Blog Business Summit 2006
Posted by Liz Strauss · 10 Comments
The plan is that Robert Scoble, Matt Mullenweg, Jason Calacanis, Mary Hodder, Buzz Bruggeman, Maryam Scoble, Janet Johnson, Steve Broback, John Furrier, and DL Byron will take the stage at this year’s Business Blog Summitt, being held October 25-27 in Seattle. According to the pre-launch information many more experts will be joining them onstage during the three-day conference.
The Pre conference on the 25th is devoted to Podcasting. The two-day Conference itself will cover.
- Corporate Blogging Policy
- Blogger Engagement: Getting Past “Pitching”
- Blogosphere/Buzz Monitoring
- Tools and Trends: What’s Next for Bloggers?
- Generating Traffic and Links
- Video Blogging
- SEO Strategies for Bloggers
- Audience Measurement: Quantifying and Qualifying
- And more…
Every word I read about this conference seems geared toward folks who are already blogging. I wonder about that.
Liz Strauss
I know what you mean — blogging is still an “early adopter” phenomenon, I think.
Well, I’m going, so I’ll let you know if it was worth it.
Still, I’m a little less excited about it now that I read that a few lucky “A-listers” will be getting a ride in a private jet at the conference. Jeez, let’s widen that gap even more, why don’t we?
Well, I’ll be there to represent the “Z-listers” who just want to get an answer to the question “What can blogging do for my business?”
Hi Sabine!
I love your perspective on this. I’m tired of the A-Listers. They seem to be turning into bloggings Ivory Tower professors, who know how the world should work, but don’t really live in it.
I’ll be looking forward to your reactions. Mick Samsone from Converstations is going too.
Hi Sabine and Liz,
If you are concerened about the content of the conference, the Wednesday pre-conference is certianly geared towards those interested in starting blogging or those new in the blogosphere. While some of the sessions are geared towards corporate clients, we also have a session on small business blogging and building communities online as well as mixing the personal and professional on your blog.
Robert and I would be happy to meet with you in person and answer any questions you may have as well. Sabine, since you are planning on attending, I am looking forward to meeting you in person. Please stop by and say hi. I’d be glad to answer any questions you may have or point you to the right person who has those answers. Blogging is all about openness and accessibility and if those elements are not there then the whole thing is failing.
The sponsored plane ride is based on the number of links/attendees you can drive to the conference so anyone could be eligible as long as they bring on the links.
BTW, did you see that you get $100 by blogging about the conference:
http://blogbusinesssummit.com/2006/09/blog_about_the.htm
Thank you so much! And I look forward to seeing you!
Thank you, Maryam,
for taking the time to come out to explain things. It was most gracious of you. I wish I could attend the conference, but I’m a working writer and I can’t — it’s not in the budget. It would be wonderful to meet you and Robert and I’ll hold a drink open for you here in Chicago next time you make it here.
Thank you, too, for understanding our concerns are not criticisms just conversations about what we see.
Liz
Sabine: I understand that the idea of a private jet flight for a few “lucky ‘A-listers,’” as you put it, might make people feel like we’re trying to widen the gap between the geeky early adopters and the rest of the human race. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The “Grapes on a Plane” event is a way for us to say “thank you” to all the people who have worked so hard to make this conference a success. We have a number of speakers and sponsors who will be joining us. Yes, some of them could be considered “A-list.” But you’re paying good money to hear them tell you how to make blogging work for your business, so obviously they’re making a big contribution to our event and they deserve our thanks.
We’ve also left three seats open on the plane for speakers, sponsors and attendees. The three people who bring the most attendees to the conference get to join us for the jet and wine tour. Anybody who wants to help us promote the conference has the chance to come along.
I’m glad that you’ll be coming to the event. If you’d like to chat with me about this, or just business blogging in general, you’re welcome to come find me. Here’s a link to my photo and bio so you know what I look like. I’ll most likely be manning the attendee table through much of the conference.
As for answering your question about how blogs can work for your business, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. You’re going to come away from this conference with a lot of great new ideas! See you there.
Thanks, Maryam and Teresa. I’m always impressed to find that people are paying attention, especially now that the blogosphere is expanding so rapidly.
Somehow the plane thing just hit me the wrong way when I saw that on the site. What you got was my initial reaction — it just struck me as being about exclusivity and big-budget promotion.
But I’m a statisical sample of 1. Thanks for explaining the purpose behind it.
I see how you’re building a community of the whole alphabet of bloggers (or is that alpha-bits) by asking attendees to post a profile and a picture. That’s a good thing. I’ll post mine, so Teresa will know what I look like. (It may take a day or two to find a decent one.)
And while I do understand how blogs can help a business, that’s what my clients keep asking me, so I want to getting as many different answers to that question as I can!
I’m looking forward to meeting both of you — it gets lonely out in New England sometimes. There aren’t as many good conferences to go to as you Westies get. Yet, anyway.
Hi Sabine, thanks for your flexibility and willingness to be challenged on this issue.
FYI, I posted over at Blog Business Summit a little bit more about our conversation.
What a great conversation this post has brought about! Great to see that we can still talk to each other!
Sabine-
You asked “What can blogging do for my business?” - I just wanted to point you to my post from yesterday where I touched on the subject (http://www.drewmeyersinsights.com/2006/10/09/business-benefits-to-blogging/). I’m really looking forward to the event and I think there will be bloggers of all types for you to relate to.
Drew,
Perhaps you should visit Sabine’s blog CTBiz Blogs. She’d be delighted to see you! http://www.ctbizblogs.com/