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

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.

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.

>>>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.

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

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.

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