Thursday, I went to the keynotes, one session, and the live show of Tekzilla Live. This was by far the best part of the Expo for me. I was second in line for the show - my fiance was first - and this guy started asking if anyone in line had a personal site. ME! So, Ryan of Revision3 hooked me up with a new Squarespace account - the one you're viewing now. They had the lead designer redesign my personal site in 30 minutes using the Squarespace editor. I got an awesome redesign, a free Squarespace site, and I'm extremely happy with how it all worked out.

By the way, a huge thanks to Ryan, Tyler - the designer, and Dane - my contact at Squarespace for my account. You guys have been awesome! And for those of you that haven't checked into Squarespace, it's amazing! I know having to pay for a blogging engine might turn people away, but the tools and features you get make it so worth it - especially to a designer. Plus, take the cost of hosting into account - with a company that has decent customer service - and I think you actually come out ahead. My fiance, Lance, was so impressed with it that he started his own account. You can check out his blog at  www.lancedice.com.

Friday, I went to the Keynotes and then went to Fisherman's Wharf to do the tourist thing. It was pretty fun and I had an amazing bread bowl with clam chowder.

After that, Lance and I got to tour the Digg offices. We met some really great people and saw some really cool things that I'm not allowed to talk about. :) A big thanks goes out to Courtney at Digg for making this happen. Also, thanks for the Shirley Temple!

So overall, the Expo was a fabulous experience. I learned a lot of new things, increased my social network tenfold, and had a lot of fun too.

A big thank you to everyone at the Expo, Revision3, Squarespace, and Digg!

Today was the first day of sessions for the Web 2.0 Expo. I have to say that it's been an interesting day. This is the first conference I've ever been to and I didn't quite know what to expect. I went into this thing expecting every topic to be directed at web developers - I was wrong. So naturally, I picked all the wrong topics and was feeling very left out. I am just a student in web development and here I was surrounded by business people that were shopping for ways to market their businesses. I was actually starting to wonder why I even came.

As for the sessions I attended, I felt they were very well done for the most part - although they didn't necessarily apply to my interests. The first one I attended: Why Social Media Marketing Fails - and how to fix it was not the best. It covered all the different reasons why it fails, but spent very little time talking about ways to fix it. In fact, one left the session wondering why anyone would rely on social media marketing at all - if it really is that unreliable and the reward is so little. Also, it felt like the speakers were talking to each other instead of to the people attending. However, I really liked their use of Twitter for getting feedback from the listeners.

Second, I went to Situation Normal, Everything Must Change. I thought this speaker did a very nice job. He had great slides, good form, and a great accent. I actually learned quite a bit about cloud computing that I was completely unaware of.

Next, I went to Content Strategy: What's Real, What's Relevant. I really liked the speaker - although I am kind of partial to girls in technology. I felt she had a lot of relevant points, and as a designer, I had no idea how much went into putting together valuable content. I will be following her to make sure I keep up with any news about this interesting topic.

The Lean Startup was the next session I decided to go to. I think the speaker did a very good job at keeping it interesting and informative. He had real world experience that really helped to support the points he had to make.

Last, I went to Best Practices in Social Media... I think the guy from Digg did an excellent job explaining the chocolate chip cookies of marketing. Although at times it seemed like an advertisment for Digg, I feel he did a good job at trying to stay neutral while still being loyal to his company.

I'm really excited for tomorrow because I am going to make sure I attend the design/development sessions. However, the business/marketing sessions did give me a look at a side of the web that I had no understanding of before. And that's what this experience is all about - learning new things.

Then I went to the Keynote addresses. From here, my day went from bad to fabulous. Every single keynote was addressing web developers and what we can do to improve our skill set and marketability. I started to realize that this conference is just as much for people like me as it is for business people - I just chose the wrong sessions for me.

Another thing I have to say is that I am amazed at how well Twitter works for an event like this. I come from a very small town and it is almost impossible to find a use for Twitter. However, when you're sitting in a big convention center, it's really nice to be able to discuss things the speaker is talking about with a large group of people. It's also very useful for critiquing poor speaking Microsoft reps.

I feel like I will come out of this experience with a lot of valuable information to help me finish my degree and enter the workforce. Also, I feel like I have really got the chance to develop my social network and make Web 2.0 work for me!