Tom Raftery’s Social Media

Last night’s Blogging for Business event was a great success according to all the feedback I have received - this despite a number of setbacks:

• Richard Delevan rang me to tell me that he had been in a car crash, had missed his train and was going to be late for the event (he was unhurt, thankfully)
• The atrium in the National Software Centre where these events are normally held was double-booked so we had to hold the event in the Boardroom and
• The air-conditioning failed so the room was very hot

The meeting kicked off with a fascinating review of the history of blogging given by Maura McHugh. Next up we had Dr. John Breslin of DERI who gave a very comprehensive talk on syndication. Richard Delevan followed with a very entertaining and informative presentation which included wonderful quotes from Jonathan Schwartz:

It’ll be no more mandatory that [CEOs] have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account. If they don’t, they’re going to look foolish.

Robert Scoble:

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If your competitor has a product that’s better than yours, link to it. You might as well. We’ll find it anyway

and Lawrence Lessing:

Famous people have enough space to talk already. Blogging is interesting because of nonfamous people

And then I finished up boring the pants off everyone with my spiel about Search Engine Optimisation!

All four presentations are now available on the IT@Cork website or at least they should be there by the time you read this!