NevOn

The alliance is dead... Long live the alliance

While the metaphorical headline to this post might seem a little melodramatic, it's actually quite apt as it sums up how I see the future following the decision by Guillaume du Gardier, Elizabeth Albrycht and me to dissolve Blogging Planet, the informal alliance we formed together last March.

With Guillaume being snapped up by Edelman to head their brand new online communications practice in Europe; Elizabeth's leadership role in the Society for New Communications Research, a new non-profit think tank launched yesterday (press release); and my strong focus on developing my own business and advocacy activities, we realized that Blogging Planet wasn't going to be able to light the fires in the long term that we'd anticipated when we set out on this journey together.

Especially because of such a tremendous opportunity for Guillaume, things change and evolve and you have to move with the times and shape your own events. (And thinking about Guillaume and Edelman, that's a PR firm to really watch - take a look at their recent acquisitions in Europe, for example.)

Alliances and other relationships come and go and new ones take shape, formal and informal. In my experience, alliances have many forms including the trusted relationships you have with your clients (if you're a consultant) and with your customers (if you're a business).

So while Blogging Planet is officially no more, there are very bright lights on the horizon for everyone.

For my part and first and foremost, I will be able to devote more time to strengthening my relationships with my existing clients and seek out new ones.

I will also be actively involved with the Society for New Communications Research I mentioned earlier. In this regard, I will continue to be in alliance with Elizabeth.

I also want to spend more time on further developing the For Immediate Release podcast series (yes, it's a series now) that I co-present with Shel Holtz (another alliance). Plus the kind of stimulating international communication work I'm doing with Fredrik Wacka (yet another alliance). I will also continue with my speaking engagements around Europe, some of which are pro bono volunteerism commitments.

Long live the alliance.

A powerful combination for Les Blogs 2.0

Exciting news from Blogging Planet, the communication consultancy in which I'm an alliance partner with Guillaume du Gardier, Elizabeth Albrycht and Christoph Ducamp.

Loic Le Meur of Six Apart has invited Blogging Planet to co-produce Les Blogs 2.0, a two-day conference scheduled for 5-6 December in Paris. And, given how close the dates are for Les Blogs 2.0 and Around the Blog, the one-day conference Blogging Planet is organizing on 11 October, we have decided to combine the two events to take place on 5-6 December.

So, Les Blogs 2.0 will incorporate our event as day 2 of the conference. We are duplicating the entire schedule of Around the Blog and have invited all our speakers to participate on 6 December.

The first Les Blogs took place in April in Paris and was very successful, with 250 people from 25 countries attending the one-day event. This time, the event has been expanded to two days, the first focusing on the social media phenomenon, the second on the tools and what you can do with them. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have signed on to speak. We will be announcing more speakers soon.

The cost will be €200 (excluding VAT) which will include the two-day conference, lunch on both days and the cocktail party on the first day evening.

Registration sign-up page and the conference programme will be available soon on the Les Blogs 2.0 site.

Note your diaries: Les Blogs 2.0 - Paris - 5-6 December 2005.

We hope you can join us!

Paris blog conference update

Plans proceed apace for Around The Blog, the one-day conference in Paris organized by Blogging Planet (the communication consultancy of which I am an alliance partner) which takes place on 11 October.

More speakers are on board, we now have the venue confirmed, and the price - just €85, which you can pay via PayPal if you wish.

Full details on the event wiki.

Around the blog in Paris

A one-day conference is being organized in Paris on 11 October designed to introduce participants to communication tools complementary to blogs such as RSS, podcasting, videocasting and tracking/buzz measurement - all elements of participatory communication.

Set up as a series of informal roundtables, the event is being organized by Blogging Planet (the communication consultancy of which I am an alliance partner), with my fellow partner Guillaume Du Gardier leading the planning and event development.

The event will address how such new media tools can be applied to various business challenges. We think it's time to talk about the next level of related tools and services which can really help blogs come alive for business.

