Two networking events brought bloggers and advertising types in contact in Dublin over the last week, and both spurred a ripple of chatter on Twitter and through blogs.

The first was Casting Couch, a pre-launch event at which bloggers were given an early heads-up on Bord Gáis’s Big Switch launch, a day ahead of the traditional media, but with an embargo that prevented them from doing anything with the information until it went on general release.

The other was the second iteration of Damien Mulley’s Collision Course, a collaborative affair where bloggers and PR types were encouraged to mingle, work together to solve a problem, and share ideas.

I didn’t attend the first, but from what I gather, Bord Gáis unveiled the product behind their anonymous Big Switch campaign, which had established an online presence using Twitter and a placeholder website, without revealing anything of the substance of the offer beforehand.  Bloggers were bound to an embargo, after which they were free to blog away to their heart’s content, extending the reach of the campaign, for the cost of a few bottles of wine and some nibbles to the organisers.

The column inches and quantifiable hits were the desired result for the PR folk. But what, if anything, was in it for the bloggers? What use was this to them apart from the ability to say ‘I was there’ or, after the embargo has passed and the news is out there, ‘I already knew that’?

Erm, thanks, I think.

I did attend the second (nice to meet you all), and enjoyed working through a problem with a mix of bloggers and PR types. The format has potential, and the discussion about how to improve it further was good, but I came away feeling that although I had contributed to a worthwhile discussion, I hadn’t gained all that much, or felt like we had broken any new ground. The usual touchpoints were hit/buzzwords mentioned and at one stage of our discussion one of the PR folks observed that a certain tack might ‘score brownie points with Damien’, meant in jest but illuminating. It reminded me of this post. (Update: and this video)

Any networking opportunity is valuable in itself, but I couldn’t help but wonder what tangible gains there are from this form of interaction, if any, for the average blogger.  In the Big Switch case, were bloggers not set up to be used as pawns by the PR firm in question, with little to show for it bar a few free drinks?

Bloggers have long craved respect and recognition from the mainstream, a recognition of worth rather than the ‘insolent child’ treatment that was doled out for so long. But in a rush to be ‘engaged’ by the big boys, have we mistaken being involved for being used? [Read more →]