BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2011 are officially in the books and a big round of applause is most definitely in order for all of the organizers and event staff that pulled off this amazing three-day social media event. Blogworld LA featured 275 speakers, over 150 panels and workshops, and over 80 exhibitors making it one of the most comprehensive social media events on the calendar.

Looking at the social media data from BlogWorld, it’s pretty clear that the event generated a lot of buzz with nearly 40,000 individual posts over three days mentioning the event and/or its hashtag #BWELA. The graph below shows how the conversations trended over time.

Thursday, November 3^rd 2011

Thursday was the opening day of BlogWorld and featured a heavy schedule of keynotes as well as panels and discussions. Thursday saw the largest number of social mentions generating 15,421 posts by midnight.

The conversations hit their peak at 10AM PST on Thursday after some fantastic panels and keynotes from the likes of Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Tom Webster and Peter Shankman. The day ended with an outstanding keynote address from Radian6’s own Amber Naslund. Below is a snapshot of the tweets coming out of these sessions.

Friday, November 4th 2011

Al Sturgeon showing the platform at BlogWorld booth 515.

In addition to a full slate of panels and workshops, Friday was also the first day the exhibition floor was open and the Radian6 booth was a busy place. The Radian6 team had an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people from big enterprises and small operations. In doing so, we heard their stories and experiences in social media, and their aspirations for the future. It was an amazing opportunity to meet the individuals that are building the social media industry and we learned a lot from them.

Of course, the exhibition floor wasn’t the only place people were sharing their experiences. There were 12,143 posts mentioning BlogWorld or #BWELA Friday so even though I couldn’t make the sessions I was able to stay well informed. The graph below depicts how the social conversations trended throughout the day as well as the major topic of conversation: Friday’s keynote with Brian Solis and Ford’s Global CMO Jim Farley.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Despite Saturday being the last day of the event, there were still 9,226 social conversations mentioning BlogWorld and #BWELA.

The top influencers driving conversations Saturday are shown in the graph below. With the exception of the BlogWorld handles, these were conversations that were driven by reactions to the presenters and their panels.

Wrap Up

On a personal note, BlogWorld LA 2011 was my first experience at a social media conference and I had a blast. I’m still absorbing the information I took in and re-connecting with the people I met at the conference. This was a major event and I speak for both myself and for the community team at Radian6 when I say, well done!

What were your favorite moments at BlogWorld? Was it a specific panel? A conversation with one of your social media idols? Let us know in the comments below!

Mike is a Radian6 Community Engagement Specialist in Media & Communications. You can follow Mike on Twitter @MikeGRad6.

Tags: #BWELA, blogworld, conversations, influencer, intermediate