Liveblogging was once a nifty way for political and sports bloggers to increase pageviews—readers following along with a speech or game would continually refresh to get a pundit’s take on the action. Now, though, the practice has been extended to all sorts of pursuits, and small business conferences and presentations are regularly covered.
That’s because liveblogging isn’t just good for real-time readers. It’s also a great way to summarize a talk for people who weren’t able to catch it live. By taking good notes on speakers at a conference, you’re simultaneously providing a needed service and increasing your profile as a person of note in your industry. And if you’re running a conference, having someone liveblog it makes it more official and gives it wider reach.
Before you start though, check out this little pamphlet on liveblogging [PDF] written up by two excellent bloggers, Bruno Giussani and Ethan Zuckerman.
If you cant bear to read a whole three pages, Kevin Kelly at Cool Tools has highlighted a couple of useful paragraphs, including:
Always remember that what you’re writing will be read by people who weren’t in the room, so they haven’t seen the slides, the video, or the gesture. Hence, you have to compensate for the lack of context. Don’t be afraid to create a narrative by saying “He shows a slide with data on …” or “She walks on stage carrying a big suitcase” or “He shows a YouTube video” etc. And if the speaker shows a YouTube video, or a picture, remember that you’re online: Open another browser window, go to YouTube, find that video, and link to it; or go to the speaker’s website, find that picture or another similar or related item, and link to it (or republish the picture within your post). Yes, this requires effective multitasking. It’s at the root of conference blogging.
