We Interrupt this Commercial to Bring you BlogOn

I wasn't put out by Seth Godin's Squidoo pitch--even though it was one--because there was significant information that accompanied it and he was open to taking questions about his product and his content. What I found considerably more encroaching were the 10-15 minute informercials that prefaced sessions at BlogOn. As someone who had to scrape together funds for BlogHer '05, I GET the importance of sponsors, but this approach struck me as far too intrusive, for several reasons.

1. BlogOn is a single-track conference (something I would suggest changing for next year, as the levels of experience with blogging are quite distinct). Having a single track eliminates the choice of attendees to do something else during these demos--great for the advertiser, but not for the attendee.

2. Some of the products were interesting, but I found that out when I visited vendors on my own time. I have a natural impulse to change the channel during commercials, or leave the room to check on the progress of whatever's in the microwave; I couldn't do that here. We were urged not to check email or work on our laptops during these demos, which I initially thought to be content and which, when I found out they weren't, provoked me to pull out my laptop and read my email. Nobody tells me what to do during commercial breaks!

3. Every demo was introduced as an "innovator," as if each sponsor had been chosen to demo, not because they had paid to. Let's be clear, these were sponsors who paid to pitch their products.

Do I blame the advertisers? Not one stinking bit. I can't imagine a better audience than the one at BlogOn for generating buzz on a new product. HOWEVER it strikes me as disingenous on the part of BlogOn to insert this advertising--which was interspersed among two days of discussion about full transparency and approaching influentials via participating in their community, not by controlling their content.

Again let me repeat, I get the importance of sponsor support--we would not have been able to produce BlogHer without it, but we eliminated all advertising from content. We realize we need to innovate on ways to make our vendors more visible during the conference, but we wouldn't do it at the risk of compromising content. No vendors spoke in BlogHer sessions, and no demos were done during our large sessions. Sure, our conference materials had to be copied in black and white, not printed in four-color on glossy paper, but I don't think that trading sponsor dollars for sqeaky clean content was a bad deal for us. We educated our sponsors on our rules and they lived with it.

Still, I wonder whether this will raise the ethical ante for other blog conferences. We could get stuck in a model of letting sponsors predominate and determine what extent they will or won't be included in content.

Let me be clear again: BlogHer rules haven't changed. We LOVE our sponsors, but we can't agree to have them provide our conference content. We will do everything feasible and within our editorial standards to generate awareness of their products among wired women. But we won't 1) Spam our list with a vendor's exclusive messaging or 2) Give them the full attention of 750 women who are expecting to see a panel, not a product pitch. Nope, ain't 'gun do it, even if BlogOn does. 

Comments

[Mike Sigal]

Hi Jory,

Sorry we didn't have a chance to chat in person at BlogOn. We appreciate your and BlogHer's support of the event.

Also, I appreciate the candid feedback in your posts. I hope you'll respond to our satisfaction survey as well...we'd like to keep improving the event and mutiple tracks to deal with the different levels of attendee expertise is certainly an important consideration.

A couple of points of clarification:

The Social Media Innovators were selected by Chris (who has 20 years experience as a technology analyst and is pretty well know for her selectivity and acumen from DEMO) from over 50 applicants because she believed they represented important enabling technology for corporations who want to employ social media. They are not sponsors, but they are charged fees to cover their booths, signage and a couple of passes...essentially our costs of putting a spotlight on them. And in point of fact, several companies that we felt were good choices for Innovators but didn't have any funding were given partial or complete scholarships. (Conversely, some companies we originally selected who did have pretty significant resources but didn't feel participating was worth the booth costs were not invited to display...although several of those attended). Of the companies who had stage demos, some did indeed pay, but that was not part of the criteria for a stage presentation. The only sponsor that had a presentation was Technorati, who essentially bought lunch.

As for why the demonstrations on stage, our hope was that a mix of telling (panels) and showing (product demonstrations) would do a better job of helping those corporate folks understand the issues than presentations alone...and we much prefer showing real emerging products than having consultants give best practice presentations. Also, a bit of 'demonstration theatre' usually helps break up the day. I suppose that the fact that those individuals who have more experience with social media don't get the same benefit from the demos is another reason for multiple tracks.

Anyway...thanks again for coming to BlogOn, and if we can be of assistance in your next BlogHer production, please don't hesitate to touch base.

Mike Sigal
Co-Founder and CEO, Guidewire Group

[Denise]

As someone who had to watch the webcasts of Blogon, I have a slightly different take.

I was more offended by Seth's product launch masquerading as the keynote speech. It was a GREAT "innovator" piece but as terrific as Seth is and as good a job as he did (and he was terrific) it still felt cheap like I was being fed a sales pitch that was masquerading as content. I was worried that this initial speech was an indicator of what was to come from every panel speaker.

On the other hand, the Innovators seemed up front and honest in what they presented. None of them gave a presentation on their product that was as good as Seth's but to me it didn't feel like a masquerade as content.

Now had I been there, and been asked not to pull out my laptop during these things, I'd have been unhappy indeed. If I paid my money and used my time to attend, I surely get to pull out my laptop when I feel the urge - especially during a Blog Conference.