5 Reasons Why I Will Be Live Blogging BlogWorld

Jason Falls is among the many of us headed to Vegas for BlogWorld over the next 24 hours. But don’t expect any session recaps for him, nope. Today, Jason gave us 5 Reasons I Won’t Be Live Blogging. Well Jason, I see your blog entry and I counter with one of my own.:)

Here are the 5 reasons I will be live blogging BlogWorld:

• I’d be "blogging" the sessions anyway: At my very core, I’m both a nerd and a note taker. If I wasn’t formally live blogging the sessions, I’d just be typing my notes as fast as I could into my laptop anyway. That’s simply how I retain information. I collect it and then I go over it after. So really, the only difference between my session live blogging and the note taking I did during my four years of is college is now I have way, way more people stealing my notes.

  I understand that a lot of other people don’t retain information this way, but this is how I’ve always taken stuff in. For me, it works. I don’t miss anything by live blogging, if anything, it ensures I remember what happened and all the insight that was passed on. Plus, it helps me feel less like a nerd if I tell myself other people will be benefiting from my compulsive note taking.

• It allows me to give back to my community: I realize how lucky I am to be able to do the kind of traveling that I do. I’m very fortunate in that if there’s a conference I think is worth going to or if there’s an event that I think either myself or others would benefit from, I can make a pitch to Bruce as to why he should send me. There aren’t too many others in this industry who can do that because not everyone has a boss as supportive and encouraging of education as Bruce. And I think the live blogging that I do at these conferences allows me to "give back" and share all the knowledge and insights that I’m lucky enough to be bombarded with just by sitting in that session hall. This means my colleagues can go about their everyday lives, not taking time away from their core business or their family, and then they can read my recaps on their own time. I like that we can help other people and spread education.
• It’s challenging: Do you know what they call trying to live blog 17 sessions in 3 days? They call that certifiably crazy and I can’t wait to start! Yes, live blogging sessions the way that we do, making sure to catch every word, every snide remark and all of the session coordinators’ poor music choices is incredibly challenging, but that’s also why I love it so much. The adrenaline rush I get while trying to finish up one session recap in the fifteen minutes I have before the next session starts is amazing. My heart is pounding, my fingers are buzzing, my mind is racing and I’m pretty much having the time of my life. For anyone who has ever had to witness my live blogging, yes, I may look panicked, but I think it’s also pretty clear that I’m enjoying myself. Plus, the sense of accomplishment I have after a 4 day SES pretty much matches the sense of pride I felt after receiving my college diploma. Well, close anyway.
• We’re Good At It: Not to toot our own horn, but I think our live blogging is some of the best out there. We try really hard to give readers a complete picture of what’s going on during the event. We don’t subscribe to that whole "note taking" approach. We take our notes and then we scramble like mad to whip it up into something coherent, informative and fun. Yes, sometimes our jokes flop and sometimes we miss a bullet or two, but, at least in my opinion, our recaps are some of the most comprehensive out there. Not everyone can do it the way that we do.
  And we’re still working to improve them. If you’ve read our last two live blogging attempts, you may have noticed that we’re trying really hard to better format them and make theme easier read. We’ll continue to experiment with that during this week’s BlogWorld. Hopefully we’ll come up with some good stuff.
• Increased Networking Opportunities: One of the reasons Jason gave for not wanting to live blog is that he feared it would make him anti-social and hinder his ability to chat with speakers and conference goers. I can totally feel his pain. When you’re focused on perfecting that last sentence before publishing, it can make it really hard to participate in some of the meet and greets that occur.

  However, I also think it opens the door to a whole new way of networking. Something you should take into account is that speakers read session recaps. They pay attention when people are talking about them. I can’t tell you how many emails or blog comments we’ve received from speakers commenting on what we’ve written or just taking the time to say "thank you" for creating something so complete. And just because your head is in your notebook during the sessions, doesn’t mean you can’t come out and play during all the "networking events" that happen after hours. That’s where you’re going to meet people and network, not while you’re stuck in some cramped session hall.

  Or at least that’s my take. But I’ll ask you this, if live blogging was bad for networking and personal branding, would any of you recognize me at conferences?

Live blogging conferences isn’t for everyone, but I do think it has its benefits.

And with that, I’m off to the airport. Lisa has a plane to catch! Make sure to check out our BlogWorld schedule to see which sessions we’ll be covering for the event. Hope to see you there!

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.