{"id":124,"date":"2005-08-11T21:17:30","date_gmt":"2005-08-12T01:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=124"},"modified":"2005-08-11T21:17:30","modified_gmt":"2005-08-12T01:17:30","slug":"blogher-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2005\/08\/11\/blogher-observations\/","title":{"rendered":"blogher observations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than do a blow-by-blow of blogher<\/a>, I\u2019m going to make some general observations, and share my main take-aways from the day. <\/p>\n

And, before you read any further, let me be completely clear \u2013 I have no criticisms whatsoever about the blogher conference AT ALL. Lisa, Elisa and Jory, all their volunteers, helpers, and sponsors, panelists and attendees \u2013 everyone did a great job. It was one of the best conferences I have ever attended, although I could have done without the "opera" at Nicolino\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I do however have some observations that I would like to share that perhaps will help us improve future events. <\/p>\n

Conference program.<\/u><\/strong> One of the things I liked about blogher was the highly participatory format of the sessions. It really worked for most of the sessions. <\/p>\n

The message was clear from the outset; the organizers felt that everyone in attendance could just as equally be on a panel as those sitting in the panel seats. The main difference was that the panelists had a unique experience to share with their peers. And, by and large, I think this was true of the blogher audience. Everyone I spoke to was pretty knowledgeable. <\/p>\n

The participatory format really works well when the topic is issue-oriented, and diversity of opinion, of panelists and attendess, creates an energetic session. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the BUT<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Where I think the participatory format falls down (and in general btw,  not just re: blogher) is when the intent of a session is to teach new skills or new materials. Under these circumstances, I think a more traditional presentation \u201cteaching\u201d format works better.  That\u2019s not to say that the audience shouldn\u2019t be involved, but in a much more structured format that educates as it engages. <\/p>\n

My take: anything that needs to convey new skills, and especially anything for newbies, should use a more traditional presentation model, so the attendees walk away with the new skill. As long as the overall agenda strikes the right balance, and offers a mix of session types \u2013 skills, issues, debates, birds of a feather \u2013 we can keep the conference from turning into death by powerpoint. <\/p>\n

Second comment.<\/strong> Of all the sessions I attended, the only one I was a bit disappointed with was the closing session. I really liked the idea that Lisa, Elisa and Jory put forth at the beginning of the day, that the closing session would build the mother of all to-do lists. In practice, however, I think the group was too large to effectively do this. In my opinion (and YMMV), a number of the comments sounded more like folks waxing philosophical than actual concrete suggestions. Almost like the person really had something they needed\/wanted to say, and they hadn\u2019t yet had their moment in the sun. What they said wasn\u2019t necessarily bad or uninteresting. It just wasn\u2019t a concrete action. Hence my disappointment. <\/p>\n

Not all the comments were like that \u2013 there were some good concrete suggestions. One that springs immediately to mind without even looking at my notes is Mary Hodder\u2019s suggestion for a \u201cspeaker\u2019s bureau,\u201d which has already been executed as a speaker’s wiki<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t feel like we walked away with a collective to-do list as much as individuals quietly left with theirs. <\/p>\n

Now, one should never make a criticism without a suggestion, so here\u2019s mine. Next blogher, the session before the closing session could be small group sessions. Perhaps organized in advance by interest area, but with a specific goal in mind \u2013 to walk into the closing session with at least one to-do to present to the assembled group. Each designated spokesperson would get a few minutes to present the group\u2019s to-do and the ensuing discussion could be focused on agreeing a final, blogher to-do list. <\/p>\n

With a group that large, I just think you have to focus the discussion and give everyone a chance to have their say beforehand. <\/p>\n

Next post \u2026 speaking of personal to-do lists, I\u2019ll share a few things that are on mine after blogher. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rather than do a blow-by-blow of blogher, I\u2019m going to make some general observations, and share my main take-aways from the day. And, before you read any further, let me be completely clear \u2013 I have no criticisms whatsoever about the blogher conference AT ALL. Lisa, Elisa and Jory, all their volunteers, helpers, and sponsors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[22],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}