The Guide to Social Media Success was earlier this evening as I write this, and I am over-the-moon excited. It could not have gone any better. The very first Blog Stars event was a smashing success all the way around.  Thank you to Raymi and Casie for being on the bill with me, and to Carly-Anne at The Fairlie Agency for putting it together.  Extra special thanks to Carly for being visionary enough to gather this motley collection of personality bloggers and giving it a name!

Toronto Blog Stars:
Sean Ward ☆ Raymi the Minx ☆ Casie Stewart ☆ The Fairlie Agency

I am so so so touched that so many people came and got so much out of our event. Thank you all so much for your tweets during my presentation! Carly was at the back watching the #blogstars hashtag throughout the night, but Raymi and Casie and I didn’t get to see those tweets until we went to eat after. I was stunned silent by the outpouring of support and appreciation. Silent! Me! Mr. Always-On!

Man, what a night. I’m just starting to take a closer look at the tweets from during the event right now.

All of the photos in this post were tweeted with the hashtag #blogstars during the event!

Casie was up first…

Casie just might be the greatest Internet visionary out of the group.  It’s just so in her blood.  Instead of a hand-out, she had a password-protected post on her blog so that attendees could follow along, click links, and see what she’s talking about on their own screen.

“You can’t be an eagle if you’re hanging with the seagulls.”

-Casie’s Mom

Raymi: “Be interesting.  And if you have an interesting life, blog about it.”

Blogging loops in on itself – Raymi gets photographed and blogged talking about getting photographed and blogged.  (photo tweeted by @luckymakeup)

Note the bottle on the table…

From @Mikeship1: Can’t remember the last event I went to where the presenter was drinking a molson while presenting.

A lot of talk about Haters in the presentations tonight.  Seriously, it is one of the drawbacks of the job when you put yourself out there in the fashion that we do.

@Mikeship1: Haters are the most loyal ppl ever, they complain you’re boring and come back 2mrw to make sure you’re still boring.

I went last.

@STEPHCABICO: I’m trying to figure out where Toronto blogger @seanward’s accent is from.

I get it all the time.  People guess that I have an accent from the Canadian East coast, England, South Africa, New York, the American South, and all over the place.  But I was born and raised in good ol’ Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

@MikeShip1: Loving @seanward s slides. And yes, I am a winner

@UrbanNativeGirl: @seanward is bringing out the stats – he knows the way to my quantifying heart

Awwwwww…

“You don’t have to be good.  You just have to be interesting.”

-Sean Ward

@JaneKatherine: love feeling inspired by amazing, positive people

“There’s good attention and bad attention, but Google doesn’t know the difference.”

-Sean Ward

@CasieStewart, tweeting from the front row: You are a really good speaker @seanward

@clickflickca: Great presentations by everyone tonight at #blogstars Kudos to all now panel discussion time!

@UrbanNativeGirl, tweeting the kind of comment that makes all of this worth doing: I really am getting pumped at #blogstars – can’t wait to kick up my own blog a few notches – new camera, new layout, and new time to blog!

@Lisa_TTRO: @seanward thanks for all the great advice tonight at #blogstars cool that you mentioned @nubbytwiglet her site inspired me to start blogging

Getting everyone pumped up!  This is what it’s all about!

@holisticvanity: After going to #blogstars I’m feeling like I need stop being such a net sloth

@Nadia_Issabella: Had a great time & learned so much from #blogstars 2night! Casie, Raymi & Sean really r Stars in Toronto! Thx 4 the knowledge share

@brazenninja: Great presentation tonight bloggers! I learned a lot #BlogStars. Thank you.

@msmelissagreer: Awesome night with TO Blog Stars – great advice on blogging, personal branding, and social media!

And Melissa comes in with the first blog post about the event here – wp.me/pKrJB-37

And another that went up today, by Romi – romisays.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/have-i-learnt-nothing/

A video by Chris Brooker from the panel discussion portion of the proceedings – www.seanward.net/3052-blog-stars-on-twitter

Smojoe, the organizer of last year’s Top Bloggers all-star conference, did a really great write up of the event – http://ow.ly/1oQ3c

@jasonrundell: What a great talk! The Ultimate How-To with the Toronto Blog Stars

Thank you so much to everyone in attendance!  You gave us a night to remember!

Tags: blog stars, carly, casie, event, life, me, raymi, social media