But it was okay; since I can’t really tell what I missed, I can only assume being late for the event was worth it, because Friday night, I got to meet up with an old friend for a career discussion. Donna and I talked about online advertising, about SEO and blog advertising, but more importantly, she provided a lot of insights on sales and marketing, the thing I need help with the most (because of the nature of my work).

So, I can call that stretch from Friday evening to late Saturday afternoon very, very productive. Among the things I learned (and confirmed) are:

1. There’s more to blog advertising than I thought; I realized there’s a much better way to approach projects (thanks to Donna), and I’m going to try to do it differently starting next week.

2. Donna and I talked about niche blogging Friday night; Saturday afternoon confirmed the difference between bloggers with regards to “evolution,” as described by Anton Diaz.

3. Jayvee Fernandez’s insights on blogger events confirmed how targeted demands from clients are nowadays; I’ve realized that first-hand, but his talk confirmed the level of awareness the bloggers and clients now have. His points made a lot of sense, and I’m glad to hear someone talk about it the way he did. Eric’s discussion complemented Jayvee’s in the sense that they both shared the needs of advertisers and what the bloggers, the community can do about it. Since we are the front-liners when it comes to marketing blogs to potential clients, their speeches were well-taken opportunities to address the crowd about dealing with clients as business people, thus with respect, fairness, and professionalism: a two-way relationship with us managing both the communities and marketing in the middle.

4. Fitz Villafuerte’s turn on the mic was very informative; he talked about problogging and discussed several “strategies” on how to maximize your blog’s potential, at least in terms of monetizing it. However, the strategies he presented were not really applicable to all bloggers, so I guess it’s pick-your-poison depending on what you want to do with your blog. It ties in nicely with the other presentations, though.

There were a lot more things talked about during the event, but there’s just too much information to discuss here. Besides, I’ve got a lot of digesting to do tonight: I still have to revamp my blogs just because the event called for it.