Last Friday (September 28) Brisbane hosted one of the first official Australian Blogging Conferences.

Held at the Creative Industries Precinct at the Queensland University of Technology’s Kelvin Grove Campus, the day featured many interesting and informative speakers on the phenomenon that is blogging. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay the whole time, but thoroughly enjoyed the speakers I did get a chance to hear.

Here’s a run-down of how the day went:

The Conference began at 9am – I arrived early and met a few people before the event started. Most notably – John Hacking from Search Tempo and Christine Parfitt from Semfire. It was really great to talk with other like-minded search professionals!

This first session was an introductory session featuring Senator Andrew Bartlett, Duncan Riley and John Quiggin on the pannel. The talk covered some of the history of blogging, the different uses for blogs and how Australia and Australian bloggers fit into the blogosphere.

This was followed by morning tea, with the remaining sessions being held in break-out rooms depending on your blogging interests:

Room 1: The Politics of Blogging
Sponsored by GetUp!

Discussion Leaders: Mark Bahnisch, Senator Andrew Bartlett, Brett Solomon, Graham Young

* Right, left or centre?
* Who cares?
* A politician’s perspective
* Blogging the 2007 Federal Election

Room 2: Researching Blogging and Blogging Research

Discussion Leaders: Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Melissa Gregg

* What’s there to research about blogging?
* What research methodologies can be used to research blogging?
* How do blogs support the research process?
* How do blogs contribute to disseminating research?

Room 3: Blogs, Creativity and Creative Commons

Discussion Leaders: Elliott Bledsoe, Jessica Coates

* What is Creative Commons?
* How can I use Creative Commons on my blog?
* Showcasing Creative Commons and blogging

Room 4: Legal Issues

Discussion Leaders: Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Dale Clapperton, Nic Suzor

* What can I say without defaming someone?
* What can I take from other websites and blogs?
* Encounters with the Law (or the threat of it)

After lunch and the launch of Marett Leiboff’s book “Creative Practice and the Law” the day continued with:

Room 1: Citizen Journalism

Discussion Leaders: Axel Bruns, Graham Young, Rachel Cobcroft

* Grassroots vs mainstream journalism?
* Video/photo citizen journalism?
* Is there any original reporting by citizen journalists?
* Case Study: youdecide2007

Room 2: Blogs and Education

Discussion Leaders: Tama Leaver

* Why blog in education?
* Examples and reflections?
* Should academics blog?

Room 3: Business and Corporate Blogging
Sponsored by Microsoft

Discussion Leaders: Des Walsh, Nick Hodge, Joanne Jacobs

* Can businesses afford not to blog?
* How do you measure return on investment of time and money?
* Should the CEO blog?
* Blogging codes

Room 4: Building a Better Blog

Discussion Leader: Duncan Riley

* Improving content
* Improving design
* Making money
* Podcasting and vodcasting

The day finished-up with two final discussions:

Final Discussion 1: The future for blogging – what’s next?
Sponsored by Kwoff

Discussion Leader: Dan Walsh

Final Discussion 2: The future for your blog – promoting your blog and building traffic

Discussion Leaders: Des Walsh, Yaro Starak

I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to listen to Duncan Riley in more detail as well as Yaro Starak, but overall I thought it was a great day and hope that there are more like it in the future.

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