When over 300 Travel Bloggers, Writers and PR Pros left the Cantor Film Center in NYC on June 27, there were many feelings. Speechless was not one of them. Here, in your own words, some nuggets of wisdom from this year, suggestions for next year, travel tips and marketing takeaways…THIS was TBEX ’10:

Mariellen Ward discusses heroes and Meeting the Mahatma in New York City.

Trish Miller discusses the “Best of” and “Funniest Moments” in her TBEX ’10 Recap

The Art of Backpacking gives us the Top 10 Things TBEX-ers love besides TBEX Part 1 AND Part 2

Margo Millure of the Travel Belles tells us why large purses are all the rage at TBEX

The Mother of All Trips explains how TBEX can inspire Future Nomads

The EuroCheapo PhotoEssay provides snaps from the party

The Vacation Gals give their takeaways on the weekend conference.

Travelojos provides us with not one but two great “Things I learned from TBEX” posts

Matador weighs in on the popular Community Keynote

Speaking of the Community Keynote, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View provides links for that very thing!

First and foremost, travel bloggers like to party. Check out this post by Scene by Laurie

No wifi and lack of clarity but definitely a friendly bunch. Read BearShapedSphere’s post here.

Chris Around the World explains how we’re “busting up paradigms”

A livestream of the Sunday Sessions

And then there’s the Twitter Buzz

Did I miss yours? Send it to me at Maren@GoGalavanting.com OR add it to the comments of this post!

I am not in the recruiting or HR business. This might surprise you but it’s true. I am in the business of marketing to niche professionals. And while I’ve learned quite a lot along the way, one would never compare me to a Trish McFarlane, Laurie Ruettimann, Eric Winegardner or Kris Dunn. I am a marketing professional. Whether I am appealing to recruiters, investment professionals, or Albanian missionary supporters, the process remains remarkably similar. It’s the approach that changes with the industry.

That being said, I care about the recruiting and HR industries because I believe what they do is really important. My career has always been important to me, even when I worked side jobs as a stay at home mom, there was always an element of figuring out how this small opportunity could turn into a big career move. Recruiting and HR Professionals assist those who already have that bent built into the fabric of their personalities and steer or convince those who have the talent but maybe due to internal makeup or life circumstances, aren’t so driven. It’s important work.

I’ve been in the industry maybe three years so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt here. When I began seeing the plethora of webinars, conferences, unconferences, communities, websites, blogs, etc, I really started to get worried that the waters were getting muddied. After all, even the recruiters were complaining of conference burnout (a term I have yet to understand, apparently it happens to some people). I thought, this is DILUTING the market! There will for sure be a backlash and the good will go down with the bad. I watched with trepidation as more and more companies threw their hats into the ring, some with lofty internal motivations, some who seemed interested in making a quick buck, some that appeared out of nowhere. And I worried.

Then I went to RecruitCamp. RecruitCamp is an unconference franchise organized by industry veteran Rob Humphrey, now with LinkedIn. Humphrey heard about what Jason had started with RecruitFest! in Toronto and wanted to help. He ran a super successful event in November and even though RecruitingBlogs couldn’t attend, he sought us out this year for another event that took place last week. I personally partnered with Rob to promote the event, helped with speaker lineups and attended. I couldn’t have been more proud. It changed my mind and turned my worries into something entirely different. Encouragement. Here’s why:

1) I knew four people. Now I go to a lot of conferences and unconferences and manage communities totaling 160,000 recruiters and HR Pros. I know some people. But this was a sold out event, in a regional target market, where I knew almost NO ONE! I spend so much time trying to make sure that I touch the “movers and shakers” in our space that I forgot about all the lurkers and people we have yet to make an impact on. Trust me, there are a lot of them. Shame on me.

2) We’re doing it! Every day I see a lot of posts about Social Recruiting. I get exhausted by the concept to be perfectly honest. But guess what? There’s still a LOT to suss out here. Social recruiting is changing every day because the tools are changing every day. Marketing mistake NUMERO UNO: Don’t assume that your needs and the needs of your target market are exactly the same. At RecruitCamp, I saw Deloitte NZ get a SOCRA award for a campaign that was truly groundbreaking. Richard Long flew halfway around the world to be there and was excited his campaign had attracted OUR attention. How humbling. People all over the world are taking the precepts we teach and dive into day in and day out (not just on recruitingblogs but as a larger recruiting and HR community) and making them work in their companies. That’s exciting and gives me new inspiration. Revolutions don’t happen overnight.

