I dunno, I wish somebody would do a not-so-cheerleadery, more critical English-language review of the conference. On the Chinese side of the feedback loop, not everything is so 100% rosy (and I'm not talking about dealing with censorship, I mean the commercialization of the conference that both Wang Jianshuo and tick wang cite. I know the recent wiki conference was the same way.)

i am kind of fed up of reading how blogs are going to save the world (or china at least). copyright R. McKinnon. Surely there is a bit more diversity of politics and intention going on? Surely not everyone can be so wonderfully progressive? Can they?

Well, Micah I am not sure what you expect to come out of such a conference.

I enjoyed meeting a bunch of smart young people, some of whom are hardcore idealistic bloggers, some of whom are trying to setup Internet businesses and get rich, some of whom just enjoy the whole social aspect of it.

Personally, I have no interest in writing a critical review of the conference: the people I met made it interesting, and I don't have anything else to say about it.

Since Rebecca Mackinnon is spending all her time working on helping blogs / social media etc. to have an international voice, you can hardly expect her to not be a cheerleader. But she is cheerleading for something very positive.

Not so much saving the world as offering a possible remedy to major blindspots that exist in many mainstream English-language media. There's also the fact that an entire society is happening in China that quite a large number of people know little about, a situation that's being excellently tackled by sites such as ESWN and Danwei, to name but two.
Definitely have to second what Jeremy said about how great it was to meet likeminded people at the China blogcon.