So, it’s three days later, and I still haven’t written much about my first BloggerCon experience… and I think I’m going to hold off on commenting on the conference itself for a bit longer yet…
However, I will relay a related story…
I was delighted to get an invite from Eleanor Kruszewski (“Elle”) and Mike Rowehl to attend BackchannelCon, a bit of an ‘after-party’ for BloggerCon hosted over at Mike and Elle’s place.
Based on a brief conversation we had with Elle over lunch at BloggerCon, Dan Gould and I took it upon ourselves (being very presumptuous, I might add — thankfully Mike and Elle are cool and forgiving people) to invite the “Vendors” to BackchannelCon so that we “users” could talk with them.
The result was VendorCon (or SuperMiniVendorCon as Scott from Feedster refered to it).
How was the impromptu, unpromoted conference? Fantastic. Scott Johnson from Feedster, Mark Fletcher from Bloglines, and Bill Flitter from Pheedo were all given an opportunity to make brief pitches and answer questions (including helping ‘users’ solve problems far beyond the scope of the services the aforementioned individuals represented). JD Lassica pitched ourmedia.org, and received a warm reception. (Other vendors were invited, but didn’t show: in all fairness, there was only a small window between the end of the conference and previously scheduled dinners.)
Users and Developers/Vendors create a virtuous cycle when they interact (communicate) with each other, resulting in greater satisfaction for both parties. Rather than creating ground-rules to prevent this very natural behavior, I hope Dave Winer and crew will use their energy to facilitate it (in a properly structured manner, of course) at future events.