The BlogWorld Expo conference in Las Vegas, which happened last week, has been described as the Super Bowl for bloggers, or a high school reunion for bloggers.

Having just returned from first BWE, it felt more like a high school reunion – people with similar interests and experience getting together to talk about what they’re doing and what they could be doing better or different, and then socializing and networking in a major way.

The conference also struck me as preaching to the converted. For all the insight, tips and advice offered, the audience, for the most part, was pretty savvy about blogging and social media. Not that the keynotes and panels weren’t interesting, it’s just that there was nothing earth-shattering to be learned.

Of course, the real value of conferences is the networking and the opportunity to talk with competitors, potential partners, bloggers and the media. BWE was a nice-sized event in which it was pretty easy to find anyone you wanted to meet. As well, everyone is really accessible and friendly.

For Sysomos, BWE was a chance to talk about the fast-growing social media monitoring and analytics business. For people who haven’t heard about Sysomos, it’s always gratifying and exciting to see them become enthusiastic after learning more about what we’re doing.

We’re really just at the beginning of the social media monitoring and analytics market so there’s still a lot of education to be done. The exciting part is there is tremendous interest, which is great news for Sysomos.