Natalie Fonseca, Marketing Director, BlogOn 2005 Social Media Summit, made a comment (below) to my post about the behavior of their PR firm, Porter Novelli in response to my request for a press pass to the event.
Here’s my response Natalie:
I have the credentials and the experience to receive a comp pass to this conference without making deals. This is just silly. If I was covering the conference I would of course mention it to my readers. And it would be smart marketing for you to offer passes to a couple of my readers. Pretty much every conference does that. But they don’t make it a condition for giving a press pass to a journalist.
My comments are interspersed in the email, below. Her comments are in italics
[Fonseca] Hello again, BL.
I wanted to follow-up on our email discussion regarding the
possibility of you becoming a BlogOn 2005 Social Media Summit “evangelist.”
[BL] We did not have a discussion. You sent me a coy email asking me to make a deal with you to promote the conference:
[Fonseca] … I’m familiar with your blog and am wondering if you’d be open to a trade. I have a few passes reserved for “evangelists” and marketing partners and would love to talk to you about such an idea.
[BL]I said “No thanks” because you were vague and it sounded like you were trying to sell me something.
[Fonseca]First, in response to your comments about Porter Novelli, I think it’s important for you to know that we hired them specifically to help create relationships between the professional journalists that follow social media and BlogOn’s sponsors, speakers and Social Media Innovators.
[BL] These relationships involve BLOGGING and Porter Novelli does not have a company blog. Surely you could have found a PR firm that walked the walk and talked the talk just as easily as one that is clueless about blogs and rude to bloggers.
[Fonseca] One of the most important things we learned from our inaugural BlogOn event is that bloggers have other ways to contribute to the conference’s community.
That said, over the last few weeks, we’ve talked to a number of professional bloggers and blog experts whom we know about the fact that Guidewire Group is hosting BlogOn 2005 in NY this October to focus on the business side of social media. Not just blogs, but social media of all kinds – including syndication feeds, social networking services, podcasts, etc.
[BL] Uh huh.
[Fonseca] These bloggers are friends and colleagues who are supportive of the conference’s goal, which is to help marketing and communications executives who aren’t currently using social media in their businesses very extensively learn how to do so. And to do so well. So, internally, we’ve been referring to our supporters as “evangelists.”
[BL] I am a corporate blogging consultant with Fortune 500 clients; a sought after and well-paid corporate speaker on the topic of blogging, and author of “What Could Your Company Do With a Blog,” which has sold several thousand copies to corporations worldwide. In other words, I am no stranger to the topic of corporate blogging.
I also cover conferences about blogging and other new media for MarketingVox, MarketingProfs, and several other high-profile publications and blogs. I am always comped to conferences I cover, as are other journalists.
[Fonseca] To thank them for their willingness to spread the word through their blogs and personal networks, we’ve offered them a complimentary pass to join us at the summit. We’ve also created a special BlogOn 2005 logo for their blogs, and have offered them a discounted rate (which you know about) of $695. That rate is good for the first 5 people each “evangelist” refers.
[BL:] Like I said, I have the credentials and the track record to receive a press pass without conditions.
public_relations, Porter_Novelli, BlogOn, blogging
What are you two?
Your “Don’t you know who I am?” attitude is really annoying. I read your site daily and I respect your opinions and insight into marketing/blogging, but someone really needs to call you out on this — Big deal you didn’t get asked “to the prom.” Go anyway.
The reason I am so persnickety about this is that there is a journalistic principal involved. It astounds me that a conference about blogging should be debating whether bloggers are journalists at this point in time.
Fonseca offered me a pass with the *condition* that I run their logo on my blog. I am totally qualified to receive a press pass without conditions. I would have offered to run the logo. I always do. It would not have been a big deal.
Because I cover new media for What’s Next and several other prominent blogs and online publications, none of whom pay me, I attend many of the top conferences.
At as much as $1500 a pop, it would be impossible for independent journalists like me to cover these events.
Conferences benefit from live bloging and other press coverage. That is why conferences comp journalists.
BL
Stand your ground B.L.! They are claiming some sort of victory on this issue over at the BlogOn blog. I have no idea why…
Bloggers as..?
Bloggers as journalists; journalists as bloggers? Columnists as bloggers; consultant bloggers as journalists? Consultant columnists as blogging journalists? Blogging columnist consultant journalist well-paid-but-wanna-press-pass-…
I have always found your coverage of other events helpful. BlogOn is making a mistake and being arrogant about it too.
I can’t imagine why a conference wouldn’t want a prominent blogger to cover their event. Your coverage of events is always professional.
The thing is that BL has been around for a while as a blogger and as a publicist and I think had a good reason for approaching BlogOn for a press pass.
It is also true that BlogOn organisers decide what they do and who they let it etc but then they have to take the impact of someone with their own audience and following reacts.
But why on earth not have people like BL speak at the conference in the first place instead of haggling with them about press passes…?