Nuffnang Blogopolis, the good and the bad #nnb2011

I attended Nuffnang’s Blogopolis this weekend and I have come home with some thoughts that need working out in my mind, so LUCKY YOU, you get to read all about it.

The bad:

• There was no Welcome to Country. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and I was a little stunned to realise it had been left out. I tweeted it and got a few retweets, so I wasn’t the only one who thought it was poor form to have been forgotten.

• I knew a lot of the content being covered and while there were great points spoken about, I struggled to keep my attention on all of the panelists, all of the time. I found myself straining to hear some speakers, especially towards the end and I’m not certain if that was an audio issue on the conference’s part, or a brain shut down on mine.

• It got really hot and airless at the front of the room and I had a hard time with that. I didn’t go back to my table after lunch, instead electing to sit up the back with my notepad and listen from there. The chairs were more comfortable there as well and I was able to sit more easily.

• My painkillers kicked in a bit before lunchtime and I spun out. With the heat from the room and the headspin, I worried I was going to pass out or vomit. I didn’t do either of these things (bonus!), but I also think that my tweets probably stopped making sense.

• Working with Brands, the session, made me incredibly grumpy. I’m not entirely sure what they thought they would achieve by telling bloggers to basically suck it up, be happy they were working with a brand and bend over backwards (or forwards) and do whatever it took to keep the client happy, but I know damn well that if I had to jump through the hoops that the Agency was talking about, I wouldn’t feel nearly as well disposed towards the brand at the end of it. I finished that session with a whole bunch of notes to take back to my sponsors on things NOT to do. So maybe it was worthwhile for that.

• There was a lot of anti-Blogger sentiment expressed by speakers. I love wordpress and I want everyone to convert to it, but it was overt enough to even make me cringe. You don’t gain anything by putting 50% of the audience off-side at the beginning by implying that the platform they use is lesser. Being on Blogger doesn’t mean that a blogger is of less quality than their peers who are using self-hosted wordpress. It just means that the blogger has different priorities. And that is okay.

Logistical issues:

• The line for tea and coffee at morning tea was ridiculous and I don’t think the line was even half way through when the break finished. I desperately wanted a cup of tea, but took one look at the line and didn’t bother. I eventually got a cup of tea in the afternoon during the panels and I’m glad I did, the tea was excellent.

• Also, and this is sort of petty, but the cupcakes were ridiculously dry. The icing was nice however.

• The allocated seating worked well, for me, but only because I lucked out and had a decent table. I didn’t hear the same thing from everyone and so for some people, the allocated seating didn’t work. I think a better way to do it may have been allocated seating until lunch and then allowing people to move.

The Good:

• Michael Aulia of Craving Tech made me pick up my pen and take notes of what he was saying. His suggestions for speeding up a website were exactly what I needed to be hearing and so I thank him for that. I’m researching and implementing some new plugins as I type.

• Darren Rowse of Problogger is a fantastic public speaker and I took notes through his entire speech, just so that I could report back for a few people who weren’t there. I like that he is platform agnostic and his line about “a small group of raving fans being better” than a bunch of traffic who is a bit meh resonated with me. I think that what he had to say made a lot of sense to everyone, regardless of niche.

• The day was run to a military tight schedule and we didn’t run overtime, or end up cutting anything short. I thought the organisation that Nuffnang had done was incredibly professional and they did a great job keeping everything on track.

• It’s hard to run a conference when you have a range of bloggers attending. Different niches and people who have just started blogging, right up to people who have been doing this for years. Some things didn’t apply to me, but I think there was probably something for everyone in the program.

• I got to hang out with my friends, and I met some fantastic new people, whose blogs I will be visiting and familiarising myself with over the next few weeks. For me, this is always the best bit of any blogging get together.

Finally, I would like to thank Kellogg’s for sponsoring me to attend this weekend and especially Karina from DEC Communications who was instrumental in getting everything done. Also Louisa at Brand Meets Blog for introducing us!

{img source}