I could hardly wait to see Tim O’Reilly, the man who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, give his keynote on Wednesday. I expected to hear about cutting edge innovations in business models, groundbreaking developments in software, and the effect that Web 2.0 is having on the world offline; there was just so much to talk about! I’m sad to say it was a disappointing speech. He talked about a narrow version of Enterprise 2.0, data mash-ups. He mentioned Wesabe a company of which he happens to be a Board Member.

I walked out half way through, bored and wanting more. So I headed down to the Expo floor with my partner in crime, David Preciado, where I was met with more disappointment. It was a typical expo set-up. Rows of booths with huge displays staffed with personnel in branded t-shirts reciting memorized pitches. And, of course, TONS of brochures, hand-out, pens, foam balls, stuffed animals and other useless crap with company logos splattered all over them. Much of this stuff would end up in the collection cans outside the Schwaggin’ Wagon.

It was very disheartening, while O’Reilly was calling for Silicon Valley to take on bigger challenges (a part of the keynote I admittedly missed); the companies represented at his conference were anything but innovative. Now, I’m not a tech expert by any means, my specialty is marketing and from that perspective – there was no innovation or revolution or new standards setting happening, except in the white van parked in the loading zone outside the Mascone Center.

Two weeks ago I was invited to participate in a PR stunt called the “Schwaggin’ Wagon” at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I was more than happy to accept, the conference has been on my radar for three years now and the opportunity to attend was more exciting than free tickets to Coachella.

The Schwaggin’ Wagon was an idea conceived by Social Media Consultants, like myself, with the intention of collecting all the schwag from the conference that no one wants and donating it to charity. Sponsors like Heavy Bag Media and Mashable jumped on immediately and the van was decked out and ready to roll 6 days later.

The Schwaggin’ Wagon departed Los Angeles on Tuesday and before we even hit San Francisco, Jon Gordon from NPR’s Future Tense was interviewing Idea Meister and wagon driver Mike Liskin.

We stopped off in Turlock for some of Anna’s award-winning Pomegranate Martinis and some wireless Internet access. The laptops were fired up, Twitter was tweeting and the blog posts were rolling. Our Facebook friends had doubled and the Twitter and Britekite accounts were blowing up since pulling out of Los Angeles just four hours earlier.

We finally arrived in San Francisco, too late for any parties, but just in time for a good night’s rest. Thanks to the amazing work of Get It Done Queen, Marjorie Kase, the next day was packed with media interviews and the buzz about the wagon was all over the expo floor, all before we had even set out the first collection can! It became apparent quickly that the Schwaggin Wagon was going to be well received at the Expo.