I know this is a little late, but better late than never, right? I have attended every XBIZ Summer Forum since their first one in 2006. When I look back at the photos I took at that first show compared with this one, there are a couple of things that stand out. In 2006, it seems like it was more about the party. In 2010, things seem more focused on business and education. In today’s business environment, that is a good thing.

The XBIZ Summer Forum is billed as a three day online business event, but in reality, it is more like two and a half. The last day only had two events scheduled and they were both over by noon. On the other hand, they did schedule the XFANZ show to begin when the XSF ended, so if you stayed for that, you could easily get three or four days of networking and business done.

The Venue

As always, The XBIZ Summer Forum was held at the Hard Rock Hotel. I have a condo in Las Vegas, so most of the time when I have a trade show to attend there, I will use the condo. The exception to the rule is when the event is at the Hard Rock. My girlfriend really likes the pillows there, so I will opt to stay at the show hotel when it is held there. The rooms were a reasonable $100 a night, so no complaints with pricing.

The Hard Rock opened a new section to the hotel and the thing that surprised me the most was that the music was no longer rock. The Hard Rock might be changing their name to The Hip Hop Hotel in the near future. Additionally, I accidentally left some clothes there. They said they found them, but only returned some of my items. When I mentioned this on Facebook I discovered that several people had credit card issues with them, so I may have to rethink staying there in the future. We shall see.

The Food

Daily lunch buffets were held at Simon’s and sponsored by Dating Gold. I was not feeling well, so passed on the buffet the first day. I later found out that the meal on Tuesday was better than the one on Wednesday, but Wednesday was not bad. Both days were well attended, and the plates seemed to empty quickly.

The Networking Never Ends

XBIZ Summer Forum 2010 Photos, Day Two

Photos From Wednesday at the Hard Rock Hotel

Day two of XBIZ Summer Forum 2010 was significantly more active than day one. As soon as I walked into the speed networking session you could see that more people had arrived and they were ready to do business. There were some great seminars, in particular one on SEO and another on HTML5. With the increased attendance came more activity at the pool as well, which made for some great photo ops.

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XBIZ Summer Forum 2010 Pics

Photos From Tuesday at the Hard Rock Hotel

Today was the first official day of the XBIZ Summer Forum 2010, held at the Hard Rock Hotel. I do not know if it is just because today was day one, but attendance seems very low from past shows. Speed networking started things off, and it seemed to get off to a late start, which was probably a good thing. 9:00 AM on the first day seemed a little early. There were some good seminars on SEO and social networks, which was a great excuse to come in out of the sun. Enjoy the photos.

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