3) Buzz means little. It does and as a marketing pro, I imagine a lot of people will scream “sacrilege” and run from the building. I don’t care. While I love the “high” I get interacting with my online friends, fans, followers, community members and whatnot–buzz created means little. It doesn’t make your conference more educational, it can’t magically make your product better, it doesn’t create instant customer service or increase revenue unless you have the processes in place to BACK IT UP. This is important! People talking about you, your company or your event is priceless but it’s not the only metric by which to determine its (or your) worth.

4) There’s enough room for all of us. Before, during and after RecruitCamp, I talked with so many smart professionals who are doing their own thing. Sometimes that means creating a community, other times it means trying their hand at a tweetup or building a new product that makes sense for the way they recruit. Where I used to see it as dilution, now I see it as broad-seeding. Broadseeding is basically the practice of spreading seed in a broad motion across an expanse of ground so that every possible area gets its opportunity to grow. Some seeds will get choked off by weeds, others will get pecked away by birds, still more will fall on ground that’s rocky and resistant to change. But some will fall on ground that’s ready and will be nurtured as it grows and thrives. (sound familiar anyone?)

I like to say that I am frequently accused of idealism. But truthfully, the accusations come from inside my head. I believe that the information upheaval our industry (and let’s not be superior LOTS of other industries too) is going through is going to be a good thing. I am committed to providing fertile ground where I can and to partnering with those who want to spread the seed.

That’s what she said.

When I attended my first ERE Expo two years ago in San Diego, I got completely hooked. Fortunately, before the conference and my quick plunge into it, I had some semblance of who the players were, what I wanted to learn about and why one would attend something like this. My whole life, I’d heard “grown ups” complain about “conferences” and how much they stunk and wasted time, the only obvious saving grace was their semi-exotic locales.

Imagine my surprise when I loved every single second of my experience at ERE Expo, then Kennedy (now Onrec), followed by RecruitFest and a slew of other conferences, networking events, and unconferences (from local to international). I fell hard. I was a conference junkie. I listened, took notes, livetweeted the heck out of tracks (blew up some phones in the process) formed my opinions based on what I heard and then trashed them or blogged about them as I tested their veracity in the real world. From newbie recruiter, to enthusiatic community member to consultant to proud CMO of RecruitingBlogs.com, I experienced a variety of conferences/events in a variety of ways from lots of different viewpoints. It’s been, shall we say, eye-opening.

So…what have I learned?

1) There is such a thing as a conference groupie. I should know, I am one. If this obsession is not managed properly, the actual business that gets done at these events can become minimal. Get out of your comfort zone. The new person you spend 15 minutes talking to, instead of hanging out with your usual crew planning margaritas can be your next big lead.

2) You can engage in the coverage of a track and not attend and get some useful nuggets. However, this usually makes you a reporter and not technically part of the conversation. Attending the tracks, even carefully selected tracks (again, choose speakers based on topic rather than how comfortable you are with them personally) elevates the conference experience above the “vendor” relationship. It also gives much food for thought (or as thought is now commonly termed, blog posts post-event and allows you to hear about upcoming trends and products you may not have been aware of.

3) Troll it. You heard me. If there’s a vendor hall, walk it and talk to every single person who will talk to you. Be honest about your goals. Are you looking for a new product? Do you want to hear from a vendor about services? Or are you just looking to get your own message out. The conference and event scene is rife with a new third audience (it used to be vendors and attendees). Now, with the advent of social media and in true recruiting fashion, we’ve created middle-men, communities and blog superstars who are looking for content, advertising or just more exposure.

4) Pay attention. I recently asked Kevin Wheeler about what surprised him about the IAEWS conference (typically held immediately before ERE Expo). While there was much the same in what he said about the conversations, there were new products, many of which I had never heard of, that he was impressed with. Digging deeper, I found out why these new products surprised him (giving me insight into social trends from someone who’s been watching them a long time). I never would have heard any of this had I not asked. By paying attention to both 1) what I’d heard before and 2) what was new, I am able to to hone in on what might be new and exciting for my community but also what continues to provide debate and fodder for the industry pundits.

5) Don’t wear heels. Man I wish I could take my own advice, but I never do. File under working on it.

6) Never leave a conversation without asking “How can I help you?” or “How can we work together?”. If there is nothing to collaborate on, so be it. But if there is, no matter how miniscule, you will have missed an opportunity to expand your community. As recruiting and HR communities continue to grow, it is less about being exclusive (pay to join, join to post, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours) and more about being inclusive. Support niche envirnoments, whereever they grow. Contribute to events, even when they don’t benefit you directly and direct people to your content whenever possible (or make it accesible where they already are).

That’s not all but it’s enough for today. Oh PS If there is free food, EAT IT, because hevean only knows when you can get your whole group to agree on a place to eat before you become insane with hunger. Fortunately, I brought a granola bar in my bag. (MOM points!)

