Can you advise a blogger?

What three things would you advise someone about blogging? Whether it's content, design, style, technical, tagging or tone, your advice would be appreciated.

I'm leading an open conversation at Podcamp Ireland today:

Darragh Doyle on “How Do You Do - Advice For Blog Beginners”

Darragh invites you to an open conversation and collaborative session where bloggers of all levels are asked to share 3 pieces of advice/tips that they have learned from blogging.

All advice will be compiled during the day and made available for distribution to beginners and experts alike.

There are some expert speakers and attendees I'm looking forward to meeting up with and hearing today. Check out the Podcamp Ireland website for full details of the day.

I'm typing this in the car on the way. Mobile broadband rocks.

Sushi with Spicendipity's Deborah Hadley

One of the Podcamp Ireland talks I'm most looking forward to later this month is Deborah Hadley's morning session on “From Spare Room to Board Room: How to turn your hobby into a profitable online business“. Deborah (or @Debz) is an inspiration for me - I marvel at her ability to run a successful blog and business, manage a family and do it all with a wicked sense of humour. I pestered her over sushi sat down with her recently to find out more.



I first met Debs at the 2008 Blog Awards, where she'd been nominated for Best Food Blog for the Humble Housewife, a blog she started in January of 2007. Her exuberant personality made an immediate positive impact on me and as we chatted I felt as comfortable as if I'd known this woman for years, her real-life personality mirroring almost exactly how I imagined this "humble housewife" (it was supposed to be ironic, she sighs) to be from reading her posts - this being the first I read. She's lovely - vivacious, keenly observant and funny with a talent for putting her company at ease. My kind of person.

Though not evident from her American accent, Deborah lived in Dublin until she was nine and then thanks to parents working for multinationals went to America for three years, Belgium for a further five and back to Chicago for university. It is perhaps this mix of experience that led to her own journey to discovering what she wanted to do - from studying in medical school to enrolling at the Eastman School of Music - becoming a classically trained opera singer - to being a corporate accountant right through the way to launching Spicendipity in June 2008. Not bad going for a 29 year old, eh?



"Spicendipity offers you ways to speed up your time in the kitchen", she tells me, "with all natural baking mixes, sauces and spice mixes". There are no additives, colourants or preservatives ("100% recyclable outside, NO yucky stuff inside") and there's a great variety to choose from.



From a two-brew barbecue sauce (made with honey, beer and freshly brewed coffee) to beer bread (just add a bottle of beer) to the now almost infamous chocolate brownie mix and more, Deborah's innovative and quality recipes have captured the imaginations and tastebuds of many bloggers and non-bloggers alike.

A casual search on twitter reveals a positive reaction, as do the reviews on LouderVoice.com.



So how did it start? "With €70" she tells me, "the best €70 I ever spent. I enrolled in a Start Your Own Business course, run by the County Enterprise Board in Offaly. One evening a week for six weeks, we learned how to put a business plan together, put the budget on paper and get the pitch right. I sometimes feel I have 7 billion ideas in my head, but I think if I was going to launch another idea, I'd repeat the course and process for Spicendipity because I found it such a help.

"Write it down. Even if you don't have access to a course or know what a business plan is, write down your ideas and how you'd pitch it. Writing and perfecting an elevator pitch is a great way to get some focus. Also, get feedback from lots of people from different backgrounds and in different circumstances. The business course though is definitely the way to go".

Deborah is blogging too, over on the well named Tast.ie. She also finds time to contribute to Frugal Ireland, is a welcome commenter on many blogs and raises two lovely little girls, Ella and Ciara (and the husband sometimes, she laughs) as well. Her passion for food and conviction that cooking is easy shows in the effort she goes to in simplifying her recipes, continually spreading the message that "anyone can cook".

Her blog is a great resource showing her expertise, from recipes - here's her sushi one - to reviews to great tips for an efficient kitchen (definitely one for me, anyway) while her involvement in the Twitter community (the subject of her recent talk on the Podcamp Ireland podcast) has helped her in a number of ways. "The support from everyone has been great" she smiles, "right from the idea through to launch and over, everyone has been so giving and great. The advice has really been instrumental. Sabrina's done a fantastic job with the design and it's something I'm really proud of. I'm glad I gave it a go".



