Murphy's Law

I’ve just returned from a great trip to Sunderland where I was participating in an excellent one day conference discussing Online PR organised by Philip Young and his colleaugues at the University of Sunderland.

The trip was great on a number of levels. I finally got to meet a number of fellow PR bloggers with whom I have been conversing with electronically for some time including Philip, Elizabeth Albrycht, Neville Hobson, Stephen Davies and Stuart Bruce (not forgetting Serge Cornelus and Anne-Marie Cotton). It was great to finally catch up and along with some very interesting PR/blogging discussion we also managed to solve many of the world’s more pressing problems over a beer or two.

The seminar included some fantastic content from blog cases studies to measuring and monitoring blogs and podcasting.

But one of the most impressive aspects was the audience. There was only one no-show from all the pre-registered list (I’ve never seen that level of commitment at a conference before) and attendees came from all over the UK and as far away as Latvia and Belgium. There were a load of insightful questions throughout the day and the vast majority of the audience stayed to the very end of the day, which illustrated the interest in the subject matter.

I’ve always been critical of the PR business’ slow adoption and adaption to new technology but it would appear that blogging is an exception. From talking with other delegates and from my own discussions generally it appears that a growing number of practitioners have a clear understanding of the opportunities and are very interested in learning more.

Thanks to everyone who made Friday so successful, including obviously Philip, Chris Rushton, of course my fellow bloggers, Nicky Wake and her team at Don’t Panic and last but certainly not least the audience.

PS:

Accounts of the event from Philip, Neville and Stuart.

Elizabeth Albrycht, Stephen Davies, Neville Hobson, Stuart Bruce, Philip Young, Tom Murphy