AOP Conference News

Yes, I went to the AOP Conference yesterday.

No, I didn't blog it live.

Why not?

1. This conference for online publishers was very coy about the fact that there was a free WIFI access code available; the only visible options seemed quite expensive. I could have put it on my expenses but I was feeling churlish in return.
   
2. This conference for online publishers had a very slow WiFi.
   
3. This conference for online publishers did not have power sockets at the tables so I could only use my laptop until the batteries ran out. Then I stopped taking e-notes and scrawled.
4. This conference for online publishers didn't have an awful lot to blog about. And certainly nothing urgent.
   
5. Lots of other people were blogging it quite adequately without my input:

• Patrick Smith: Clay Shirky tells AOP conference: ‘don’t believe in the myth of quality’
• PaidContent: Links to coverage
• Dan Leahul at Brand Republic
• Adam, of course
• and my boss's boss.
  

I generally find conferences overwhelming so have a practice of making myself come away with a few take-home points of things I am going to actually do as a result:

1. Add Wikipedia to the list of subjects of our community outreach programme. Our experts should be contributing to Wikipedia and we should get to know the people who are the key Wikipedia contributors in our business areas.
2. Encourage more regular, scheduled video offerings in our markets (as opposed to ad-hoc ones)
3. Assess potential video offerings in terms of VideoJug's breakdown: Life skills, Immediate need, Special interest, Personal issues, Weird and Wonderful, Expert Advice.
4. Identifying Passion Points - we've been doing it wrong. Ask our research team to come up with a better way of doing it.