PRSA Conference wrap-up
Another day, another conference. I spent the day at the PRSA’s “T3 PR” Conference. I was on a panel on the d0s and don’ts of dealing with social media with Chip Griffin, Tony Sapienza and Don Bates. My role there was to discuss the SNCR’s Best Practices document.
The other highlight of the day was a panel on the future of Tech PR with Steve Rubel, Constantin Basturea and Richard Laermer.
My pictures are here. More to be uploaded later when I get around to it.
A couple of quick thoughts….
From now on, WiFi and the availability thereof is a prerequisite for any conferences I attend, let alone speak at. I can’t understand why the organizers of a conference on blogging and technology marketing don’t think to provide it. If there was WiFi there, you would by now have read three or four blog entries from me and others. Now I’m relying on memory.
About the level of understanding of social media among PR peeps, at least those in attendence today, I’m both encouraged and dissapointed. Encouraged that more and more PR folks are asking the questions, dissapointed that many of them are still bogged down in tactical issues. Is my video right for a videoblog? How long should my podcast be? How many times a week should I blog? But not is this the right thing for my client and how does it fit into their overall business. Steve Rubel made this point in his presentation - we’re not asking the right questions yet.
Here’s another way of looking at it. If all the cool companies jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you? So why are you jumping into Second Life without even asking yourself if it makes sense for your brand?
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Comments
Hi David,
Thanks for the great insights at the conference and photos. You are absolutely right about the WiFi. I was equally annoyed. If I am working on the next PRSA Tech Section conference, I’ll make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistake.
You are right too about the questions that PR folks are asking. Some people still ‘don’t get it’. I thought that Steve Rubel’s advice for PR people (to just participate in social media, start blogging themselves, comment on other blogs, etc.) will help them understand the mediums and elevate the conversation.
Good Talk.
I always get the question: “How can I reach bloggers” and it is slowly becoming easier to answer: “You can’t..You can only make it easier for them to find you….Unless you begin to blog with them:-).”
BTW: I agree about the WiFi - It would have been more fun to blog “AT” the conference.
Cheers,
-Rich
Forget the lack of WiFi–the chairs were terribly uncomfortable at this conference!
That aside, I think what you observed was lowest-common-denominator discussion. It would be great if the next conference would offer two tracks–one for people who have those technical or very basic questions and one for those who’ve been working with blogs, video, etc. for some time and are looking to get better at it.
Thanks for your talk–it made for one of the day’s highlights.
Though it was a pleasure spending so much time with you at this conference (talking about photography and whatnot) it was discouraging to hear the same questions I’ve heard for the last 12 months. We need to slow down a bit and discuss the basics that many have disregarded as ‘past present.’ From MediaRooms to RSS … is PR 2.0 getting too big for its britches?