I went to Blogging For business yesterday. The event itself was well programmed, well thought out and cleverly promoted both by blogs and by the stirling efforts of organiser Matt Yeomans and Bernhard Warner (and conference firm Retail Events).
If there was any glitch it was often with sections of the audience. Not that they were bad or stupid. More that they seemed to be coming to ‘the conversation’ about blogging both late and without much hinterland on what it’s all about. Hey, that’s why they were at the conference right? To learn.
But I wonder if there’s something else? Some of the questions betrayed a real lack of basic knowledge, which made me realise that the idea of using blogging as a form of customer communication and interaction still remains an early idea in the UK. I think people are familiar with the blogs about ‘my cat’ etc, just not with the idea that brands can benefit.
I also often find myself at events like these having a ‘proper’ conversation with Americans I meet there, perhaps because I watch what goes on over there, and a quite basic conversation with Brits who just haven’t been tracking all this.
Ironically this does confirm the theory prevalent now that the world really is engaged in a global conversation. These days one ‘flocks together’ with people from any nationality or location, so long as they are talking the same kind of language about an issue, especially online. Geography is just not that important any more.
Sidebar: Tune in next Thursday week for an mbites podast on blogging for business.