The ethical technology blogger junket

A few weeks ago, I participated in an interesting event and new (for me) kind of event, Gestalt IT Tech Field Day. Stephen Foskett (see my earlier post on Gestalt IT) pulled together the event only 5 weeks after attending and being inspired by the very successful HP Tech Day, which brought together a dozen bloggers to (re)introduce to them what was happening with HP and storage. He and the community thought it was such a great event they wanted to do it again. So is this the start of a wave of enterprise tech blogger junkets?

Junkets and other related boondoggles have a long history – probably the first one was a rich Babylonian who invited some scribes out to brunch at his hanging gardens so they’d say good things about him. And we all know about junkets for doctors and journalists and politicians, and the rules many organizations have to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. Everyone in social media is obviously watching the new FTC guidelines (I like these comments from Steve Hershberger of ComBlu), and most of us have heard stories about all the good stuff that can get sent to bloggers.

So let’s just take as a given that this kind of thing can go very wrong indeed in the wrong hands. This event was in very right hands, however. I’m somebody who often gives things to people in my job role, so I’m very interested in clear guidelines and disclosures, which will be a topic for another day.

The funny thing is that when we think of a junket, we think of a Mai Tai by the pool in Hawaii. Tech Field Day was not that kind of experience, but it was geek heaven, just the same.

Let’s turn over this introduction to organizer Stephen Foskett:

from Rod Haywood’s post: Gestalt IT Tech Field Days 2009.

Note what Stephen says – although it was sponsored by a set of vendors, this event was not controlled by the vendors. Sunshine Mugrabi helped organize the event and talks about how it rapidly came together. Attendee Rick Vanover describes the schedule and answers the vacation question:

Q: Is this industrial tourism?

A: To an extent, but it is not a vacation. Our day on Thursday started at 7:00 AM and went until 9:00 PM. Friday started at 7:30 AM and we didn’t get back from dinner until around 8:30 PM. Yes, we had fun – but we were busy giving the sponsors our full attention.

The event was a huge success for all the participants. 1,274+ tweets and dozens of well-disclaimed blog posts later, the vendors felt like they were able to communicate very intimately to a set of influencers. The attendees, all top-notch independent technologists, were stuffed full of information about new technologies, which was a plus for their jobs, and they were also able to convey what their perspectives to their readers, which was a plus for their blogs. A second Tech Field Day is now being planned.

An important part of the event was the quality of the presentations. You’ve got to bring smart technologists to talk technology with these guys. No marketing fluff, although you can talk benefits, as long as they’re real. Everybody loves a good benefit. Attendee Rich Brambley wrote about the experience in  Thoughts About Presenting to Engineers. Ed Saipetch, another attendee, also wrote The Five Rules of Tech Day Club:

The genesis of this list comes from the question I asked myself and other attendees constantly which was, “What can we do to get deeper than a standard technical presentation or trade show booth demo.” …

2. Cover the basics and then get into the weeds – We love the weeds. Some of us do anyway. It shows us you know what you’re talking about. It separates you from your competition. Tell us your strengths and weaknesses. We are more effective when we are armed with more information.

What were the success factors of this kind of event – new to our corner of the blogosphere?

• Strong commitment from the organizers of no quid pro quo. What the bloggers wrote was up to them. Even when there is a vendor as a sponsor, like HP, this has to be the case. (Disclaimer: I’m pitching this kind of event to several groups inside VMware. I think it’d be a blast.)
  
• Independent technologists who have their reputation at stake. I respect all these guys, and their reputations are based on being good communicators about their honest technical opinions.
  
• Full disclosure. Disclose, disclose. When the topic comes up again in a few months, disclose some more.
• Deep technical mind melds. The most successful vendors (the ones that generated the most love) had some of the coolest products, yes, but they also sent in top-notch technologists to have a deep dive with the visitors. This is critical; spewing marketing bs at a bunch of technologists is deadly – even if they don’t like your product, technologists like talking to other smart technologists.
  
• A grueling schedule (14 hour days on and off the bus probably qualifies) that no sane person would mistake for a vacation.
• Invite the right people: don’t aim for super-connected influencers whose greatest claim to fame is how often they get retweeted. In this kind of event, you want people with authority and respect in the communities you want to reach. Their opinion counts where it matters.
  

Obviously, we’re just catching up to the MommyBloggers here. Have you participated in an event like this? What ethical obligations do we all have going forward with these kind of events? What are other ways that we can get the opportunity to communicate deeply with people who specialize in our domains?

[Updated with more on presentation tips from Ed, and a final bullet point on inviting the right people with authority.]