More than a couple of people noticed me and Ernie the Attorney blogging next to each other from PopTech. “Why?” they asked. “Why are you so focused on blogging the conference?”

Durn fine question to which I have less than durn fine answers.

1. I blog conferences for the same reasons that I blog in general: I don’t know.

2. blogging forces me to pay attention, just as note-taking in general does.

3. Insofar as I’m engaged by what the speakers are saying, I want to be talking with them. Since conferences insist on maintaining a distinction between “panelist” and “audience member,” blogging lets me participate. Best of all, I always get the last word.

But why real-time blog since post-session blogging enables me to reflect on what was said and write more thoughtfully? But post-session blogging means that after a full day at an intellectually intense conference like PopTech, followed by an intellectually intense dinner, followed by an intellectually intense dessert, I have to go back to my hotel room and write a @#$%!-ing blog entry. So, real-time blogging is better for me but worse for my readers.

And, dear readers, isn’t that really what it’s all about?

Categories: Uncategorized dw