Lots on my mind today. Ideas bumping into each other and I’m talking way too fast to try to get it all in before I run out of sidewalk.
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I agree with your statement about “credibility”. I don’t mind vendor shows or vendor technical conferences; however I know what I’m getting into up front. If Blog World Expo, or any other similar conference/convention, is going to be ABOUT the community rather than FOR the community; then panelist need to be more about people DOING successful things rather than SELLING “successful” solutions.
It is a lot more work to get successful members of the community to present panels, and they may need to be compensated at least the registration fee; rather than people selling who might even pay extra to be a presenter. I totally understand that.
The big thing a conference has to do is understand what they want to be about and what they have to do to accomplish that goal.
Rick, being on the selling end, may not yet have the perspective needed to understand the credibility difference, but seems to be willing to learn.
I had a great talk with Rick. He’s very passionate about the subject. He’s earned a bit of credibility with my by that conversation. For me, it’s important to remember that we *all* have agendas. There’s nothing wrong with that. I also believe that it’s important to recognize those agendas explicitly as much as possible. BWE is a business event. As such, the people putting it on need to make a profit on it. That’s quite understandable and key to that is growing their audience base — just like many of us are trying to do. Rick is using the social media tools to do that — reaching out on twitter, using facebook to discuss the program, and generally applying a level of transparency that is laudable.
The place it keeps tripping is in this idea that it’s ok to have vendors in the key track and program planning roles. If there’s a vendor track, I’m there. That works. My heartburn comes from the “non-vendor” tracks. So far, every single person I’ve seen in a planning position has a vested interest — a financial stake in the audience. That rings warning bells for me and raises the Skeptical flag. I think that skepticism may be justified when I read some of the other comments which point out that the criticism is unwelcome and unwarranted because this is – afterall – an expo for “social media professionals.”
I have to say – I like the colors in the picture today.