An open letter to the organizers of BloggerCon.

(Posted to the comments box on Dave Winer's "Rough draft of changes to BloggerCon program")

It has been my privilege, since 1989, to be part of various teams that put together conferences and symposia for professionals in the e-Learning business. With that background, it seems to me that $500 for a one day weekend event, with a limited range of speakers, in a classroom on a college campus, in a city that is very expensive to fly into and to lodge overnight in, is too doggoned much. I'm not going to mention that having a presentation team of about ten supported by 40(!!!) other people, in a room that only holds 150 is an awful lot of overhead. Since this is in a college classroom (even if it is Harvard), I can't believe you are having to pay $50,000 for the room and logistic support, so there's an obvious question I am not going to ask because the answer would be it's none of my business.

At this point, unless someone is a developer of software or a writer of books about blogging, weblogging is still what the IRS would consider a hobby or an avocation. (Apologies to non-US readers, but you get my drift.) Which means it would be impossible to get away with writing it off as a business expense. While the discussion will surely be intellectually stimulating, where's the economic value to the blogger sitting in the middle of that 150-seat room? You guys better be offering one heckuva lunch!

My suggestion for next year would be to do at least one of the following: define the target audience better (this year's looks like an event for software developers looking for opportunity and possibly for mainstream media folks who want to get educated -- but it seems to be getting pitched as a conference for the general weblog author/publisher), find a value proposition that works for the non-developer, or lower your price.

Don't get me wrong. I am not being hostile about this, and I hold all of the organizers and presenters in high regard. I just think you have a dog here that won't hunt.

Respectfully,

Bill Brandon

3:29:08 PM