KA in Vegas...

OK, something completely unconnected with memberships, renewals and ScreenCastsOnline!

1st Disclaimer - Whilst I was over in Las Vegas for the BlogWorld and New Media Expo, I was delighted to receive some complimentary tickets for one of the Cirque Du Soleil shows. These were being offered to various bloggers free gratis in exchange for a quick write up or mention on their blog.

I sort of wondered if I should take up the offer but in all honesty, I was going to buy a ticket for one of the shows regardless and no doubt, I would have written something up anyway, so I accepted their gracious offer and saved my self some cash!

2nd Disclaimer - I'm a huge Cirque Du Soleil fan.

My 1st Cirque show was at La Nouba at Walt Disney World Resort at Florida, many years ago. I was blown away, not only by the artistry of the performers but by the technology - Wow! I'd never been to a purpose built venue before and the impact was stunning. That show certainly set the bar high.

Last year, I paid to take the family to "Love" - The Beatles themed show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. The show had a special meaning to me being a Liverpool lad, but I wasn't expecting to see the technology on the same scale as La Nouba as after all, this was in a hotel, not a specially designed theatre.

Boy was I wrong! Absolutely amazing!

My good friend Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User and Typical Shutterbug podcast was lucky enough to score some tickets for "Love" this year, but he was also lucky enough to get a backstage tour as well.  Victor has created a fantastic Photo-Audio presentation of his backstage tour - well worth checking out.

So this year, I got tickets to see KA at the MGM Grand. Again, although it a hotel (mind you, can you call Vegas hotels, hotels? More like resorts!) the theatre looks to have been purpose built. It's difficult not to give too much away, but aside from the skills and talents of the obviously world class performers, the true star of the production for me is the stage itself. If you have any appreciation for engineering and large structures, this is the show to see.

I could hardly believe my eyes at the staging of this production. Phenomenal!  I can only imagine that the void that contains the stage must extend to at least 150ft below the auditorium. The sheer mechanics of moving the amount of hardware around to such extremes and with such smoothness and precision is truly mind boggling!

I don't want to detract from the artistery and skills of the obviously world class performers, but the geek in me just marvelled at the technology of it all! Speaking of the performers, how on earth they manage to do that performance for two shows a night is beyond me.

So as you might expect, KA gets a big thumbs up from me, but if you've ever seen a Cirque Du Soleil show before, you'll have expected that already!

Thanks to Cirque for extending this welcome to all the bloggers and podcasters at Blogworld and New Media Expo.

Blogworld 2009…

You might have noticed the badge in the side bar but in case you didn't, I'm off to speak at Blogworld next week. It's certainly crept up on me but as the week draws closer, I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been attending the New Media Expo for the past couple of years but following last years NME, the event has been combined with Blogworld to make a much larger event. This can only be a good thing I suppose, as podcasting, blogging and all things "new media" starts to become blurred.

As well as the many sessions, I'm especially looking forward to meeting up with many of my Mac podcasting buddies from the Mac Roundtable including Victor, Chuck, David, Dave and Allison along with many other friends I've made over the years at the NME and Macworld.

This year, I'll be presenting on a subject that I should know a lot about and that's ScreenCasting….surprise, surprise! My session is scheduled for Saturday the 17th from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in room 229. It goes without saying that I'd love for you to turn up if you're attending!

The main Blogworld site seems to have had a lot of work done on it as we get nearer to the event, including the addition of the 2009 Blogworld Conference Speakers Preview. You can access this from the main site and each speaker or panelist has their own Yubby Channel. This is a video aggregation channel where you can watch videos gathered from various sources. Mine is on the second page (I'm not bitter!) but I only have a few videos anyway. I think I'll have to get my face in front of a few more cameras this time round.

Did I mention...

I don't think I did!

I'm delighted to have been invited to speak at this years Blogworld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas (Oct 15 - 17 2009) I'll be presenting a session on Saturday 17th at 3:30pm covering "Creating ScreenCasts". You can find a full list of sessions here.

As you may be aware, BlogWorld and New Media Expo were previously two separate conferences which merged earlier in the year. This will be the first combined conference making it a much bigger and significant event.

I've been fortunate enough to attend the New Media Expo (or whatever it was called for that year!) for the past three years and it's always been an amazing event, with lots of opportunities for networking and learning all about the industry. It will be interesting to see how it has evolved and see just how much buzz is generated in its new form.

Should be an exciting time.

Goes without saying that if you're headed that way too, I look forward to getting the chance to say hello.

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