Inspired by last week’s We Media conference in London and Leonard Witt’s ideas for next year’s conference, here’s a few reactions & suggestions:
- Present new material: More than most subjects, the discussions on the future of media, journalism, blogging etc tend to be dominated by an exchange of views. Organizers can commission new research into essensial topics, and present the material for discussion at the conference (or maybe even before, so participants can have a good look at methodology and results before they arrive. This year’s opinion poll about trust in media didn’t have much impact on the conference because the questions seemed rather irrelevant). This can be both quantitative and qualitative studies. If it’s case studies, the people behind the cases should be present as well.
- Time for discussions: A mantra heard during the breaks and in blog entries this year was “there’s too much lecturing”. So all sessions should be shorter to allow more questions, answers and discussions. Many people didn’t get to ask their questions at the end of sessions. Also, allow for longer breaks, many of the best discussions take place then.
- Know more about “We”: Compile a list of participants’ blogs before the event (participants can do this themselves in a wiki or other format). Then everyone will be in a better position to know who you want to hook up with during the conference. One of the best things for me was to learn about many extremely interesting new blogs and sites.
- More global voices: Arguably the best – most informative, most surprising – sessions were those about China, India, Africa, Middle East. Just add more voices: From different European countries, from Latin America, from regions of Africa… You can’t fail. And just assume that most of the US/Brit debates are known already.
Tags: we media
