This weekend the fifth EBE – EventoBlog España – took place here in Sevilla. In fact, it’s still going on until tomorrow. But I’m done.
I dunno, maybe it’s me. I don’t like huge crowds of milling directionless people and I also don’t like wasting my time. But I had a look at the programme for this year’s event and thought that, as a blogger of many years, perhaps it was time I got more involved in a face-to-face and personal way in this whole Social Media biz. But in the end I was left feeling disappointed and that I could have – and probably should have – spent my time better.
Perhaps things just got off to an unfortunate start. I attended the inauguration talk, all about what’s different now from five years ago. Which was my first clue that the organisers should perhaps rethink who their audience is. What I saw were some very hip young guys (almost all male here) back-and-forthing across the stage and telling us what a blog is, and how blogs are different now than before. And, well…duh! Who did they think they were talking to? More than half the audience wasn’t even listening. They were either busy tweeting or otherwise engaged on their smartphones, or else working away on their netbooks or iPads. And the other few talks I attended there were equally dull… and I mean dull in the sense that I didn’t actually learn anything new, and I certainly wasn’t shown anything in an interesting and entertaining manner. And yet it was apparent that masses of time and money had been put into staging this event.
I suppose one way of looking at it – and this certainly was the case with a few people I spoke to – was that the event was more about networking outside of the scheduled talks. And well, okay, I could actually see how that would be more interesting for most of the people there. But again… network with who? It seemed that it was mostly about hanging out with people you already knew – and perhaps meeting someone new that way. There were no social point areas set up for specific blogging groups: technology, sports, gastronomy, photography, etc , though there was clearly plenty of space to do so. Instead it was just a huge mass of people mingling in a very haphazard manner – it rather felt like being in the middle of a huge and noisy shopping mall.
After my second visit today I left feeling quite let down by the whole thing. If you were there I’d be interested to hear what you thought of it. Personally I think it’s a great idea, and it is obviously very well organised, but I felt the content simply wasn’t that interesting or pertinent.
What do you think?
Agreed the networking part is the most important. I was wondering where you were today. Saw you when I was on the phone but couldn’t find you after. I am currently in a talk which is totally passing me by. Back out to do some talking to people. I have one excellent biz contact so far. That justifies the roi for me. However your tapas tour is the highlight so far
Tapas last night was the best part for me too! And also meeting Graeme through you, by chance.
Saying that had some great conversations outside the charlas today!
I completely agree with you, it was a waste of time for me too – I only went once, on the Friday. The charlas were boring, unoriginal and totally useless in terms of teaching me anything new or constructive – and I am very new to twitter and blogging, so still have lots of learn. However, this wasn’t the place to do it. And it wasn’t because of the language barrier, as I had feared – I understood everything. The feed on the wall screens was more interesting, although why everyone was saying how great EBE was was beyond me. Technology is changing all the time, and they mentioned nothing remotely innovative. I only just discovered paper.li this morning. Not yet available in Spanish, but an interesting idea – why couldn’t they have talked about that? Or your live traffic feed on the right, that is well cool! Maybe they already know about these things, I don’t know, but anything would have been more informative than their topics.
I think the action at these conferences always takes place in the social situations (that’s what they say about the G20 too!) – where people can chat informally, make contacts and network generally. As I didn’t know anyone except you (what a relief that was!), it was hopeless for me. I reckon most of the people already knew each other from Tweetmeets, so it was like trying to edge your way into an existing clique, with no invitation or contact.
Anyway, great post.
It wasn’t a total waste of time for me, but I certainly didn’t feel like I got much out of it. Yes, it was free (other than taxi fare) and I was left wondering if I simply got what I paid for. Following the #EBE10 tweets you’d think it was the best event ever held ever, when in fact it was – as Graham Hunt posted – mucho ruido y poco nueces (much ado about nothing). And no, I’m not a jaded convention-goer – actually, this was my first blogging conference. But I kept looking in vain for meeting points for the different types of blogs that are out there in order to do some networking (had brought my business cards and everything!). For me just having a massive open space for 2000 people to mingle left me, well, just out there.
I think the event has a good heart and it certainly doesn’t lack for motivation, organisation and sponsorship – but CONTENT people! Where was it? And if the point was to offer a networking platform, why not make that actually possible?
Thanks for commenting, Fiona.
Just want to add that for anyone who thinks I’m simply dissing this event, please take a closer look and realise that I am not doing this. I’m trying to show my experience of EBE10, both good and bad and in between. For me it was mostly in between.
I am online at least 12 hours a day, usually more. Seven days a week. I run and maintain eight blogs, a forum and am also do social media management for my clients. And I am always eager to learn about how I can do more things online and do them better. I would have thought that anyone attending the fifth anniversary of EBE would actually know what a blog was…
I guess I’m just saying that it felt that this event was aimed at newbs, or those who still think anything said from a stage is somehow IMPORTANT.
I would hope that the people who organise EBE would take notice of the actual requirements and needs of its target audience. When more than half the audience is busy doing something else during the talks then I think they are missing their mark, don’t you?
Wait until the conference I am going to put on in Valencia if you want to hear something to help you along Fiona. Sorry not to have met you btw.
I like your comment that they could have had designated areas for open discussions on topics, so that you could have a change to meet and networking with new, relevant people, instead of just meeting up with familiar faces.
Still I am sure it was a great opportunity to meet people from all across Spain who you already connect with. However, these meetings would no doubt have had to have been pre-arranged since its hard to recognise people from their avatars – and thats just the ones with a picture (as opposed to oranges!) 😉
I imagine for me, if I had gone, the highlight of the trip would have been a tapas tour with you! Seriously!