Conversationblog

Yesterday I arrived in Iceland for the summit of the International Association of Online Communicators.

For the next 2 days we'll be discussing several topics and papers on online communications with people from different countries and backgrounds. You can see the full program here.

If you wish to follow the conference you can do so on the IAOC blog - I just installed the CoveritLive code and you'll be able to interact with us while the conference is live.

It is great to meet up again with my colleagues from the IAOC again and I am sure we'll discuss the set up of the European chapter is the next 2 days.

I am not the only Belgian here; Luc Van Braekel, our most influential Flemish blogger, is also here and it is nice to finally meet him face to face.

Reykjavik is a great city; small, calm, nice people, by the sea and with amazing views on the Icelandic countryside.

I think I'll come back one day and visit the interior. Luc (who has been here since last week end) tells me that the country has a lot to offer to people who love nature.

I will be posting picture on a regular basis on Flickr as well. Enjoy the conference and please do interact through the CoveritLive interface if you see a chance.

Here's some good news for you: if you would like to attend the next Melcrum conference on the future of the Intranet then I have a 25% discount for you !

On June 25 & 26 I'll be talking at the Intranet 2.0 Forum in London. The conference covers the future of the intranet and internal communications in a social media age.

Despite substantial investment in intranets over the past decade, for most companies they’re still not delivering a return on investment in terms of use and increased efficiency in the way employees access useful and important information.

Now, the arrival of social media tools has presented a fantastic new opportunity to rejuvenate intranets, drag them into the 21st Century and place them right at the centre of companies’ efforts to improve conversation, collaboration and a sense of community across the organization.

The Intranet 2.0 Forum has been designed to share the latest thinking, developments and practices relating to intranets, content management and web 2.0 tools and technologies.

You can find the full online agenda here. If you're planning to attend and would like to use the 25% discount offered to my readers, please do the following:

Call Melcrum on +44 (0)208 600 4670 or e-mail events@melcrum.com and you will get the 25% discount by mentioning that you are readers of Blacklineblog.

(In fact you are readers of the Blacklineblog - which is my second blog - and the place were my articles are originally written.)

If you will be there, please let me know so we can hook up.

Euroblog was already a week ago... time flies.

Here are a couple of lessons we've learned from live blogging the conference...

1. Always ensure the network is capable of supporting your live blogging efforts. In this case the Wifi connection was simply too bad and even with a cable the upload of images and podcast files was impossible. We used Coveritlive, a great platform especially created to cover conferences and events. Unfortunately we haven't been able to use all the nice features because of the connection issues.
2. Prepare in advance: create simple text files with backgrounders on the speakers, collect the URL's of blogs, resources that are related to the conference topic, save pictures of speakers for quick re-use etc...
3. Be prepared to manage feedback from an online audience; Coveritlive allows for people to comment on the live blogposts and although this is a great feature and worked well during Euroblog, I can imagine it can gets really crowded on bigger events when people start to give input. In the case of Euroblog I was glad with the really strong input from all across the globe (New Zealand) by Catherine Arrow.
4. Try to be with 2 conference bloggers and switch off form time to time... Especially during a 2/3 day conference you need time away from the screen to follow the conversations without having to "real time summarize" them... Although Pieter was there to help, day 2 was very tiring for me and being inside all day doesn't help...
5. Prepare an alternative location to collect presentations, pictures etc... from the event apart from the central blog where you live blog. PHilip Young set up a wiki from where he links all the content and hosts the presentations from the conference.

• Live blogged content from day 1
• Live blogged content from days 2&3
• The Euroblog Wiki
• The Flickr Photo Group

We had very good feedback from the organizers and it was really a pleasure for us at Blackline to support Euroblog with our tools and skills of the trade.

Looking forward to the next conference... I heard whispers of Sicily...

Euroblog 2008 will take place in Brussels on 13/14/15 March and promises to be one of the best gatherings of PR professionals, educators and social media specialists of this year.

Philip Young, one of the organizers just posted an almost final version of the 3 day agenda and it is quite impressive. Big names are on there like David Weinberger, the co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto or Steve Rubel, top PR blogger and Edelman representative on all things social media.

As for Blackline... we'll cover the conference with live blogposts and podcasting and I am also on the agenda for an interactive seminar on Friday together with Neville Hobson and the above mentioned colleagues.

If you are in Public Relations and would like to know the latest news about social media impacting your industry and profession, then you have to be there.

You can register here and join the Facebook group to pre-conference network here.

If you plan to come, please let me know so we can meet up and chat.  

After some well deserved holidays we're back at full speed at Blackline. Together with Leads United we've set up our first training sessions and are ready to take enrollments.

On February 12 we kick off the season with a master class on "New Media Relations" where we will take a closer look at mainstream media relations as well as how to use social media like blogs, podcasting etc...

