if I could blog live from toolbox

IMG_6228.jpg, originally uploaded by evensys.

If I could blog live from Toolbox: Online Communication [RO] yesterday, I would've brought you the few notes below and random thoughts about the two sessions I've joined. I couldn't blog live because the Howard Johnson wireless costs (why was I surprised?!), because I didn't take my Zapp modem with me (it's not even installed on Shiny = my Mac), and overall because I didn't realise I was spoiled by free wi-fi during events and journeys in the UK.

Before I go further, you should know that my presentation, as some guessed, was neither pro nor against corporate blogging. As promised, an answer was given, but devil's advocate cannot tell whether it was yes or no. Download your own copy of To blog or not to blog in English [PDF, 348 KB] or Romanian [PDF, 352 KB], and see what your inner voices say.

Session: From corporate blog to PR on blogs

Manafu* [RO] presented the preliminary results of the second RoBloggersSurvey, which comprised more than 700 respondents versus last year's 272. I noted that this year one in three bloggers were women, instead of 2006's one in four. Other figures I found sexy about Romanian bloggers: 28% spend over eight hours online daily, 51% blog for up to one hour daily, 48% are open to ad revenues and 20% write personal blogs. Qualitative novelties? Bloggers are more interested by subjective information than objective types, and more political blogs appeared and raised interest. The full presentation here [RO].

Ionut [RO] argued that in Romania one cannot talk about corporate blogs (other than a few failures), but about the specialised personal blog of a company. He preached two concepts as the road to success, utilitainment and interestingness.

Sorana [RO] shared ten tips (turning out eleven + bonuses) from their one year long experience with a corporate blog. I remarked forget management slang (be yourself), consult your PR people (before you start the blog), remember you're making history (it will always be online), control content (not messages, wording, etc.), note that some bloggers are journalists and some real people you meet are bloggers. Tip 11 was a reminder that corporate blogs do not replace, but round up official communication.

Adi [RO] presented case studies on blogs' influence, most impressive being a TV news that passed unnoticed for days until influential blogger Andressa [RO] picked it up, and then influential blogger/ journalist Ioana Avadani [RO] followed, and then the whole media turned red over mayor Ontanu putting off a cigarette in the palm of a street sweeper (all that jazz on tape!).

Session: Face to face with (online) journalists

They were all men. The audience were all women. They were journalists. We were PR and such. It didn't work more than it does on a daily basis. I'm certain it was the only session of the day to end earlier than planned, which isn't entirely bad when the general delay at that point was something over one hour. I wish I didn't say I didn't hear one thing I couldn't have known or guessed myself.

Coffee breaks: three of them

1. The author of fabrica de jucarii [RO] (the toy factory) finally came to say Hi. I wish we said more than that. We didn't because (my bad!):

1.1. A journalist I knew some five years ago, now converted to PR, needed to learn over the night how to pitch to bloggers. She hoped there'd be a recipe; I had to disappoint her. I also had to push her to take action right there, among bloggers, which she did—no idea what came out, alas.

1.2. A journalist from BrainTV [RO] was trying to interview me. When she finally managed, I've the feeling I've said many silly things. There were some five questions, and four of them I've never asked myself; the only answer I'm sure of was name and occupation. So if it gets online (in November, I think?), feel free to make fun of me.

2. Alin [RO] follows my Flickr photos on RSS. Cool, didn't expect that.

3. Catalin [RO] understands why I write less and he appreciates my photos. Gracias!

4. Bunny [RO] said he learned new things from my presentation. I didn't quite learn which.

5. I still owe Sorana a coffee and I didn't manage to really speak to Tereza.

Sad sidenote: It wasn't all pink

My Mac PPT didn't look well on the Windows PC because the latter didn't have my font. There was no time to change the font, though I asked half an hour in advance to check and fix such potential glitches. My PDF didn't play nicely either, as the conference laptop had slideshow settings I couldn't change fast enough. My Mac was not tested itself, though I carried it with me as advised. I was the first in my session and could've done better without technical issues. It makes me sad because I know for a fact that international speakers are treated with more care.

In case you wonder why I used an atypical font in my Mac presentation when I'm aware shit happens more likely this way, know that I wanted to show the special characters of the Romanian language. And then, I was the only one who bothered. I will forever condemn communication practitioners in Romania who are too lazy to use special Romanian characters in writing (or appeal to English words, for that matter, when a Romanian equivalent exists). There is no excuse for such behaviour. I spent half a day sorting the Romanian keyboard on the Mac splendidly, it pays, and I'll even write a brief how to these days.

The second bit that can be improved in the future is the set-up. Behind a table hitting the laptop keys (and reading from paper in some cases!) could effortlessly become walking and gesticulating in front of the audience with a lavaliere/ clip-on microphone and a remote control for laptop/ beamer. Showtime, I believe, is a couple of keys away, and a bold approach of that would separate performance from presence. Didn't you hate, in school, teachers who only stayed safely behind the desk? I felt like one yesterday, and recoiled.