Is the convention just another conference, albeit a big one?

Dave Winer picked up on something I wrote on the convention bloggers mailing list, talking partly out of m’ass, imagining that I will probably end up blogging the convention the same way I’ll blog the BlogOn conference and the nonprofit conference in San Francisco next month and a Supernova or a Seybold or what have you.
There’s always a floor show and there’s always the real reason for convening, which is to meet face-to-face, look people in the eye, have (relatively) private conversations, and reconnect in general with one of one’s overlapping tribes.
I plan to contradict myself. I hope I don’t blog the show so much as blog the not-shown.