It seems that most everyone came away from the Beyond Blogging 2006 event with something positive to say, though a few of the more seasoned veterans of the Blogosphere were perhaps hoping for a deeper dive into the topic.  Personally, I think it was just what the doctor ordered - a great discussion on the important philosophical shift at the foundation of this new media, a wide ranging discussion on the strategies that work and practical advice for what to go out and do today.

Check out what Bloggers are saying yourself by seeing who is linking to this Blog from Technorati.

The really good news in this is that it seems the event was a catalyst to form a community around this topic for ongoing discussion and the occasional face to face gathering.  We are going to be thinking about how this might look over the next week or two and would love to hear your thoughts on what’s next and what specifically you would like to see.  Personally, it seemed that many people wanted to get away from the panel format and engage in direct conversation with one another.  In my world, this calls for an Unconference - while very, very preliminary discussions have barely begun in this regards, I am hopeful that we will be able to put something together in the near future.

And now a brief, personal pause.

My iBook died on the plane out of DC on Saturday evening, which has caused me all sorts of pains and a real feeling of loss.  In addition to losing all of the photographs I took at the event, there were a couple of Blog posts I had written and not posted, a presentation I was finishing for the NetSquared Conference next week and all sorts of other stuff that I had put together while in DC. Thankfully, I think the podcasts I recorded with Greg and Mitch during the event are stll on the MP3 Recorder, so those should be posted in the next 24-48 hours.

Hopefully, the Genius Bar at Apple will be able to recover most of the data tomorrow, and this pause will be short.  Though I really want and could use a MacBook Pro, I had wanted to wait for another generation of them to get the kinks worked out first.

On a separate, but important note, I wanted to let you know that the comments are being moderated on this Blog, but all legitimate comments are approved, including the non-flattering ones.  I have already had to delete a few inappropriate comments (one blatantly promotional and one patently offensive).  Thankfully Akismet seems to catch all the Splog that comes this way, so not much to do on that front.  I mention this now so that you will know why a comment might not appear very quickly over the next couple of days as I deal with my laptop troubles.  We are discussing having unmoderated comments as the dialogue begins to pick up, but no decisions have been made yet.  If  more people are talking here beyond myself and a few key Fleishman Hillard employees, it may just make more sense to have it open and free flowing.

OK, so it is time for bed now - I have a 7am tee time with my 90 year old grandfather and I am going to need a good night’s rest if I have any hopes of keeping up with him tomorrow morning.  Should be done and at the Apple store before it opens at 10am… 

Categories: Events, PR Community