This is a full day program starting at 09:30 and ending at 16:00. We are doing our best to balance interesting theory, strong case studies and of course hands on exercises. Here are the details of the 2 first training days:

• Master class New Media Relations, February 12, Dutch language session.
• Master class New Media Relations, February 26, French language session. 

In my new media part of the day I'll split up the group and let you get your hands dirty with blogging, podcasting & videocasting so you can see how these tools could relate to your current communications outreach...

These master class sessions are part of a new initiative by Leads United called Leads'Cool; communications training days led by both agency and external specialists on the topic.  

Euroblog, the conference which focuses on (the only) scientific research on blogging, social media and communications in Europe will take place in Brussels on March 13/14/15, 2008.

I was there last year and did a short interview about the findings with the researchers then. If you are even remotely interested in the impact of social media on the communications profession you have to attend.

Here's the Facebook event page and here the call for papers. Please join in and submit your findings, case studies and survey results.

Apart from that, it will take place in Brussels (my favorite city - see Serge's clip), the center of Burgundian life and good food and drinks... and, I am hosting a pre-conference dinner/drink if there's enough interest ! Don't tell me you need more incentives... ;-)

Let me know if you're interested to join me for a relaxed dinner & drinks and I'll set something up.

Technorati : blogging, brussels, euprera, euroblog, research, social media

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Here are 2 conferences you shouldn't mis if you're a communications professional:

The International Association of Online Communicators conference in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The conference will take place on the 12th and the 13th of June 2008 (Thursday & Friday) and will gather educators, researchers and professionals who are involved with online communications. Some of the topics that will be debated during roundtables are:

• Teaching online communication: best practices

• Web 2.0 ethics for PR & journalism

• Internal collaboration with Web 2.0 tools

• Measuring online video & podcast ROI

• and many more...

You can find a detailed agenda and registration page here. The conference page allows you to promote the event through your own network and blog/website.

Already interested and eager to visit Reykjavik in the Summer..?

I'll be there with my colleagues from the IAOC and am looking for online communications professionals who would like to participate in a panel with me.

I am thinking about a US/EU comparison of the whole social media phenomenon etc... Interested ? Let me know.

The European Association of Communication Directors conference in Brussels, Belgium.

This is the second edition of the EACD Conference and if it is going to mimic the success of last year then it will be a gathering of top European communicators again. The conference takes place on the 24th & 25th of April, 2008.

The program is too detailed to describe here but do visit the website. You can check out the pictures and videos from last year here as well as download the presentation papers.

Here again I am looking for some Communications colleagues who would like to share a panel with me on the topic of new media. My aim is to have someone from the media, someone from an NGO and a corporate colleague.

Send me an email if you're interested.

Disclaimer: I am a founding member of the IAOC and a full member of the EACD.

Technorati : Brussels, EACD, IAOC, Reykjavik, communications, conference

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A bit of shameless self promotion this time.

If you are a Communications Manager, Public Relations Director, Internal Communications Manager or just interested to know how your company, your employees and your audiences will/are be influenced by social media like blogging, podcasting etc... then this hands on workshop could be something for you.

The School of Business, Media & Politics (SBMP), based in Brussels, asked me to give a seminar/workshop on "web 2.0" and I'll do so on October 25/26, 2007 and again next year on February 21/22, 2008.

More information on their website as well as the registration page.

This seminar will be targeted at communications, marketing and information management professionals and will require a basic understanding of the PC & the Internet.

What I mean is; you do not have to have a degree in computer sciences to participate...

Technorati : PR, SBMP, blogging, brussels, corporate communications, marketing, rss, seminar, web2.0, workshop
Del.icio.us : PR, SBMP, blogging, brussels, corporate communications, marketing, rss, seminar, web2.0, workshop

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Last year I joined the European Association of Communications Directors and in June I will also speak at their first European Conference.

I thought it would be interesting to do an interview with the President, Dr. Heitmann and see what he thinks about the public relations profession and its challenges in Europe. So here it is:

Q: On November 8, 2006 you launched the European Association of Communications Directors. Looking at the myriad of national and European associations that already exist in the field of business communications why do you think there is a place for the EACD?

A:  Indeed, you are quite right: there are plenty of associations at national level but surprisingly few on a European plane and certainly none that brings together those of us who ultimately drive the communications community and agenda across Europe on a day -to-day basis.

Q: the EACD is clearly targeted at "in house" business communicators on a European corporate level. Why this focus?

A:  For my part, I would struggle with all the intricacies involved in my job were it not for the support of SAP's global PR agency. Needless to say though, our roles are very different and associations clearly benefit from a clear focus. As a community at large, we could not survive without the support of those extended communicators, like our agencies and the like. As such, the EACD founding assembly was very articulate and unanimous regarding the need for this specific focus. As such, it then also makes sense that there are so many different associations already in existence, as you stated earlier.

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