I think that RSA Conference and SHIFT did a great job of determining which bloggers merited a press pass and such. We were less exclusive with the bloggers event itself because we’re trying to forge a strong community as well as encourage some of the lesser-known or lesser-published bloggers to write more. We had about 110 bloggers attend, and the feedback has been fantastic. Jeanne Friedman over at RSA was a tremendous help in launching the event blog for us, and we also appreciate SHIFT’s help in including the blog link and the Twitter feed link in the communications that went out to press. While I think we could’ve done a better job with the Twitter feed, it was still a great information vehicle. We’ll make it bigger next year.

Cheers.

Thanks!

ahg3

@ahg3 – I asked our RSAC team about how they promoted the twitterfeed. Here was their reply:

“Since the addition of Twitter was an 11th hour project, we included information about the twitterfeed in the final two press newsletters that we sent out to pre-registered attendees, encouraging them to follow the @rsaconference handle. Here is how we promoted it:

Join the Conversation – Twitter at the Conference

Interact with us – and with one another – on Twitter at this year’s Conference! Go to https://twitter.com/rsaconference to stay in the know on Conference happenings – whether to report an Alan Turing sighting or to share information on who is behind the recent breach at the Massachusetts-based Hannaford Bros. stores. And if you do plan on Tweeting, be sure to use #RSAConference in your tweets to feed into the RSA Conference Tweme.”

As noted, we could have done MORE. Next year!

@Martin – Thx for stopping by; your dedication to cultivating this community is laudable!

Still it’s a useful tool for announcements and quick feedback, and it sounds like you did a great job.

As you know, we’re using @Campaign2008 to generate discussions about the US presidential elections, including the debates, conventions and primaries. As we experiment more with the tool and get a better feel for its applications, we learn a great deal.

As one of the first bloggers to get a press pass and one of the organizers of the Security Bloggers Meetup, I want to say thanks for your support of our little community. Actually, given that we had well over 100 people attend the Security Bloggers Meetup party, it’s not such a little community any more. The 2007 Meetup had about 40 people in attendance, so we’re definitely growing.

Jennifer Leggio (aka Mediaphyter) was responsible for a large part of the success of our party and deserves as many kudos as I can give her. She also ran the twitter feed for another security event earlier this year, SOURCE Boston. That doesn’t make it the earliest use of twitter at a security conference, but it does pre-date RSA.

I don’t know of many industries that have spawned as many bloggers and embraced bloggers as whole heartedly as security. I guess we’re just starved for information and blogging is a great way to disseminate and collect that information. I can only hope this trend continues.

We’re already starting to talk about next year’s meetup. Given the growth we’ve had over the last two years we’re going to have to find a bigger venue and more sponsors. But the main thrust will continue to be creating an opportunity for security bloggers to meet face to face, to create a true community.

Martin