Utah bloggers gathered tonight for the first annual Utah Bloggers Conference, organized by Phil Burns and Ryan Money. And through one of those technology miracles that we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago, by the time I got home, Phil Windley of the blog Technometria had already blogged about the conference and mentioned me, and I found it on Technorati. I promised Phil I would write about the food, which was kind of a joke, since it wasn’t particulary blogworthy (but free, due to generous sponsors whose names I’m sorry I can’t remember.)

I don’t know about other attendees, but the turnout far exceeded my expectations. Before this, the only other bloggers I knew personally in Utah were Vanessa from She Craves and Erin from Erin Eats, and neither of them was able to attend. The content was a little heavy on business, at least for my needs, and I desperately wanted the presenters to ask how many people in the audience blogged about specific topics. I was the only food blogger that I know of, and even more amazing, it seemed like lots of people in this business/techie crowd didn’t even realize that people blogged about food.

They gave away T-shirts (don’t worry Vanessa and Erin, I’ve got you covered.) I managed to score two extra T-shirts which I will give away to the first two people who read this who are attending the Blogher Conference in San Jose, since that’s the next blogging conference I’m attending. So if you’re coming to Blogher, leave a comment on this post and you can become an honorary Utah blogger with your own Utah Bloggers T-shirt.

Here’s a shot of the Utah Bloggers T-shirt which says “I’m blogging this” on the front and Utah Bloggers on the back.

Phil Windley doing a little Wi-fi blogging, with the panel discussion table in the background.
There was a crowd of about 175 people in attendance. For Utah, this was a diverse group (read: not everyone was wearing a white shirt and a tie.) It appeared that both political parties were represented.

Dinner was pizza from Godfather’s, which was plentiful and hot (and not on my diet, but I did eat some.)

They won’t win any awards for their food styling, but then, this was not a FOOD BLOGGERS conference.

I have a feeling this is the first of many more Utah Blogger events. It was a great effort for the first time. Thanks to Phil and Ryan for getting it together.

Here are reports from some other bloggers about the conference:
Gary Thornock
Dee Taylor
Scott Lemon
Newspapergrl (Janet Meiners)
Richard Miller (modeling shirt)
Tim Burns writing at Utahbloggers.com
Tim Stay
Joseph Hall
Ryan Byrd
Bob Aagard (a Republican who has seen the light,
something we can use more of in Utah)
Josh Harrison
Out of Context (Salt Lake Tribune’s political blog)

If you’re a Utah Blogger who wrote about this, e-mail me (kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net) and I’ll add your link.

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