Blogging a Conference Professionally is No Cakewalk

I noticed today that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association – WOMMA – is looking for “a few great full-time bloggers” to cover their Word Of Mouth Basic Training – WOMBAT – event in New Orleans, April 17-18. They are offering hotel accommodation but the bloggers have to make their own way to the venue.

That would be interesting, although New Orleans is too far for me to contemplate getting to right now, especially by the middle of next week.

But it led me to thinking about just what is involved in blogging a conference, on a basis similar to a journalist covering a conference. And about what conference organizers might need to do to make sure the blogging process works.

Looking for a few clues on what would be involved, I came across a great post from one of my colleagues from Business Blog Consulting, the highly respected consultant Josh Hallett, who specializes in the convergence of social media with public relations and marketing.

In How to Blog a Conference, Josh provides a framework for a strategic approach to the task and a most impressive checklist of what is needed in terms of hardware, software and logistics.

As at least one comment on the blog remarks, this post provides a playbook for anyone who takes on the responsibility of blogging a conference.

It’s also an invaluable resource for event organizers who may be considering inviting bloggers to cover events.

After reading through all the things that need to be covered, my feeling was that any conference organizer should think more in terms of having a blogging team rather than expecting any one blogger to cover a whole conference adequately. To illustrate that point, here’s a sample of what Josh says is involved just in the planning stage:

Assemble your blog team in advance and review the plan for the event. Much of this can be done virtually if your team is spread out across the country. Make sure everybody has the necessary logins/passwords for the blog and any other software tools, i.e. Flickr, etc. Have the bloggers do a test post in advance of the event.

Next up, develop a plan for who is covering what. Do you need to plan around travel schedules? Are there particular sessions that somebody wants to attend? Are there some topics that suit a particular blogger because of their profession or interests? Everybody should know their roles/schedules in advance of arriving.

If possible, schedule a quick meeting onsite in advance of the event once everybody arrives. Use this time to figure out your connectivity solutions. If a blogger is not able to get online determine a posting solution. Often this will involve a USB drive. The offline blogger can write-up the session and then hand off to somebody else for posting. As part of your schedule, be sure to give some time off during the day. If you have a photographer or a tech guru determine who will be responsible for integrating photos or other multi-media files.

This sort of detail made it clear to me that blogging a conference professionally is no cakewalk.

Interestingly, after reading Josh’s post and commencing to write this, I found that Josh is actually blogging the WOMBAT event in New Orleans.

One thing I’m still wondering about is what an official conference blogger should do if she/he starts to pick up that sessions are not going well, and/or participants are not happy with the way the event is proceeding. Should they blog that, fearlessly, or could that be seen as a breach of faith with the organizers? Could be an interesting point of discussion between the blogger/teamleader and the conference organizers.