Liveblogging a Conference or Event

[Michele Martin]

"Liveblogging" an event refers to the practice of writing a blog post while an event is occurring. You can liveblog a meeting, a conference keynote, a workshop or just about any other event. Liveblogging can be particularly powerful for getting the most out of a conference, both for you as a conference-goer, as well as for others who may not be able to attend.

In this Forum, we'll discuss your tips, tricks and questions about liveblogging. If you've liveblogged before, we'd also love to see links to some examples and your thoughts on the experience.

[David Fair]

I won't be able to attend DevLearn. Will anyone be liveblogging it? Who should I follow if I want to keep up with DevLearn in real time? (I am completely new to Twitter.)

[Duncan Greenhill]

I'm a little unsure about this. I tend to use the cornell notetaking method and different colours - blue for the speaker's content, and black for my thoughts on it, almost as little 'asides' for me to follow up/think about later. I do touch type so I'm pretty fast on a keyboard but I would still doubt I could absorb, record and synthesise a coherent (and useful) account of the presentation. To my mind, it's trying to accomplish two separate goals at the same time: first, to produce a record of the presentation (with my comments) that I can reflect and process later, and second, to produce an account of the presentation that will be of use to someone not present. Sorry to seem negative, but I'm not sure those two goals can be met in real time (or at least not by me :-) )

[Tony Karrer]

Duncan - I agree. I have a hard time with real-time blogging. Certainly I take notes, but normally I then have to go back to make them acceptable as a blog post. Or I just send out my very crude notes.

Live blogging is certainly a skill and causes you to take notes differently.

[Michele Martin]

Hi Duncan--having done a few liveblogged posts, I can say that I actually got MORE out of the sessions I liveblogged than I usually do from just attending an event. It was definitely a challenge and I ended up doing a little editing before I actually posted, but for me, it was a helpful way to really delve into what the speakers were saying. One of the best things was that I was able to immediately link to associated online content that made my notes much deeper than they usually are. I also know where my notes are--something that usually isn't the case when I use my usual paper/pencil method. :-)

[Tony Karrer]

I won't be live blogging, but I will try to use Twitter for updates and will create blog posts of sessions that I attend that I feel warrant a blog post.

The way to follow then is to follow @TonyKarrer and @dl08 on Twitter as I will tweet my blog posts as well.

[Michele Martin]

Here's another example of liveblogging done by Christy Tucker, who frequently liveblogs during her participation in webinars and other learning events.