Shortly after I accepted the invitation, I told you all that I'd slow down on my travels and take a break from all of this, but a few conferences get special exceptions: TED, South by Southwest, and the Next Web. There's no better excuse for a 17-year-old to fly out to Amsterdam by herself in the middle of spring break. I'll leave it at that :)

So i spoke! I gave my first real presentation to my first real crowd. I've spoken at Model U.N. and at the Supernova Conference, but neither was to an audience of more than 100 people. As I've also mentioned many times before, conferences are only as good as the people who attend. Next Web attracted only high rollers because it cost 750 Euros to go. The real quality was in the time I spent with fellow speakers at exclusive dinners and parties. So basically, if the conference doesn't offer super awesome parties or exclusive events, it's not something I see as worthwhile. Why? Because then you're less likely to make actual connections.

The long-term connections happen by investing time into out-of-the-office fun. For example, a guy from intruders.tv interviewed me on the first day of the conference. He was professional. I liked him. But then at one of the after-parties, we started the connect up as actual friends. Same goes with Robert Scoble -- I see him at conferences a lot, but big deal. The real fun happens in the hotel, at the dinner table, and at the after-parties.

This trip was good enough to tie with South by Southwest. Top five best events ever? This one's on the list. More to come!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

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Spark: People think these friends of yours should hook up:

1. Justine Ezarik and Robert Scoble

------------------------ If you're a geek, you'd know what the above meant :)

To the rest of you, I'll write something of value tomorrow.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

As you probably know, I'll be headed to the Next Web Conference in Amsterdam in two weeks to speak about the future of web. And no, I do not know what on earth I'll be talking about. If you have any ideas, please email me!

I know that I promised to cut back on my conference going, but I figured that I'd get to visit the Netherlands for my first time, hang out with friends I met at Harvard, and learn how to speak in front of 750 people. It's over my spring break, so no class cutting required!

Anyhow, if you feel like dragging yourself out to Amsterdam to learn about the future of web and network with cool people like Kevin Rose, Robert Scoble, Leah Culver, and ME, then totally sign up!

See you there!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. She's totally overrated and you all know it.

Many of you have heard the news: Robert Scoble is finally putting blogs on his website! And of course, this means that many people are criticizing him for taking back his previous opinion on putting ads on blogs. In a nutshell, the two of us held the same opinion: That advertisements on blogs don't make enough money to be worthwhile. Only that his opinion has changed, and I'm not sure if mine has too. I look up to the guy and I think about every word he says.

Think about it: I'm a poor college student paying over $45K a year to go to school per year while blogging during my lunch breaks. If I put up some sponsorships on my website, maybe I could afford some new gadgets and pay off those (non-existent) financial aid loans!

Yet again, I could live without a new MacBook Air. So for now, unless any of you guys insist, I'll keep my blog ad-free. :)

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star.