• by Kelly Samardak , June 17, 2009

140 Characters Conference Afternoon, New World Stages, New York
June 17, 2009

Yesterday I seemed like a crotchety old cynic with my 140 Characters Conference write-up. Can't help it -- I question things always. Even in meetings at the MediaPost homestead, I don't sit and nod and smile, I offer options and ask questions because I want to know that we're really thinking, really making the right choice. Regarding this conference in particular, I think my brain reverted to my nerd herd days and I want to rebel against panels like "what makes a Twitter celebrity." Or when I almost threw up on my avocado sandwich when I heard people discussing their "retweet strategy" -- because when it comes down to it, that's why some people don't even want to "get" Twitter. AND that's why some people think marketing and social media "strategists" are killing it. But hey, let's see what else went down yesterday and at last night's party at Touch -- maybe more meat rose to the top.

You can't hate Jeff Pulver, conference kingpin. If he's acting, which I don't think he is (but I've been naïve before), he pulls off the "I'm in awe of you, for reals!" guy really well, especially when Christopher R. Weingarten (@1000TimesYes) -- music writer for RollingStone.com and Village Voice, hit the stage dropping f bombs left and right and riling up the audience with his franker-than-Ballpark-all-beefs pitch about why he's not going to have a job anymore and why the music critic is dead. He was the stereotypically scruffy music dude covered in self-deprecation, but you know what he did? He echoed what a little fly on the wall (who has been reamed in the blogosphere - P.S., I still hate that word) said about people twittering at conferences -- that people just transcribe. Weingarten was at the Bonnaroo music and arts festival (and thank you for saying "hippy-dippy jam bands"!) and saw tons of "I'm [here]" and "I'm heading to so and so's tent" tweets. He questioned where is the love, seriously? He hooted and waved his arms around and begged for real tweets of "You have to check out my favorite band because..." Look for yourself - the hashtag stream for this conference shows that a lot of us have a real future in transcribing. I tried to encourage reactions myself -- it's great that you think the content is good so far, but WHY.

The Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) moderated panel, which included Ann Curry (@AnnCurry), news anchor on NBC's "Today Show "and host of "Dateline NBC," Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn), host of the 3PM weekday edition of CNN Newsroom, and Ryan Osborn (@todayshow), Producer, "Today Show" because I'm a day late (did I mention that the Wi-Fi at New World Stages sucked my will to live?) redeemed the morning for me. This one pinched the collective audience bottom, with questions being angrily thrown from the audience at the caustic and pompous (but that's his act right? That's what someone in the hall told me) Rick Sanchez. Between Robert Scoble, who had complained about how tight for time his panel was the day before - and now we know why, and Rick Sanchez having an "I hate you but I love you" fest, Ann Curry and "the other guy" Ryan Osborn couldn't find a spot on the bed. To the left of the stage the pit of twitterers started yelling "ANN!! Let's hear from Ann Curry!!" as soon as Sanchez uttered the phrase "happy face pretty journalist."

Curry got a little flowery with her soft yet deep-voiced, "Lord-Of-The- Rings" style utterance of fighting the good journalism fight (swords, blood, etc), but she sounded tired and angry and that's when I think we're all at least diabolically honest. "We tell a story of how Americans see a story," Ann explained the current news media misstep, going further to explain that when they're in the muck there is a mandate that you "shoot the story like it's your mother, your sister, your brother ... and you tell the story in that way" -- NOT with the American agenda.

The best moment on the panel was when Curry laid her hands on the table and said "Judgment is not taught in J-school, judgment is obtained over time... Reporting is a service job. It's about taking care of people by looking at the truth." As a real investigative journalist with access to the world's (and local!) events, you have to be able to make the call on whether that tweet or that blog snippet is worth chasing or even using as a source, you have to make the call to cut filming and continue rolling. Take that and slap it over to social media and you as a brand putting yourself out there on Facebook and Twitter (sounds a lot less meaningful after listening to the Iran election discussion and the Darfur situation) and you make the call on who to engage. YOU call the shots - not the "5 ways to tweet like a champ!" manual. Begin tangent...

I think that's what I'm wrestling with in this conference. Each panel is telling the audience of people who are already on Twitter for themselves, their business, their brand, their family, their desire for Twitter fame, how to "do it." Or better, how they "do it." Ok... I could follow you on Twitter and figure that out myself, no? And I'm not slamming Twitter -- I love it, I'm a total dork about it. But see, I'm in this whole argument-with-myself spiral. It's what I do.

OH! Two pieces made me perk up. I was anxious for the Twitter: Music panel because I had eavesdropped on their prep session where the moderator told Jim Jones (artist, businessman, tweeter) that all media at the conference was really here for him and that this conference had been all over the news (the news? Really?). I cringed, hoping they wouldn't get eaten alive. Note: I only knew who Jim Jones was because my guy and a close friend work in music -- I wasn't there just for his panel, and you could call me media if you really wanted to. You can see the panel almost in its entirety in the Flickr Collection at some point.

The other piece that made me perk up: the 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. slots of Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) -- CMO, Kodak -- who at first struck me as oh, no Mr. Corporate type, but through the pulpit style delivery his I'm-all-over-it attitude sparkled like Brian Morrissey's eyes on a delicious sandwich; and my nerdy favorite, Kevin Slavin founder area/code - covering "Things that twitter." Kevin showcased games where users controlled the actual movements of a shark, a cell-phone-GPS-enabled game where users had to keep away from Papa Bones (whatever the hell his name was), an invisible death deliverer, and @botanicalls -- the little mechanism that puts your plant online to let you know when he's dying of thirst. I could never use @botanicalls because anyone following my plant would know what a death thumb I am.

The day finally ended with the schmooze at Touch, where my head was exploding so I left around 9 p.m. Did I miss anything scandalous?

You can find videos from yesterday popping up over here. And photos over here .