We had children galore at the Hogan house over the holidays. Between December 20 and well, yesterday, it was all underpants, toilet paper fiascos, massive quantities of spaghetti and Wii fights. But usually, I just have the three boys. One night when it was just my boys in the house, I tiptoed out of the bedroom after prayers, stories and songs and trip over these three things in the hallway: a pirate hat, a lego starship something or other and a skateboard.

I started thinking about my kids and how their lives are pretty un-complicated. And I started wondering about how I could make mine less complicated. Here’s what I came up with:

Pirate Hats- The pirate hat speaks to me of imagination, make believe and role playing. I think sometimes in marketing, we get so caught up in our product or service, we forget to see it from the outside. And sometimes in our daily roles, we forget that everyone in the organization should be in product development, customer service and strategic thinking. Spend some time each day each week thinking about what could be or how you wish it could be. I’m a big idealism fanatic. If you can think it…well…you know.

Legos- Build it. Legos are building blocks that are really hecka cool. If you have enough of them and the right pieces, you can make anything. (Believe me, my boys have enough of them). To be able to realize the dream in the first step, you have to have the right building materials. Whether those are legos, employees, processes or whatever, it needs to be the right tool for the job. (Actually now that I think about it, I could do an entire series on the application of Legos as it relates to the workforce, but that’s for another time).

Skateboard- The skateboard didn’t take me places but that’s what it was designed to do. With a little (human) effort, skateboards can get you a lot of places. At least it can if you came of age in Santa Cruz in the 90s, which I did. Seriously though, we’ve talked enough about how to and what for and proving the theories, let’s go places people! You’ll become stagnant if you sit around having the same discussions year after year.

So a simple, not too far reaching blog post for the beginning of 2010. As my friend Joe says “be good to each other”.

There’s been some talk about transparency, authenticity and all the synonyms in between. And regardless of your personal view about any of those things and what they mean to you, the mere presence of the buzz surrounding them in everything from Inc. to CIO Magazine means that for whatever reason, their meaning or our perceived meaning of them, is important.

So as you market your business, promote your personal brand or even job hunt, you need to pay attention to walking the line. Here’s why: Half the time personal branding gurus are telling you sell yourself, promote your skills, etc. The other half the time, you’re being told to be yourself, stay in your niche, be passionate and authentic.

Walking the fine line between promotional and organic is something to pay careful attention to whether you’re a professional marketer or a regular person trying to figure out the game of social media (make no mistake, this is very much a game). For a marketer, the promotional stuff is easy. It’s what they teach you in college: write well, find the hook, build a process, distribute as fast and as loud as you can. But it’s not so obvious for the rest of us.

You’ve probably read this far hoping that I would provide some great three step process or surefire way to walk the line with social media. Sorry to disappoint. The reason this is so difficult is that it’s different for every person, company and organization. But here are some guidelines that can help you find your own personal boundaries:

1) What do you hate? Do you delete people who “pollute your twitterstream”? Does it make you angry when business connections spam you on Facebook? Do you feel business networking should involve some element of personal knowledge? Pay attention to what works ON you and FOR you when others are successfully (or not) marketing to you is a great indicator of where your comfort lines are.

2) Pay attention to what works in REAL life. We’re in lots of social situations all the time: church, school, work, sports. Would you walk up to a group of people and hand them your card and loudly proclaim yourself a guru? I hope not. You would introduce yourself at an appropriate time, listen to the conversation and see if you could add anything of interest when asked. So think about whether you would do what you’re about to do online, in real life.

3) Define your goals. This is a really tough one. Sometimes it seems like the people breaking all the rules are “winning the game”. But that’s only if you measure success by number of followers, retweets, and friends. Many might disagree with me, but I don’t think that’s a great goal. We’re so often asked for metrics and “proof” that social media works, that we latch onto the numbers as though they mean something. They don’t. If you have a defined goal (getting a new job, creating a conversation with a specific group of people, staying on the trending edge of your industry) you’ll can work out a strategy that includes actions that will lead to that goal and you’ll avoid the pitfall of thinking more @s means more influence.

4) Don’t go against your own grain. Are you a quiet person? Then don’t tweet 20 times a day because some expert told you it was smart marketing. Do you love to talk? Then nod and smile when Mr. Business hotshot tells you you’re too verbose. I understand the desire to apply a process more than anyone out there but trying to be something you’re not always plays as false.

5) Count to 20. I never do this but it’s good advice. When I would play outside as a kid, I never wanted to go inside to the bathroom. My fear was mom would see me and tell me to come in for the night. So no matter how badly I had to go, I would stop and count to 20. It worked most of the time. When you’re in a “comment war” or chat session or about to tweet or blog something that makes your stomach feel funny. Count to 20. Count to 50. And then…walk the line.