The Chance of a Lifetime: Blogworld New Media Expo

It is almost that time! You have all heard about it, you know about it, and you might even be going! No, I am not talking about the pardoning of the turkey by the president. I am talking about the Blogworld New Media Expo in **drum roll please** VEGAS!!! Oh yeah, bright lights, bright skies, and bright minds will be descending on the world known as Las Vegas from October 14th through the 16th at Mandalay Bay. People from all over the country will be arriving to take part in a weekend full of fun, knowledge bomb dropping, and perhaps even some entertainment. Many great keynote speakers and tracks will be available, covering topics all over the social and new media spectrum. As a matter of fact, Dads Talking with the help of Blogworld and Southwest Airlines is giving away a full pass to the New Media Expo and round-trip airfare. Thanks to Blogworld and Southwest Airlines for making that possible for them!

Why is this the chance of a lifetime? For many people it is a business trip of sorts, for others it is a chance to meet people they have only communicated with through social media hang outs and blogs. For a dude like myself, it is the possibility of just being part of something so freaking awesome. It is a chance to jump out of the real world for a bit, and into a world that is still new and exciting to me.


I started The DaddyYo Blog in April of this year. I had long had a Twitter, a Facebook, a MySpace, and at one point I think I even had a Live Journal. Terms like "social media" and "blogosphere" didn't really seem like strangers, but they didn't seem to mean so much at that time. I grew up around computers and the growth of technology, and now the explosion of social media, blogging, the turn of the internet age that is slowly turning into a mobile based app world. I didn't see then what I see now in it all. Now that I see there is much more to it than an associated term, the whole realm of it all is very new, very exciting, and a lot of times very confusing.

Over the last few months, the whole world of new media, social media, blogging, Twitter, and everything that comes with it have become a sort of virtual landscape and playground of sorts for me. I have made many great connections with many amazing people. I have had wonderful opportunities open up and I have to say I have enjoyed every bit of it. What is even better is the fact that I have gained a wealth of knowledge about myself.

Just the other day I was going back and reading through some old posts. I laughed  (at myself mostly), I shed a tear or two, and a looked back at who I was compared to who I am now as a dad, and I could tell the difference. Opening up about my role as a dad and about my experiences, trials, and triumphs has helped me be able to see who I am, and how I am.

Being from a small area in the mountains of Virginia, we don't see too many of these conferences come around these parts. But this, this is the Blogworld expo. This is an event I have learned too much about, heard too much about, and salivated over for a while now. I don't know where my blog will take me, if it even does anything for me at all in the new media and internet sensation sense. I do know that it will take me to better places as a person as I learn more about myself through writing. I do know that there are many dads out there, like me, who would love to be a part of this event, to learn all we can, and walk away with a sense of where we are in the crazy shenanigans of the internet.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not ever, but sometime in my mind at least, these experiences and connections will partially define who I am. The blog will continue to be a passion whether is sets me for life, or causes arthritis in my hands. I am in it for the long haul regardless.