I checked on my twtter this morning to find that Rae Hoffman and Lisa Barone were going at it tooth and nail over the concept of “Live Blogging” and it’s impact on conference attendance and value. If you aren’t clear, live bloggin is done by conference attendees who have their laptops going and are transcribing and interpretting the panel into a blog post. They also link up mentioned resources the speakers throw out.
Sugar Rae came out in full force against Live blogging conferences for several reasons.
I don’t think live bloggers should be allowed - why pay for a conf if you can get me transcribed for free? It also hurts quality of information - earlier days, speakers gave away more goods because it was shared with less people they give away less now, because you’re blogging it to the world… - Rae Hoffman
On the other hand, Lisa Barone wonders what the fuss is about, it’s just extended coverage.
What’s the difference between liveblogging and what WebProNews does? Press has always been allowed into shows - Lisa Barone
Having been to SES New York, I beleive that anyone worth their SEO salt will attend conferences regardless of live blogging because of the following reasons:
- The face to face time and opportunity to participate in the Q&A portion of the conference
- Live blogging is not totally accurate, as it is from one perspective and they may interpret something differently
- Live bloggers don’t cover all panels
- Live bloggers add the links to the resources and people mentioned by the speaker- As an attendee, my notes were sparse in comparison
- I posted a blog article based off a SES panel a few days later…so since Bloggers post articles after hearing conferences, so should all bloggers be banned from conferences too?
- You’re at the conference to speak to the public, if you didn’t want that info to go out into the world, then why would you go speak in the first place?
“You add value to the freeloaders at home - NOT paying conference attendees or speakers - Rae Hoffman
As a “freeloader” and as a conference attendee, I say Freedom of the press! The better the flow of information from cnferences to a broader audience, the more interested they are in getting into those conferences!
What do you say, free loaders? Should live blogging be banned or should the information flow?
7 responses so far ↓
John Jones // May 9, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’m rather insulted over Rae Hoffman’s freeloader statement if that Twitter quote is verbatim.
Not everyone can afford to drop a few thousand dollars to attend conferences as they happen. Not to mention that there is one conference or another happening at least once a month and when you add that all up it can get extremely costly.
The information presented at conferences will one way or another make it to the general public… oh excuse me… freeloaders. This information is distributed through panel speakers themselves, through media outlets like WebProNews like Lisa Barone mentioned and even social media outlets like Sphinn.
Live blogging at conferences simply gives us freeloaders the information much faster and allows us to get a partial taste of the conference as it is happening when we cannot attend ourselves.
I’ll be bold enough to add to this post that MOST of what information is given at the conferences is just confirmation to stuff that is already widely known within the SEO conference. The real meat of the conference is panel speakers from the search engines when they unveil upcoming new technologies.
Why should I drop a few thousand a month to attend these conferences to get a refresher of concepts and information I already know or will find out about one way or another in time? The only reason I attend conferences is the face time and for the search engine panels. When I attend a panel with SEO Guru’s it is purely out of respect and to possibly get a few minutes of their time.
John Jones - Freeloader
- 10 minutes of SEO, SEM & Internet Marketing
jeremypenguin // May 9, 2008 at 9:38 pm
“I’m rather insulted over Rae Hoffman’s freeloader statement if that Twitter quote is verbatim.”
http://twitter.com/sugarrae/statuses/807339729
Here’s the actual twit, *if thats the right word*
I agree that it’s pretty offensive, and frankly, elitist. She’s basically saying that she liked things better when conferences were exclusive clubs that only people with cash monies could buy their way into.
John Jones // May 9, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I guess one thing that somewhat bothers me is that these people are being paid to sit on panels. Their paycheck comes from the monies collected from the attendees who have paid for the right to hear the speakers and utilize the information as they see fit.
The speakers get the added perks of reputation and even picking up a few consulting jobs from time to time. However these are perks and not rights; whatever information they are giving out at these conferences really becomes public data and if someone jumps the gun with live blogging long before the panelist does then too bad for the panelist and good for the live blogger.
If Rae is unhappy about live bloggers or even the freeloaders that rely off of live bloggers then maybe she should keep her information to herself and not accept the offer (and payment) to sit on a panel.
John Jones - Freeloader
- 10 minutes of SEO, SEM & Internet Marketing
Rae // May 18, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Sigh. So much mis information in this industry.
