Convergence 2008 Day Blog

Comments 9 by Rebecca Bollwitt

I’m going to call this a day blog as I won’t be live blogging per se, moreso collecting thoughts, sharing links, and posting information throughout the day.

Badged Up

Right now on the Convergence 2008 main stage Grant McCracken is talking about Digital Cultures:

McCracken looks at the places where culture and commerce, anthropology and economics meet most often: marketing in general, branding in particular, popular culture, Hollywood, advertising, television, magazines, and new media. Through his highly-customized ethnographic and anthropological research, he provides clients with a comprehensive but incisive review of contemporary culture, its foundations, current state and future trends and strategies for managing it. [Convergence]

VIDFEST’s International Partnering Forum (IPF) is taking place down the road at the Granville Island Hotel from 9:30am until 5:00pm, running in tandem with Convergence here at the Arts Club Theatre. Also under the VIDFEST umbrella is VIGS, the Vancouver International Games Summit taking place downtown at the Hyatt.

Tonight will wrap up with the “Schmooze Lounge” at the GI Hotel, and this will all resume tomorrow with the Creative Exchange Conference, another Schmooze Lounge, then the POP VOX Awards gala.

With all of the formal stuff out of the way, I’m going to follow Phillip’s Twitters to see what I’m missing on the main stage right now.

Update: The conversation during Grant McCracken’s keynote involved a lot of Twitter talk.

Heather Watson and Grant McCracken (Keynote Speaker)Photoboothing with @Hez

For her question about Twitterers in Vancouver Heather (who is currently my side-by-side MacBook blogging buddy at the Arts Club) got a copy of Grant’s book.

Update: I’m sitting in on the “Giving Your Brand Away: Brand Communities” panel on the main stage at the Arts Club Theatre. “How do you harness the evangelical impulse of these customers and manage the politics of others?” The panelists are from McDonald’s (speaking to engaging employees with online surveys, blogs and discussions instead of paper newsletters), Future Shop, Vancity (talking about ChangeEverything.ca) and Tourism BC (presenting the HelloBC website using Flickr, YouTube etc).

Update: Raul live blogged my panel with Kate and Darren. Due to the great conversation flow and discussion there were some questions that were missed but I wanted to address the one about negative comments. We all said to embrace them from a corporate perspective and use them as feedback, having an open discussion for the better of your brand and its credibility with your consumers. However the second part of that question was about negative comments on a personal blog, to which I just have to say it’s your blog – you have veto power – sure being open, honest and transparent has its advantages but at the end of the day I have the ability to click “delete” on anything that is posted, commented or submitted here.

Another note is that my fellow panelists receive more pitches than I do. I probably get about 5 a week so I know what to look for, what is out there, but as far as the “firehose” of PR campaigns knocking down my door, it’s pretty minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

With that, I really enjoyed being on the panel although I was really nervous as usual. I hope folks got something out of our Blogger Relations insights.


Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

I’m currently debating whether to head to the Happy Hour or to hop a False Creek ferry over to John’s office, pick him up, hit up the grocery store, then head home for some Bollwitt time. I just polled Twitter and so far it’s split down the middle, with 50% of people saying I should go chill and the other half encouraging me to come out to the Schmooze event… just waiting for that tie breaker right now.

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9 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. crunchy carpetsThursday, May 22nd, 2008 — 10:44am PDT

    Man..I wish I could go to some of this stuff.. I got all these biz cards and nowhere to hand them out!

  2. Paul, Quests of the Dragon and Bird ClanThursday, May 22nd, 2008 — 1:39pm PDT

    Sounds like an interesting forum. Texting culture in many parts of the world has become highly developed.

  3. RaulThursday, May 22nd, 2008 — 5:02pm PDT

    Sorry about missing the question re: negative comments. I’m exhausted, and since that’s how I am feeling, I’m going to say do what you feel is right. You seem to enjoy having down time with John and thus I suggest now to go pick him up and enjoy some Bollwitt time. I had suggested previously to go (and tell me if you were going) but I realize now that it’s better to just take time off. Social media can wait. Personal time cannot.

  4. Miss604Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 — 5:05pm PDT

    @Raul oh no, I wasn’t referencing your blog when I said we missed a question. We just kind of skimmed past it during the actual session – thanks for the live blog!!

  5. Cinci CsereThursday, May 22nd, 2008 — 6:04pm PDT

    Thanks for being a part this Rebecca. I really wanted to come, hence in Squamish working on a few projects but enjoy reading what the day covered. Thank you!

  6. Monica HamburgFriday, May 23rd, 2008 — 7:00am PDT

    Seriously, what would we do without you? (Yes, in general but I’m referring to the live-blogging in this case.) I am enjoying VIDFEST so much but am sleepy, so I’m sure I will not be able to read my (hand-written) notes when I look at them at a future date. Thanks for live-blogging!

    You did great on your panel! Lovely, confident and knew your stuff.

  7. Monday’s Third Tuesday Live Blog with David Jones » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca BollwittMonday, September 15th, 2008 — 7:39pm PDT

    […] and others that they help with “blogger outreach.” I’m reminded of my panel on Blogger Relations from Convergence 2008… and also of my Matchstick FTL post (although they’ve been very good to me lately). […]

  8. Blog World Expo 2008: Bloggers and PR » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca BollwittSaturday, September 20th, 2008 — 12:45pm PDT

    […] is “Actually read the blog.” These are the same points we tried to drive home at the Convergence conference during VIDFEST. It’s really encouraging to see blog and PR professionals like these guys being on the same […]

  9. The New iPod Shuffle Minimalism at a Whole New Level » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca BollwittWednesday, March 11th, 2009 — 12:35pm PDT

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