Blogtropol.us at Web 2.0 Expo: Bloggers Have Arrived

I have a lot of posting to catch up on after Web 2.0 Expo this week, but I'm not saving the best for last; I'm starting off my catch-up posts with my review of the Blogtropol.us Bloggers Lounge.

When I first arrived at Web 2.0 Expo, I was a little bit incensed that bloggers had their own lounge rather than admittance to the "media room." Here I was at a conference about Web 2.0 and the bloggers weren't considered media?

Forget it. As Richard Brandt noted on Entrepreneur Watch, the Blogtropol.us Lounge was THE place to be. There were massages, Wii tournaments, a constant interview stream from Webware with Rafe Needleman (who cannot POSSIBLY still have a voice today!). There was WiFi and adorable robot dinosaurs, great giveaways, food, drinks, and contests. The hosts (The Conversation Group) bent over backward to make sure we were happy, well-beveraged, well-fed, and overall, well-treated.

Every single upcoming conference should take their cues from Blogtropol.us. It was the place to hang out, meet and greet, and those without passes or blogs were jealous as all get out that I was able to go up there.

In an era where bloggers are often looked down upon as being "less than" traditional journalists (Hey, I would have made a GREAT columnist!), it was a great morale booster to be treated so well by the Web 2.0 Expo organizers and the sponsors of the Blogtropol.us Lounge. We felt valued.

If I could have come up with any gripe at all, it would be that a great deal of the scheduling of events conflicted for those of us pulling double-duty covering the conference as well as staffing the event. I'd have liked it to stay open for a little while longer after the Expo Hall closed so that those of us who were double agents could come up, decompress, and start cranking out posts as well as take advantage of some of the additional perks. Other than that, I can't think of a single thing I'd have done differently if I were running the Blogtropol.us Lounge, and I'm looking forward to the next event I get to attend where it appears again. I never did get that much-needed massage!