What a blast! I think it’s fair to say we lived up to the rockstar theme folks. You and 249 others rocked the Pakhuis de Zwijger the whole day.

We’ve been reading articles and tweets about BLOG08 all day and I think we can draw a few conclusions:

• Dutch people aren’t into monetizing their blogs. Why would they? There are only 16 million people speaking the same language
• The discussion about journalism vs blogging is never-ending, but only because we can’t stop talking about it
• Blogging is hard work, really hard. Just ask Cashmore how he has built up Mashable (it concerns 4 hour nights and lots of coffee)
• Loren Feldman thinks bikes from Amsterdam are too crappy to be true

Edial and I think have a lot to think about. And when we’re done with that, we’ll definitely share our findings with you. For now, enjoy these photos and a video of our BLOG08 band Love O.D (featuring speaker Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten).

Love O.D. - Funkalicious ft. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten from Love O.D. on Vimeo.

The very first edition of BLOG08, the most rocking one-day event dedicated to blogging, vlogging and the blogosphere, commences in exactly one day! Most speakers have arrived in Amsterdam today and are busy with their last preperations for their keynotes. There are also a few things you, dear visitor, can do to prepare for BLOG08:

Fill in your profile on the BLOG08 network account to meet up with other attendees to make appointments, introductions or whatever.

Use the #BLOG08 tag on Twitter to find other people who want to share their latest and greatest rock ‘n roll outfits and thoughts.

Send in your best blog tips to Patrick, check out the interactivity page to see on which topics you can contribute.

As Natasha from Amsterdam Weekly noticed earlier: Keep your eyes peeled for the Blog08 guitar picks being handed out as trinkets. See you tomorrow! Haven’t bought a ticket yet? There are still a handful left at the shop.

Loren will rock BLOG08 in the afternoon. Yet before he arrives, he needs some questions to be answered. From his blog:

I have so many questions. I need to be here tomorrow. Is this place a country? Does it stay light 24 hours a day? What language do they speak? Are the considered a friendly ethnic group? Can I drink the tap water? Are the bathrooms coed? Do they use money? Which side of the road do you drive on? Do they like Jews? What kind of food do they eat? Do they have TV there? Is Bjork from there?

Blog08 Special II from Sacha Post and Dorien Pfauth on Vimeo.

Here’s a special message for all our international guests. You can earn back some money of your trip to Amsterdam by filming your hotel room. Tripr.TV, a Dutch start-up, allows users to post video reviews of the hotels they’ve visited, promising a commission (averaging $10 per booking) when another user books via their video page.

You won’t make a million bucks out of it, but it might be a fun and creative way of sponsoring the few adult drinks you’ll have in Amsterdam.

By the way, now we’re discussing hotels. You might as well check how your place is rated:

Founder Jan Kooman will be at BLOG08, so if you’ve any questions or comments, drop ‘em below this post or save them for Friday. Have a good trip!

With less than a week before BLOG08, a lot of things have happened during the last week. We have sold a lot of tickets and a lot of great companies have showed their appreciation for the event. The diversity of the people attending is amazing, from Spice PR to Artiklz to Het Parool and freelancers - they are all there. The Dutch province of Utrecht actually bought 10 tickets for the web editors working on Utrecht.nl to stimulate ‘web awareness’. This week we will be announcing the lucky person who had a chance to get a speakers diner invite.

If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, there are still a few tickets left to buy.

Some say blogging is a hype long gone. We think so as well, as the medium is now maturing. Anyhow, you always need a little hype, so here’s the next one: vlogging! When we interviewed Loic le Meur a while ago, he advised us to also invite some video bloggers to the stage. We were happy to tell him that we’d already approached two rocking vloggers: Loren Feldman and GabeMac!

We’ve already introduced Gabe Mac to you, the daily host of Mobuzz that is infamous for his encounters with women and media douchebags. He’ll close the day with absolute chaos.

So let us take some time to introduce “the most controversial video blogger in social media today”, Loren Feldman. He comments on the tech industry on 1938media.com, sometimes by using puppets. But don’t be fooled by his controversial approach. ’cause he actually has something to say. The New York Times, Wired, and The Huffington Post all praised him for his work.

Oh, and as you can tell by the pic, he likes an occasional fight with Loic, the very same man who applauded his attendance at BLOG08.

Honestly, I haven’t seen a clog in my life (ok, maybe one or two), but somehow, people from abroad associate these wooden shoes with us, Dutchmen. Like Epicurienne, a travel lover and amateur foodie, who was born in New Zealand and now lives in London. When she heard about the London bloggers’ competition in which she could win a free BLOG08 ticket plus flights to Amsterdam, Epicurienne immediately made a video about the famous wooden shoes. Plus, she promised to start a clogs-dedicated blog, The Clog Blogger.

Now it’s time for her to stick to that promise, as London Bloggers frontman Andy Bargery picked her video as the winner. So that means… , yes, that there’s now officialy a clog blog. Enjoy the Clogblogger and don’t forget to say hi to Epicurienne, who will be marching around BLOG08 in her klompen.

Do you know somebody that has been hit very hard by the financial crisis? A guy who had put all his savings in Icesave? Or a Fortis customer? Maybe a banker who lost his job on Wall Street?

Do something nice to cheer this person up. Only if it’s just for one day. Inspire him to do something else, like starting a blog. It worked for our speakers…

We like to facilitate this Credit Crunch Antidote by offering you a second free ticket this Friday. Buy a ticket today with the promocode “financialcrisis” and Edial and I will contact you for the name and email address of the unfortunate person.

Click here to purchase a ticket and get one for free!

We’ve added another speaker to our line-up! Boris van der Ham is Holland’s most active politician on the web. He has been a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for D66, a social liberal party, since 2002.

Van der Ham is one of the few politicians who really understand the power of blogs and Web 2.0. Instead of hiring ghostwriters, he takes some time to keep in touch with his readers on Borisvanderham.nl. If you don’t take that from us, have a look at these facts:

• In 2006, he was awarded with the title of “Web Politician of the Year”
• Dutch social network Hyves (5M users) awarded him as “Most Active Internet Politician” on May 2 this year.
• Van der Ham wrote a column for Holland’s most popular blog GeenStijl.nl

He’ll will tell us how he started blogging and what it has meant for him so far. He will also discuss the paradox of being totally open yet cautious as well. We’re glad this extraordinary politician will take the time to share his thoughts and experiences (in English!).

Photo credit: Sophie Knijff