I’m sitting down to write a blog about bloggers coming to yesterday’s blogger event at Mozilla. I’m thinking about liveblogging, microblogging, and metablogging. I’m thinking I don’t know too many other PR people who would get the opportunity to write this post. I'm thinking about how much tech PR has changed since I started my career path a decade ago (though that’s probably a separate post).
The unique part of yesterday’s event wasn’t about a tech company opening the doors and inviting in a bunch of bloggers. I have been a part of those types of events in the past. What made yesterday’s event unique was that there were no embargoes, everything was on the record, and we had a bunch of non-media trained folks participate.
This is rare in PR and corporate communications. It’s much easier to do things that have proven track records for success – such as embargoes, limiting media interaction with non-spokespeople, holding events in fancy restaurants, sticking to a powerpoint deck and a strict agenda, etc. But Mozilla exists in a different space. We live in a fishbowl. We thrive in the open. We are a public benefit, mission-driven organization. And mission presented on paper doesn’t have quite the same impact as mission presented in person.
Bloggers traveled from as far away as LA and as near as Atherton. We had 10 visitors total and about 10 Mozillians there. John Lilly kicked off the event by providing some background and history on the Mozilla Project. Then Mike Schroepfer, our VP of Engineering talked about Firefox 3. We had an open Q&A session running throughout the event. I noticed this at SXSW this year as well. Running Q&A instead of formal presentation followed by formal Q&A is all the rage these days. :)
We ate some pizza and then split up by interest, not by agenda, so people were free to gravitate toward others with common interests. A lot of people met for the first time at the event but had been following and commenting on each other’s blogs for years.
I asked participants (both bloggers and Mozillians) for feedback after the event. The general consensus was that we should do more of these. So don’t worry if you missed the first one - we’re planning to have another one soon!
