Ban live blogging at Social Media Conferences? Be Serious.

Back a few weeks ago I gave Steve Crescenzo an unfavorable review for his role on a New Communications Forum panel called, "Winners and Sinners." A few seats away from me, Chip Griffin was also live blogging the event and he thought Steve's presentation was pretty good. In a follow up post, Steve himself characterized his panel as a "train wreck," but for some reason seemed to think that my live blogging was more to blame than his poor presenting. That's my live blogging--not Chip's

So it goes.  That's live blogging for you. It has as many viewpoints as the impassioned people who stood on soapboxes in Boston Commons when I was a kid. I've had my share of bad reviews and some have hurt a bit.  More times than that, I've learned from bad reviews and have altered course in future presentations because of them.

It turns out that Steve and I have mutual friends who have, in the back channel said that the two of us would probably get along if we met at some other time in some other venue. Perhaps.  I've had altercations on more serious matters than this and have wound up good friends with people who I first met through a blogcentric argument.

But that is not the way this one has gone.  Shel Holtz reviewed this dust up coming out also disagreeing with Steve. At that point I thought this matter had run its natural course. But since then, the thing has turned out to have more legs than a centipede.  In the past three days, there have been 17 comments added to Shel's post, one of them from none other than Mark Ragan, founder and CEO of Ragan Communications and co-producer of the New Communications Frum where the bit first hit the fan.

It turns out that Steve, along with Shel Holtz, is a regular speaker at Ragan events and if nothing else, Mark displays great loyalty to his own. He also asserts that Steve is more credible than I am because Steve is more popular. If the arena happens to be blogging, I think Technorati may be a more impartial judge of that, but in retrospect, what has popularity to do with it.

But it was Mark's other comment that as caused the stir and indeed taken the issue beyond and Steve v. [this] Shel. Mark declared in a comment on Steve's post that he was considering banning live blogging from Ragan events.

Ban live blogging from the pre-eminent conference on communications?  There is at once something quite funny about the thought, but simultaneously Orwellian.

It happens I am a senior fellow of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) founder of the event and Ragan's co-producer. In that role, I have to say Ragan Communications did a great job in upgrading the selected venue and doubling the attendance. I have spoken two years running at the Forum, and I  have some trepidation that Mark will see to it, that there won't be a third time.  I can live with that and I'm certain so can the event.

But ban live blogging from the pre-eminent conference of New Communications? I certainly hope the thought entered in the heat of the moment and the moment will pass.

It would be a terrible mistake to make because I gave a poor review. What would Chip do next year?






Technorati Tags: shelholtz, markragan, stevecresenzo, chipgriffin, newcommunicationsforum

Comments

[Steve Crescenzo]

Shel:

I give up. You're too good at this . . . been doing it far too long. You are a master at twisting things.

I never blamed your live blogging for my poor presentation. I accepted the fact that it was a poor panel . . . and then said that the only thing worse than it was your live blogging of it, because you got just about everything wrong.

And Chip didn't say my part of the panel was "pretty good." He didn't offer an opinion at all. He just far more accurately described what was said.

I know what happened. Early on, I said something like, "Any idiot can blog, and I should know, because I blog."

Your ears immediately perked up, thinking I was just another fathead consultant/blogger/speaker up there using the speaking platform to hawk my wares.

That's why I got pissed. I speak a lot. But you can ask Shel Holtz or anyone else we both know, and they will verify this: I don't use the speaking platform to sell my services.

In fact, I think it's the most reprehensible thing a conference speaker can do.

And your entire post made it sound as iff I was up there trying to get people to hire me.

Yes, I talked about my clients . . . because that's what I have to offer the audience.

Some people can rely on theory and predicting the future and other high-falutin' things.

I've made my name by being very practical, with real-life examples from people I've either written about or worked with.

The entire tone of your post was so mean, and so inaccurate, something had to be said. I would rather that you live blogged:

"Steve Crescenzo is on the panel right now, and he repeatedly keeps scratching his nuts and then licking his fingers."

THAT, to me, is far less offensive than what you did say.

Where you're right is that I shouldn't have blamed it on live blogging. Live blogging can probably be done very well.

I just don't think---no, I just KNOW---that you didn't do it very well in this one instance.

Steve Crescenzo

[Jen McClure]

I want to clarify some points in Shel's post and quel his fears about live blogging at our future events.

While the Society for New Communications Research partnered with Ragan Communications for this year's New Communicatons Forum, it is the first time we have done so, and potentially the only time, as no plans have been made as of this post to partner with Ragan on future events.

Please be assured that live blogging will never be discouraged from any New Communications Forum, or from any event with which the SNCR is involved.

In fact, we believe that live conference blogging can be and often is valuable, and we have and will link to and re-publish some of these posts on New Communications Review as event recaps for those who were unable to attend the event or a specific session.

Again, please be assured that we value bloggers, podcasters, videocasters, wiki contributors and all practitioners of social media and the many perspectives they can bring to enhance an event experience.

Jen McClure
Co-Founder, New Communications Forum
Executive Director, Society for New Communications Research

[shel israel]

Thank you, Jennifer. I'm happy to read this.