This post is about my experience at BlogsWithBalls in NYC on Saturday. For those of you who are reading this and might not know me or TJB, I’ll boil it down, I’m the guy who rode the tricycle on the BWB promo vid. And yes, it was one of the high points of my life.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure joining the gang for the BlogsWithBalls conference in New York City. I knew about this event early on in the planning process, and when Don explained the vision, I knew it was going to be great. Pure love of the concept is what moved me to steal a tricycle from the nursery at my place of worship, and ride it through the streets of Somerville MA whilst getting teabagged by John from RedsArmy. Once I saw who was involved from a panelist/speaker perspective, I knew it was going to be epic. Believe it or not, the event exceeded my really, really high expectations.

My head was swimming, and maybe I’ll revisit this post, but here are some things I took away from the conference that I could jot down:

We Didn’t Resolve the Punk Rock / Disco Debate — Alas but as of 3:00AM June 14th 2009, there were no peace accords struck between “bloggers” and “traditional media.” At last check, the Raul Ibanez debate is still highly contentious, amongst “traditional media” folks and “bloggers” both. The last panel was on this subject, and OnTheDL‘s Dan Levy did a fantastic job facilitating the group. From the panel, what stuck out to me is why Dan Steinberg is such a powerful voice that spans paradigms, what he cares most about is good writing and he’s willing to call inconsistencies on both sides of the fence. I think it’s one of the keys on why he’s so widely read and respected.

I really hope that the conflict between the paradigms can be put to rest, but I’m just not sure how it will happen. Personally, I’m indebted to traditional beat reporters and their hard work, they get the tough parts, and I get to do the fun part, riffing off their work, synthesizing it and offering crackpot conspiracy theorist opinions. Maybe I’m naive and I give my readers too much credit, but I trust they can distinguish between my site (not beat repoter’s work, nor intended to be) and that of someone like Jane McManus for the Journal News, who is a real reporter and a damn fine one. Somehow, more and more though, readers are considering me to be a reporter, which I don’t get and makes me depressed … sigh.

Ultimately, It’s a Meritocracy — Matt Sebek, made a great point early in the day that when it comes down to it, any content producer is going to be measured by their content, nothing more. This was a fact that Gary V hammered home later in the day. So, going to J-School at Columbia can be a really helpful thing, but when it comes down to it, it’s better to be a good writer. It’s a simple, but refreshing truth to hear.

The Next Thing — Jim DeLorenzo of Twackle and Octagon made a great point that I think is going to be key over the course of the next few years online. We’re getting to a point where there’s so much information, that there’s getting to be more noise than signal. If I was looking into new business ventures, sifting and filtering content to individuals tastes would be one of the areas I’d explore extensively.

You Probably Already Knew This, But It Bears Repeating — Every time I hear the “basement” cliche from someone, it makes me want to curb them Ed Norton style in American History X. The truth is, sports bloggers are a driven, visionary, smart group of people who for years have been left to our own devices. No one would grant us credentialing access, no one wanted to advertise on our blogs, etc. etc. Obviously over time the perceptions have changed and now you have these very same, very savvy, very resourceful people who’ve now got venture backing, the weight of broadcast networks behind them, and/or enough resources to do this full time and to some folks, it’s a real threat.

I have a friend who is a writer and who works for a traditional media outlet that is planning on moving to a online paid content format. You read that right, it’s 2009 and their panacea is paid content, even after the NY Times famously botched it. As I sat in the basement (haha) at Stout Saturday, some of the blog content network players like Pete V. from Yardbarker were talking about crafting specific campaigns alongside brands that will appeal to their readership. Rather than throw the same old process at a new concept, people are actually thinking innovatively about it … imagine that.

I still think that the old paradigm has some things going for it, but unless they get outside the box of straight CPMs, there’s little chance in the wake of resourceful thinkers who as Jim Bankoff CEO of SBNation pointed out, don’t have all their capital rigidly tied into business models that the traditional outlets do.

Sorry, But There’s No Magic Tonic to Make Your Blog Better — Throughout the day, this message kept coming back to me about the fact that this stuff takes hard work. I know, I know … duh. If you only post once a week, have no clear vision for your blog, want to avoid “imposing” on others (promoting your blog) are unwilling to network, and unwilling to make some sacrifices in your life, then sorry friend, your blog is probably doomed to fail. There are a handful of people on the planet who’s writing alone is enough to merit them their elite status and chances are, you’re probably not one of them. No one is going to care as much about your blog as you are, no one’s a better advocate for your blog than you are, you have to be willing to work to get something in return.

I Make My Life As A Blogger Harder Than I Need To: As a fellow Jets fan, Keynote Gary Vaynerchuk is someone I am very familiar with … his desire to own the team I read and write about on a daily basis is well documented … but at least 1/3 or the room wasn’t aware of who he is — so here’s a quick primer if you don’t know him. Having watched his wine videos for a long time (and I don’t even like wine) and his media/branding musings on his personal site, I knew he was going to have a great message for the audience and wow … no surprise, as one of the organizers of BWB Kyle Bunch tweeted, “Still in awe of @garyvee and his bringing-down-the-house performance.” Gary made it simple: really know who you are and really be honest in knowing what you want and everything else will follow … really.

Can it really be that simple? From talking to some folks at the GQ After Party, what I think is hardest for most of us is we are gifted in certain things, coding, writing, podcasting, vloging, graphic design, editing, marketing, sales, etc. etc. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’re able to do THREE of those things well, but what very few of us are is gifted in all those.

So from a macro level how do I fulfill my vision and what am I willing to cede control of to make it happen?

What was most funny about Gary’s speech was that friend Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog.com (who’s usually very thoughtful and quiet) was did-you-just-hear -that?-ing me throughout the whole thing. When Matt is going against his normal “still waters run deep” M.O. … you know you’ve just had an inspirational speech. Dwight Shrute’s “Blood Alone Moves the Wheels of History!” speech didn’t hold a candle to Gary’s on Saturday.

Other reactions I’ve found so far (I’ll add to this, email me yours if it’s not there).

GoGameFace – Blogging With (Or Without) Balls
JeffPearlman.com – Blogs With Balls
Bus Leagues Baseball – My Road to Omaha
Conquest Chronicles – (Last paragraph)
Lacrosse All Stars – We Just Got crushed by Blogs with Balls