Walking the Talk

Last week I took some heat on stage at Gnomedex, which continued afterward in the blogosphere. My perspective, nearly a week later, is that in the 30 minutes WeatherBug CTO Chris Sloop and I had to present on "Tomorrow's Public Relations," we did convey our experience in how we utilize blogging to address hardcore PR issues. Nevertheless, I value all of the blog feedback that perhaps we went too far in turning the last part of the session into a mini press conference. I believe in walking my talk - the theme of which was "listening to learn" - and I promise you that I will learn from this feedback. That's what I love about blogging. I learn so much from my fellow bloggers - especially when skies turn stormy and rain on my parade. For more, read Chris' perspectives about Gnomedex in his blog post and check out Dan Farber's complete account of the story.

Comments

[Robert Scoble]

Some of the feedback that I heard was that audience members thought you had a philosophy of delivering objective content while you came off on stage as "I'll do anything for my client."

I think it was this disconnect that caused you to get the feedback you did. It's why I talk more about my competitors when I'm on stage than I do about our own products when I'm in front of an audience like this.

It's a tough line, though, cause it is hard to serve these two masters.

[Paul Vogelzang]

I suppose what I heard was slightly different, as it became clear that what was desired was purely an effort to correct a longstanding misperception about the Weatherbug software, one that undermined the usefulness of the product.
Coming from Treasury, we are always about communicating honestly and openly, continually seeking forums to better acquaint regarding our efforts. I totally understand Steve's approach, understood his message during Gnomedex, and know the difficulty first hand in truthfully and zealously communicating that message.

[Jeremy Pepper]

Let's give some credit to really good PR people and not pretend like we can all be replaced by 15 year old bloggers, because that diminishes what you does just as much as what the best PR people do.

But, I'm sure that it was all worth it to be called a PR maven.