>>>The real meat of the conference is panel speakers from the search engines when they unveil upcoming new technologies.
No, the real meat is the networking, which you can’t do from reading a live blog… but people think they don’t need to attend the conference because they can read it. HUGE mistake.
>>>I agree that it’s pretty offensive, and frankly, elitist. She’s basically saying that she liked things better when conferences were exclusive clubs that only people with cash monies could buy their way into.
Nice interpretation, but a WRONG one. No where did I say that. That’s your interpretation of a comment you read online by someone you don’t know with no verbal emphasis on anything the way you’d hear it in person… starting to get why live blogging isn’t the same as hearing a conversation in person? Starting to get why I don’t particularly care for someone live blogging their interpretation of my speech/answers on a panel and calling it “what I said”? Or are you just still intent on assuming that because I’m “known” that I must be some stuck up elitist bitch?
>>>I guess one thing that somewhat bothers me is that these people are being paid to sit on panels. Their paycheck comes from the monies collected from the attendees who have paid for the right to hear the speakers and utilize the information as they see fit.
Let me be perfectly clear here John - you are talking out of your ass at the moment. I don’t get paid a DIME to fly across the country and spend days of my time giving back to this community. Some conference speakers get hotel and airfare comped, but the large portion of them DO NOT. They spend their OWN cash to hit up these confs so people like you can sit home and call them elitist after reading their interpretation of what they said online. Some make their money back in consulting - I’m not one of them as I don’t own a consultancy.
>>>If Rae is unhappy about live bloggers or even the freeloaders that rely off of live bloggers then maybe she should keep her information to herself and not accept the offer (and payment) to sit on a panel.
And maybe if you are going to spout FALSE statements as fact about someone, you should not comment before checking and verifying your facts.
Rae Hoffman - Person who has never been paid to speak at conferences for the last five years, moderate at webmasterworld for two years or blog for community benefit at SEL.
Rae // May 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm
>>>Some conference speakers get hotel and airfare comped, but the large portion of them DO NOT.
And just in case someone wants to interpret wrongly again, I am NOT one of those having hotel and airfare comped as I’ve never asked.
jeremypenguin // May 19, 2008 at 3:47 am
Howdy Rae,
First, thanks for taking the time to actually respond and provide a little elaboration as to why you don’t like live blogging.
“That’s your interpretation of a comment you read online by someone you don’t know with no verbal emphasis on anything the way you’d hear it in person…”
I think you have a valid point here, that when you read a transposed script of a panel it is different than actually hearing the conversation. I myself had a similar experience at SES new york, when the panel I sat in on was live blogged. It was different than the actual event, but in some ways it was actually improved. For example, in the conference a person was referenced, and I had no idea who he was…in the liveblog it was linked up with supporting information. Which was great!
I totally support conferences, and greatly appreciate speakers who come and give of themselves.
“Rae Hoffman - Person who has never been paid to speak at conferences for the last five years”
I think that it is great that you choose to go out and get exposure as an authority by sitting on the actual panels. However, I think that as someone who has been on a panel, you gained a measure of “authority”, over people like me who blog, but don’t speak at conferences…and that authority is worth it’s weight in gold in my opinion.
After I went to SES New York, I blogged about it. I also read several articles from reporters who went to the conference. I read other bloggers take on the main issues discussed. My question is…what’s the difference?? I mean was it wrong of me to blog about the session at all? What about the reporters who wrote articles in magazines? Was that wrong?
I see Live bloggin is just another extension of media coverage, that if you have a public event people in the (new) media will report what happend …and sometimes it’s not 100% what you intended or what transpired.
John Jones // May 19, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Hello Rae,
I do apologize for assuming that all panel speakers are paid speakers. I’ll admit that you are the only person I’ve ever heard say that they contribute to the conferences without pay and on your own dime.
Regardless if a speaker is paid or not though I still stand behind the belief that the information learned at a conference can be used in whichever way a person sees fit.
Lastly from a person talking out of his ass… There are two values that I get out of the conferences when I attend. The first is the search engine panels themselves; the second is the networking opportunities. I’m not in the slightest disagreement with you in regards to networking.
Many apologies Rae; I wasn’t attacking you as a person or your skills. I was and still am a little upset of being dubbed a freeloader.
John Jones - Freeloader
- 10 minutes of SEO, SEM & Internet Marketing
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