Tag: journalists

Matthias calls it the biggest blogmeet in Switzerland, but one of the journalists who were there counted 14 bloggers. Only fourteen?! Hey, we were 14 last month in Lausanne! (A long year ago, we were only 13 to meet in Vevey…)

Anyway, leaving numbers aside, I spent a nice week-end in Basel and a nice Saturday evening meeting some Swiss-German bloggers. I’d been wanting to do that for some time (you know how important languages and language barrier issues are to me), and the occasion seemed perfect, as it was during the school holidays.

My first impression was that the webloggers present were on the whole older than the bunch of us who meet up in Lausanne. I think it’s a good thing. (I felt like a “young ‘un” there.) Maybe it’s because I couldn’t follow all the conversations (my German is way too rusty), but I got the feeling that the atmosphere was less confrontational and more collaborative-cosy than what I’d experienced until then.

Three journalists were present, and although I don’t mind speaking to journalists, I did find that they stole the show somewhat (I plead guilty, by the way). The focus shifts way too easily from “meeting other bloggers and talking with them” to “talking with the journalists”. It’s normal, nothing wrong about it, but it makes me think it would be wiser to keep journalists out of blogmeets (especially when they are small blogmeets), and maybe organise “bloggers meet journalists” events, if there is need for such a thing.

While I’m at it, this is an official request for a Matt-meet. I know Heather and Ben were looking forward to meeting him. As for me… heck, I’ve been trying to meet the guy for years!

So, Matt — suggest a date?