The blogosphere: what a weird, odd place.
Robert Scoble came out and blasted Om Malik’s GigaomniMedia-organized NewTeeVee Conference.
First off, as a member of the press as executive working in web video, I think the list of speakers is actually quite good.
Second, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so Scoble deserves some credit for actually suggesting some ways to improve both the agenda, speakers’ list etc., but I tend to agree with this lad insofar that what Scoble is describing is in fact a Web 2.0-heavy conference focused on video, intended for really early adopting geeks (none of that is a knock) and not what most people working in online video, web tv, broadband media care to come out and listen to. This last sentence is highly subjective, so let me clarify.
Conferences are 1/3 about the speakers, 1/3 about the topics and 1/3 about the attendees and people you meet. Frankly, few people remember the speakers or topics, but they do remember who they meet and network with, and those relationships tend to help their business etc.
As such, if I saw Scoble planning a conference as he describes it, I would probably not go (I might as a member of the press, but as an executive, probably not).
Let’s call a spade a spade: UGC is on the wane and advertisers can’t stand it. Yet we want advertisers to support everything, so let’s stop getting VCs excited and investing in things that only add to the hype and don’t in fact make online video a reality. But that’s a separate topic. Back to the conference:
Bottom line: Om’s conference brings out a lot of heavyweights and whether we like it or not, it’s those people that will make web video suck out TV’s $75B ad market to the Internet, so that web video ads in fact become larger than search ads.
But this is not why I am writing this post. Here’s the main reason:
What I don’t get, however, is why bloggers keep doing what gives bloggers a bad name. For example, Scoble’s post is at least traced with some elements of constructive criticism (mixed in with the self-promoting stuff that makes Scoble, well, Scoble - again, not a knock, stating “fact”). But then Scoble’s co-author and “nice guy” Shel Israel (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Tech Crunch 40 and does seem to be a nice person otherwise) comes and simply piles it on without adding anything of substance, apart from suggesting that sponsors should line up and underwrite he and Scoble’s potential competing conference.
WTF? Let me be blunt and candid here: when I saw the speakers’ list, I asked Liz Gannes (who seems to be working quite hard on the shindig cause she’s posting less… which is a shame) and Om himself why they did not have any content producers other than the guy who runs Revision3, incidentally the network that runs Om’s Giga Om’s Show. They subsequently added many big names. I still thought as one of the larger producers, publishers and syndicators of web video content, I deserved a spot on that panel because all seemed pretty old media to me, too (nope, not a knock, either)… but guess what:
- It’s their freaking conference, so unless I intend on doing my own conference, too bad for me.
But more importantly:
- I didn’t proceed to write a post and blast them for not including me, which is basically what Scoble does, (though I am now, but to actually defend the conference, sort of);
- I understood that to get more executives and media excited, they need bigger, more recognizable names than yours truly… that’s how business works… and frankly, I prefer that, because otherwise it would be a rag-tag collection of web 2.0 hypesters and not much of substance.
All right, I feel better now.
Full disclaimer: I might be attending NewTeeVee Conference, but it’s all the way out in SF and I’m across the freaking continent, and if I do, you better believe it it’s as a member of the press… cause until web video advertising becomes a reality, I can’t afford any conference…
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