Time for a Bloggercon Downunder?

More or less on a whim, I went to Bloggercon in November 2004 at Stanford University. It was great fun, a great way to learn and to meet people (all those passionate bloggers in one room!). At the time the new big thing was podcasting and boy hasn't that moved along in the intervening two years.
The idea of Bloggercon is that it is a group of like-minded (as in keen on social media not in any political sense) individuals and get the talking about some key topics.
Building on the Bloggercon model, my suggestions are

• There would be no lectures or presentations - each session would be 'led' by a couple or three bloggers starting a conversation which involves the audience from the start
• It would be a one-day event, held in Melbourne or Sydney sometime next year
• It would be in a venue which has good free wireless and can hold about a 100 bloggers
• Participation would be on a first in basis in terms of registration
• It would be podcast
• Through sponsorship we would keep it free or as close to free as possible - none of those big cost conferences we want poor, starving bloggers to be able to join in as well
• The sessions would probably cover - technology, culture, politics, media and corporate blogging
• There will be no speaker fees and no assistance for anyone with travel or accomodation

A couple of us are kicking around ideas - Des Walsh has posted about it.

In the last day or so I have contacted some organisations which might have an interest in sponsoring a Bloggercon Downunder and the initial response has been encouraging.

While I'm keen to ensure that this doesn't become a vendor event, I think sponsorship which will be relatively minor, will convey considerable benefits for the right organisations. Its an Australian-first and you'll be associated with an enormously productive and creative event which hundreds if not thousands of enthusiastic Australian bloggers will talk and post about for weeks and months before and after the event.

Like Bloggercon in the US, we might also solicit donations from the bloggers who can afford it to help defray costs.

Thoughts, comments, ideas welcome.

Clarification: I should point out that I mean Australian-first in terms of the format (free or low-cost, no presentations) rather than the first blogging conference. Last year's excellent Blogtalk Downunder which I participated in was, as far as I know, the first blogging conference in Australia.

Comments

[Mark Bradley]

Trevor

Terrific idea and one I have also been thinking about. I woud be keen to be involved and may be able to secure some modest sponsor support. I would be keen to chat with you about this - skype - antipodean14 or email antipodeanpodcast[at] gmail.com
cheers Mark Bradley

[Paull Young]

I think this is a great idea.

I doubt I'll be in country when it's on, but I'll support it anyway I can - and enthusiastically await the live blogging!

Btw - didn't you recently say that you thought conferences might be on the way out?

[jj]

I'm all for it. Happy to be involved in the organisation of it, actually. Should we put a steering group on it?

[Trevor Cook]

Sure Paull, but this is going to be an 'unconference' as they say in SIlicon Valley and its lots of people learning from each other with minimal of that 'here I am giving oh so serious ppt slides and answering a q. or two at the end' and it won't cost a bomb to be part of AND with live blogging and podcasting of the sessions it will be open in trms of time and geography for lots of people who can't be in the room at the time There's no way I'd bother trying to organise just another conference but I think this could be different enough to make it exciting. Cheers

[Des Walsh]

Well put, Trevor. Good to see people weighing in. Steering group is a good idea and if someone wants to step up and coordinate that it would be great. Not wanting to wimp out on that, but I recognise that some people love doing that sort of thing :) A phone conference call might be a good idea - I could book a line on freeconference.com if no one had an alternative facility (means each person calls into a us number, but with phone cards etc that's not going to cost anyone more than a couple of bucks).

[Steven Lewis]

Great idea, Trevor. And if anyone wants to talk about blogging or podcasting in the meantime -- in some nice Sydney pub -- I'm game for that, too.

[Lukas Picton]

Hi Trevor,
A great idea and definitely something that Text 100 and myself would be interested in getting involved in. Keep me in the loop and let me know how we can participate.
Cheers,
Lukas.

[Martin]

Definately be interested in an unconference.

But we really need someone to lead this or we all need to virtually get together (a forum/wiki/blog) and fine tune it over time - as someone said we need to put a steering group together.

1. we need at least 6 month lead in time.
2. a handful of sponsors (Micorsoft is spending up big in 07 for vista launch so there's an idea)
3. a website/blog
4. a decent logo / badge
5. small public donations/support worked well for wordcamp and podcamp - especially "contra sponsorship" support.

[Michael Specht]

Great idea, I really enjoyed BlogTalk and would be more than willing to help out!

Hey wasn't Ben Barren organising one already?? http://www.scripting.com/2006/04/07.html#aBloggerconInAustralia

[Trevor Cook]

Michael - thanks I remember the original post now that you remind me I've sent an email to ben to ask for an update etc - I don't want to duplicate it if someone else is already down the track on planning etc

Martin, Des - Good points - I plan to wait a week or so while we all chew the fat and then summarise what seems to be the common view, you're right we need to quickly decide who or what is going to be the conference organiser. The key point is cost I think, there seems to be no shortage of enthusiastic participants

[Des Walsh]

fascinating post on the ideas Ben was floating and esp Dave Winer coming, looking at the BlogHer concept etc - although BlogHer was/is a women's initiative: has anyone asked any of the Aussie women bloggers what they want? I did email Ben but he doesn't know me so it will be good if we can get a response now.

[Lee Hopkins]

Late to the party, sorry, but definitely interested.