My first day at the Web 2.0 Expo was quite full and incredibly eye opening. There are so many different people here! In one room I can chat with a reporter from a Mexican newspaper; at lunch I can talk to someone that works with programmers for Open Table; and then later I can mingle with a developer for tech startups from Sweden. It’s so great to get to hear all of these different points of view. Especially for me, working in media, it is very interesting to absorb opinions on how Web 2.0 is going to have to generate new metrics to help it speak the same metrics language as traditional TV or radio. But the difference is that the web can tie into your social profile and direct advertising in  a way other media can’t, so there is a level of interaction you have to look at in a way that is completely different and, to me, even more important.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the first day:

• I loved the presentation from Alexa Andrzejewski, founder of Foodspotting, which was all about working toward creating a unique user experience, from the development of your site to selling the concept to partners. I was really impressed with the unique steps she took in developing her vision and communicating it with others. For example, one of the ways she devised Foodspotting was by playing “make believe,” going around as if the mobile app already existed and imagining how it would be used as a part of day-to-day life. I think this is applicable not only to startups but also to existing products: it might be helpful for anyone to take a step back and imagine your product, or even your website, as if you were a customer, and think about what functionality you’d want to see to make your experience better.It was also fascinating how Alexa created an “experience poster” when pitching Foodspotting, which was basically an outline of her vision that illustrated problems the site would solve, some of the benefits for a user and metaphors she used during development. She didn’t want people to get caught up in something like the design; she wanted to make sure they understood and believed in her vision as that is ultimately what will drive the product.Luckily, she has posted the slides for sharing at http://bit.ly/uxvision. Check it out if for no other reason than to see how creative and fun they are. You can also follow her on Twitter to learn more at @ladylexy or @foodspotting.
• The Keynotes were full of many engrossing speakers. June Cohen (@junecohen) discussed how the TED conference decided to start sharing the talks from the conference for free. You might think that giving away your content for nothing is a crazy business model, and June said that she was aware of the risk, but they found that this practice actually created an even higher affinity toward the TED brand, and that ticket prices for the conference even increased. Ultimately their willingness to share information resulted in a highly a trusted brand that now draws millions of users, and also led to TEDx: mini-TED conferences that are hosted all over the world.
• The day ended with Ge Wang (@gewang) whose company Smula develops iPhone apps. He demoed some of them live, which was really fun. The cool thing about the apps isn’t just that they can make your screen look like a lighter flame, but that they can use your phone’s signal to track where you are and map out where all users have lit their lighter (one devoted fan was able to write “hi” on map by walking up and down streets with their lighter app). But overall it was the sense of thinking about unique apps that people would actually use that was most inspiring.

If you want more timely updates throughout the day, check out @gunnjerkens on Twitter, or you can search the #w2e hashtag on any social site. By the way, Paul Buchheit from Facebook was  interviewed as part of the Keynote presentations and he said that the trend he’s seeing the web going is more “small” communications like tweets or a simple thing like Facebook’s “Like” feature. These make it easier to keep a level of interaction but without as much “commitment.” Makes sense since smartphones make it so easy to write smaller missives throughout the day instead of something longer (and if you’ve made it to the bottom of this blog post, you might appreciate that, too). So there’s another plug to follow us on Twitter!