Guest blogger Judi Clark covers emerging telecom and Internet issues at ManyMedia.com. She lives and blogs in Honolulu.

There are many times I wish I could be in two places at once. In the case of conferences held in far away places, the time and expense needed to attend such an event may be a lower priority than current business. In the case of the Pacific Telecom Council’s PTC ‘10 conference (held last month in Honolulu)–a conference known for telecom business deals–attendance at all of the interesting sessions and workshops may have ended up a second priority for some attendees.

Way, way back in the days of old, we might have been able to ask a friend to take notes for a class we might have missed. That’s often not an option these days–unless there’s a good blogger at the conference. Sometimes a conference will provide bloggers, but more often someone from the press or interested attendees will blog sessions that they’re sitting in on.

These blog “notes” can range from brief overviews of the subject matter, to highlights of the session or speakers, to rather detailed notes about the substantive material covered by each speaker. Depending on the note-taking and multi-tasking skills of the blogger, the session notes can be linked to the official program session description, speaker bios, external links referenced in the slides, and more.

I was able to blog several sessions at the PTC ‘10 conference last month. My conference blogging style is pretty detailed about what the speaker is saying and showing on screen. If you missed sessions at this conference, check to see if the blog posts covered your sessions. Alternatively, PTC-TV covered several sessions too. Blogging is sometimes the best way to “be in two places at once.”

http://www.ptc.org/ptc10/?page_id=2326 [The PTC news feed with session blog posts]

http://www.ptc.org/ptc10/ptctv/index.html [PTC-TV, with plenary sessions, executive interviews, and the awards ceremony]

Like

Unlike