Niel sums up his feelings of the conference. Two points that are worth highlighting:
1) ‘So the event’s popular, but I’d also argue it faces a real challenge if
it’s not just to end up an enjoyable, but largely fruitless, meetup for
blog fans’ – The first Les Blogs was like a Loïc meetup-schmoozfest. Great fun, a good first turn of the flywheel. Now with the second conference – bigger, badder, better – we have reached a good conversation rumble. But, it was still talk. The next one needs to come up with concrete stuff (actually, my suggestion last time was that we wait 18 months for a more concrete event) – case studies, examples, anecdotes, outcomes, deals. Might be asking for much, but I think we are now there.
2) ‘Speakers can’t attempt to lump Europe together as one entity (although
a few may try). You can’t credibly say the media in Italy is much like
that in the UK, or Sweden’s much like Spain’s, I’d argue.’ – Which ties into my mini-rant in the last panel, abusing my position as panelist, highlighting the dominance in this space of not just the US, but of Silicon Valley. I think Europe might end up being insignificant in the end, for reasons that have nothing to do with enthusiasm, innovation, and creativity.
Link: A challenge for Les Bloggers from Guardian Unlimited: News blog.
Good afternoon from Paris, where I’m at the Les Blogs conference. It’s the second of these gatherings of European bloggers, organised by French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur (who also runs the European arm of Six Apart, who make blogging software).
