tiffany: An absolute pleasure meeting up in person again and hanging out during BWE! This was one of the best conferences I attended all year (despite not having a voice and generally feeling lousy the whole time)–the right mix of panel/presentation content personal (re)connections.
If not sooner, see you at that PRSA event in April?
Bryan | @BryanPerson
@ Bryan, thanks so much! I really enjoyed the conference too and can’t wait to share some of the insights I had. I totally agree that the content and networking balance was great. Which reminds me, it looks like I left off three great guys off this list too. Oh well, a girl’s gotta sleep (and I’ll just add them now)
Howard Greenstein – http://twitter.com/Howardgr
David Armano – http://twitter.com/armano
Jason Falls – http://twitter.com/Jasonfalls
Hi Tiffany! So great to meet you at BWE, it was truly a pleasure. Thanks so much for adding me to your list! I’ll be sure to link up here soon! I hope to see you again soon! I look forward to getting to know you better.
Tiffany,
It was really cool meeting and talking with you. I too plan to keep in touch, as I am fascinated by the challenges you’re facing.
Keep pushing.
-chris
Tiffany,
It was a pleasure to meet you as well! You place me in some incredible company, so i am doubly flattered.
I’ll echo Bryan’s sentiment that it was a great mix of a conference– sessions (though I as usual attended far too few), meeting new people, catching up with old friends and colleagues, and simply having a lot of conversations, small and large, that filled our brains.
Thanks for the list– a lot of great people!
Doug
Hey Tiffany
Wow, thanks for adding me to the list. I’m nobody special (I like to think of myself as the guy behind the guy – i make other people look good!) but I’m glad that I was able to make an impact.
Keep in touch and I can’t wait to reconnect at BlogWorldExpo10!
@ Amanda – Sounds like a plan!
@ Chris – Great talking with you too. I’m fascinated by the stuff you’re doing with Humana. And thanks for the encouragement!
@ Doug – Being great company is what puts you in great company, so thank you for that! š My brain is pretty full and very energized by both the people and the content – both were great learning experiences for me.
@ Mitch – Definitely. I’m sure I’ll see you around! Are you going to hit up SxSW10?
And I won’t soon be forgetting your name! (=
Haha – you either! Steve, right? š
Hey girl! Thanks for including me on this awesome list. I’m flattered.
It was so great to connect at BlogWorld and meet IRL.
I love this list and I’m excited to start following some of your recommendations. Cheers
Thanks, ma’am – you too!
I’m sure I left some totally great people out (I keep thinking of others all day today. Sigh)
Anyway, I hope no one feels left out and others share their blog world follow reccomendations with me here too – I love finding new great people to follow
Thanks for including me! It was so awesome to meet you and the feeling is mutual
Some of my favorites:
http://twitter.com/ExtraordMommy
http://twitter.com/GeorgeGSmithJr
Thanks for including me, Tiffany! I’m so glad we got to meet each other, and I thank you for teaching me about what you do. Hope to catch up soon.
Tiffany,
What an absolute delight it was to get to know you! Sorry about making you walk for miles and miles in Las Vegas.
Meeting you was definitely one of the high points of my experience at BlogWorld. Definitely looking forward to staying in touch. I’ll be reading your blog – there’s so much to learn from you.
Including me in your list in just icing on the social media networking cake! Lots of great people here; I’ve got some following to do!
Cheers,
Irene
@ Katja – Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll have to check those out
@ Howard – Definitely – stay in touch!
So glad I met you standing in the lunch line, which turned into fun squeezing around the table, getting to know each other and more over lunch. Mmmmm! Veggies!
I need to visit OK to see you, Amy, and Melissa. And then, we need to road trip it up to Wisconsin to visit Rebecca! š
Thanks for including me on your list!
Hi Tiffany,
It was a pleasure meeting you as well!
Let’s keep connected, and hope to see you next year at BWE. I’ll remember your bright smile and positive attitude, I am sure.
@shannonyelland
Hi Tiffany,
It was great to meet you, too. I’m already planning #BWE10.
See you there.
tailwinds, Robin
@ Jyl – I had so many of those moments last week. Love it. And yes, you do need to come visit us all!
@ Shannon & Robin- Thanks! Hope to see you too!
I’d add @ebayinkblog Richard Brewer Hayes to that list he gets corporate blogging and was a speaker at Blogworld
Wow- I am so honored. You rocked the conference for sure. It was so great meeting you and sharing the floor (literally) with you. It was a crazy busy event and I wish we’d had a chance to chat more- but we will, at least on Twitter! Thanks for including me on your list
Thanks for including me on your list.
BWE was great. I hope to see you at SXSW!
I would add @JOwyang Jeremiah Owyang and @BrianSolis
It was so great to finally get to meet you in person after chatting along for such a long time. I’m sad that we didn’t get to hang out more! Hopefully we’ll get a chance to hang out again soon!
@ Sudha – Thanks for the recommendation!
@ jodi – So great meeting you too! Definitely look forward to seeing you around!
@ Connie – Great recommendations. They both did a great job presenting, wish I’d had the chance to meet them personally
@ Justin! So great to meet you too, finally. I totally blanked on dinner the last night – Joe had mentioned it – we would have had a chance to hang! Oh well, I’m sure I’ll see you again soon. Hope you and Laura had a blast in Vegas.
Tiffany!
I don’t know how I ever mised this! I’m sorry I am just now discovering it and my THANK YOU for including me is so delayed.
I hope you will be at SXSW so we can share some space again.
XO
Zaneoloyg
Ditto! I don’t know how I missed this either. It was awesome meeting/hanging out with you too! Hope we get the chance to chat again in 2010. xo
Wow great compilation of tweeple. I’m going to save/bookmark this list for my future use š