Confirmed speakers to date are:

• Fergus Burns, CEO, Nooked
• Richard Treadway, CMO, PubSub
• Loïc Le Meur, Executive VP Europe, Six Apart
• Jian Ni, Senior Business Development Manager, Nokia LifeBlog
• Mark Rogers, CEO, Market Sentinel

The cost of participation will be low, less than €100 - the event is being planned as an affordable framework for stimulating discussion and ideas, not as a money-making event. We have limited the number of places to 200 attendees, so if you'd like to participate, please pre-book your place now - details on the event wiki.

Everything will be announced in the wiki, so please stay tuned there. We hope to see you in Paris on 11 October!

Connections create value from content

"Show me the content!" asks Joël Céré in response to our announcement yesterday on the launch of Blogging Planet.

He refers to this text in the description of the corporate consulting services that Blogging Planet offers:

[...] it is the medium - the network you build - that matters, not the message - the content.

Joël says:

I would argue that good content is still key to create a good network.

We have no disagreement here, Joël. Content is paramount - we are not suggesting that you ignore it, as Elizabeth said in her comment to your post.

What we are saying is this.

While compelling content is key in all communication (not only with new channels like blogs), it is just one of the means by which you build connections.

We believe that this focus only on content prevents you from seeing the more important issue - the value derived through the creation, maintenance and use of a powerful network of ongoing conversations amongst the widest possible audience, all of which provides the connections back to your organization.

In other words, it's the links - the connections - that assume greater importance as part of the goal of creating value from the content through the network you build.

You can have the most compelling content possible, something that's a joy to read  - or watch, or listen to - and enables the reader to gain clear understanding from your message that leads to a desired action. Yet all that is wholly in vain if you don't also have the connections.

You want people to talk about your content, tell others about it. In this new age of participatory communication, that happens when those people start making connections though blog posts (for example), which can then lead to the creation of a value network.

How does this happen? We have the tools now - trackbacks and RSS feeds in particular - that make it literally a simple point-and-click process.

A case in point for you, Joël - your blog doesn't accept trackbacks (one of the downsides of Blogger-hosted blogs - you should consider Haloscan for that) so I can't create a connection to your blog from this post.

This could have been the start of a wonderful relationship ;)

(Cross-posted from Blogging Planet)

It's about the communication, not the technology

Today marks the beginning of a new venture that brings together four European-based communication professionals to offer organizations something a little different in the field of communication consulting and communication technology.

Elizabeth Albrycht, Christophe Ducamp, Guillaume du Gardier and myself have formed Blogging Planet, a new consultancy designed to help companies in Europe and the USA deploy communication tools like blogs, wikis and RSS as integral elements of their strategic business and communication planning.

We formed this alliance because we believe that, by pooling our individual skills and experience, we can show organizations what networked, distributed communication - what some people call participatory communication - can really do for them.

We're excited and optimistic about what we'll be doing together in the coming months: helping organizations cut through the hype and jargon about these tools and focus on what really matters - how to use them for measurable business advantage.

It's about the communication, not the technology.

Details are in the press release that went out this morning (appended below and PDF version here) and of course in our new blog - www.bloggingplanet.com.

Don't hesitate to ask us how we can help you and your business.

Blogging Planet to Provide Counsel and Training on Adopting New Communication Tools, including Blogs, Wikis, RSS

New Consultancy Brings International Perspectives to Task of Building Communications Networks for Corporate Communications, Marketing, Employee Communications, and More

Paris, France, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 1, 2005:  A new consultancy dedicated to training organizations how to build new organizational communication networks launched today. Blogging Planet (www.bloggingplanet.com), an alliance of internationally-recognized practitioners in participatory communications, will provide counsel and training to organizations in Europe and the United States on how to effectively adopt new communications tools such as business blogging, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasts, and more for a wide variety of corporate functions, including corporate communications, marketing, public relations, employee communications and investor relations.