I was standing in the back of the hall yesterday when former Senator John Edwards was speaking at Gnomedex and thinking back over the dozens of conferences and events I’ve attended over the past three years. From the big bucks “Demo” or “CES” to the very fun and little Reboot or IT@Cork.

Gnomedex stands alone for one reason: it is the only conference where every attendee has a computer out and on.

What’s funny is that Gnomedex seems like a goofy, unimportant conference. After all, the logo of Chris’ face is on everything. And only 400 people can attend. And, it’s just an unimportant blogging conference anyway, right?

But, we have that little issue of every computer out and on.

That shows this audience is different than any other audience I’ve seen any conference build. It’s like being at a press conference at times.

Kudos to John Edwards for recognizing that there’s an interesting audience here. He got a free ride cause he was the first to come and visit. The next politician who comes to a conference like this will be treated much harsher, especially if he or she doesn’t stick around afterward.

Al Gore, someone commented to me out in the hall, stuck around the TED conference the entire conference. Little things like this are what get people to really become committed to a cause or a person.

That said, Edwards was funny and made us feel good without really saying that much. He’s going to go far.

Congrats to Chris and Ponzi for a wonderful event. The party in the Museum of Flight museum last night really shocked a lot of people. The group I walked in with had no idea how good this museum was, and then realized that Gnomedex had stepped up its game quite a bit too.

Lots of blogging and photos are on Technorati for the Gnomedex tag.

The Seattle PI’s Todd Bishop has a good report on John Edwards’ visit to Gnomedex.