Given it was last Thursday, I think I’ve had enough time to inwardly digest and ruminate on Blogs in Action. Obviously, I’m coming late to the summary/glowing praise stage of things, but I guess I’ll at least have the benefit of reading everything that’s gone before. (Update: it’s taken me a week to get around to finishing this post. Must try and write faster in future!).

To summarise: Blogs in Action was good, and it has the potential to be great. It also reminded me how bored I am of the word “blog” now, far more so than before. Not sure what else to use – I’ve experimented with b, but found it unwieldy – so “blog” it is (for now).

The small scale of the event kept things relatively informal and friendly, and made mingling afterwards lots less intimidating. It should also have made the whole thing swift and well-oiled – not too heavy to get out of hand – but it seemed to me that Q&A sections were just too long, and questions were passed to the whole panel rather than steered by any chair. Also, impromptu speakers were bolted onto the end and so we ended up spending a little over two hours sitting down – most people I could see were itching to get mingling at 8pm. And when the mingling kicked off, it was great; both interesting and exciting, lots of enthusiastic people crossing over. Shame it took so long to get there.

Speakers themselves: a little mixed. Coates was very eloquent given his scant preparation time, and I think he’s currently providing one of the clearest, and most concise explanations – and overall pictures – of what weblogging is right now. John Dale from Warwick Blogs was excellent. Not only is it a great project, but he’s an engaging speaker, and his understanding of social software (as well as the needs of students and faculties) was evident in the nature of his presentation, and the apparent simplicity of his offering. (It is, in fact, a mighty complex offering, as features such as horizontal linking (“all posts from all blogs in a certain category“) show). Neil McIntosh from Guardian Unlimited was good, but I’d have like to have heard a little more from him – his talk ended just as I felt it was getting good. Still, interesting to hear someone in publishing discuss comment moderation, and a good overall picture of how (as a broadsheet newspaper with strong online presence) you sell blogging to people higher up the chain of command, as well as your readers.

Charlie Shick from Nokia Lifeblog and Dominique Busson of vnunet.fr weren’t as interesting to my mind, but it was worth hearing a more corporate perspective on all things bloggy; I was certainly surprised that vnunet in France were going to start their own blog hosting service. Seems like a lot of responsibility for a publisher to take on.

All in all, it was a nice balance of perspectives and scales. I think that any subsequent event has the advantage of being able to use this one as a base, and I’m sure that future events will become more specific and slightly tighter. It was, after all, the first of its kind in London. Thanks must go to Alastair and Loic from SixApart Europe – who had come over from France to run the show – and I look forward to seeing them, and others at the next event they’re hosting.