I’ve been thinking a lot about event blogging since I photoblogged and aggregated notes and podcasts from Northern Voice on my site. It was fast paced and kinda stressful but actually a lot of fun and I think we collectively did an amazing job. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live conference or event covered quite like that before other than huge national things like the Repulican and Democratic National Conventions.
I really think there is a growing niche here for someone like me with graphic design, photography, writing, web development and IT skills to offer corporate event blogging as a service to companies putting on special events. What kind of events? Oh I don’t know… XBox2 launch party? Trade shows? Seminars? Maybe Bono wants to hire me to photoblog and write from backstage at on the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb tour? The possiblites are endless. Corporate user conferences? Employee training offsites? NASA Lauches? Fundraisers? I spoke to several friends and contacts they agree that this is probably a hot idea. Anyone out there who wants to help me come up with some services and a site to address this space?
Here’s what I’m thinking. We can offer anything from basic packages where we show up and take photos, record speakers on MP3 players, take notes, aggrate other people notes and build a blog or we can do it all pre and post show… consult the conference organizers help set up connectivity and a blogging friendly envirnoment, set up a Podcast feed for all presenations/sessions and do the recording/encoding/posting, set up Technorati/Flickr/Delicious tags for the event and publicize them to attendees, identify bloggers who cover the space and reach out to them post event with links, downloads and other microcontent from the event as well as write shoot photos and post on their behalf.
This is a great way for companies to attract authentic and inexpensive PR that has a better chance of getting into the mainstream media. Read Seth Godin’s the Ideavirus – that is what blogging like this is – the dissemination of that virus. I really think there will be growing demand for someone to do publishing like this at all types of corporate and company events in the near future.
What do you think? Are there companies or individuals who are doing something like this already? How would you bill it? Do you have an event you want blogged/wiki’ed/photoblogged? Do you want to collaborate with me to turn this into a business? Drop me a note.