Members of the Austin blogging community are getting ready for an intensive marathon.

The 12-hour #BlogathonATX event is set up to encourage an open exchange of ideas, allowing established and soon-to-be bloggers to learn from others in the community.

"Participants can make the day about what they need--whether that's catching up on their personal or business blogs or learning about content development and PR from some of our local area experts," event organizer Ilene Haddad said.

The free event is a casual approach to a conference, with experts available to answer questions and hold group discussions, rather than seminars.

"We are not having speakers giving formal presentations. Instead, we have a group of experts who will be facilitating casual conversations, which we hope will grow organically," Haddad said. "People want autonomy, but they also crave community, and I think this is what makes #BlogathonATX so unique."

What started out as a small pot-luck gathering is now a fully-sponsored event, featuring guest experts and technical trainers.

"I sent out one little tweet asking if any other bloggers out there wanted to get together for a day to do some writing," Haddad said. "The response was immediate, so I made a comment about calling it a ‘blogathon’ and things exploded from there."

Within two days, all 60 tickets for the event were gone. Thirty spots on a wait list are full, and as of Tuesday afternoon, only seven tickets remained for a happy hour during the last three hours of the event.

"I guess I unintentionally came across a need that wasn't being addressed in this way," she said.

While tickets may be gone, many of the people attending the event will be providing live updates via Twitter. You can participate in the discussion and see what others are saying with the hashtag #blogathonatx. (Click here to learn more about using hashtags on Twitter.)

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28 at Conjunctured, a co-working space in East Austin. Singer/songwriter Gina Chavez will provide music during the last three hours of the event.

Click here to see what event attendees are saying in anticipation of the event. News 8’s Senior Online Producer Anna Gonzalez will also be in attendance.