Spicendipity - a real home business, run almost from her kitchen table - is a great example of a business born from a passion and I think it'll do brilliantly. Deborah's talk in Kilkenny will be a
"morning session on turning an idea or hobby into an online business. From getting an idea down on paper to execution to utilising social media to actually launch it" and is definitely on my "must attend" list. There's bound to be some excellent advice (and perhaps the odd treat?) there.

In the meantime head over to the shop and take a look at her gift hampers, especially (says a hungry me, this one. Is it any wonder I like this woman so much?

I'll see her in Kilkenny - hope to see you there too. All the information you need is on www.podcampireland.com.

Now, I'm off to boil the kettle. Anyone for something tastie?

Spencer Tunick: Images not available until next year

How do you manage an event with an online aspect, whatever that aspect may be? Here's my advice.

Dublin Docklands Development Authority just don't seem to get "it". The Spencer Tunick photos won't be available until 2009. I mean, seriously?

From the email I received this morning:

Dear Participants,

Thank you for making an exceptional art installation, the Spencer Tunick project happen in Dublin Docklands this summer.

This event was a tremendous success and as commissioners, Dublin Docklands and Cork Midsummer festival were delighted with how the project caught the public imagination and that so many participants signed up and took part.

Spencer Tunick is an extraordinary artist and we were privileged that he accepted the offer to work in Ireland and create some spectacular images. So few artists manage to engage so many people and create such powerful and beautiful images.

Now we can’t all wait to see the images!

We have received so many emails and letters of gratitude and thanks from the participants, we know that this was a special moment in the summer of 2008

We are now working with Spencer to create an event to exhibit the work in Ireland next year. As a participant, you will receive a print from the installation (Cork or Dublin) in which you took part in spring 2009.

We will distribute these to you around the exhibition we host or we will mail them to you at that time.

We have your details on file, as you completed them on the Participation form, and will contact you again early next year to confirm your details and with details of the distribution of prints and the exhibition

Thank you from all of us for making this a highlight of 2008 and for not letting our chilly weather put you off

Dublin Docklands Development Authority

You may recall I wasn't over enthused after my Spencer experience. I'm even less so now.

I had a long chat yesterday with the lovely Krishna De as part of the Podcamp Ireland series of podcasts. We talked about using social media to promote and otherwise complement events, with emphasis on the 4daymovie project, but also discussing the SPWC initiative with pix.ie.

I fail to understand how in this day and age, "authorities" are still so clueless about how to foster community, to engage and enthuse people and to validate their participation in what was a unique event. So much more could have been done:

• The event was Saturday June 21. The follow-up thank you email comes 6 weeks later. Why the delay?

• "We have received so many emails and letters of gratitude and thanks from the participants, we know that this was a special moment in the summer of 2008"
  
  What have they done to foster this? Why not scan and publish some of the letters and quotes online? Create/dedicate a section of their website (where a search for Spencer only brings up legacy articles) that allows people to share their own experiences, to talk about the event and to keep in touch with where Spencer is next. Create a Facebook event page even!

• The photos in Spring 2009: When Spencer was taking the shots, we joked about him needing a digital camera to speed up the process. Though not a photographer I fail to understand why the images can't be viewed for six months - at least online if nowhere else. Does that mean there was some serious photoshopping of Irish skintones?
  
  I understand that an exhibition takes time to prepare, that Spencer is a busy man and that as soon as the photos are released online, they'll be widespread. But, so what? Does that mean that people will think "Ah I won't bother going now" because they see the photo on a website? No. People did the installation for a number of reasons - a personal challenge, a chance to try something different but also a chance to be a part of something. To be able to say "I was there. I took the challenge. I did it." We could have been told that this was going to be the case, we could have been made feel part of that process as well.
  
  It's up to the organisers to promote that event as much as it is the participants to make the most of it. Who benefits more? The participants for their experience or Dublin Docklands for the coverage, the promotion and the publicity they're getting.

Krishna asked me yesterday if I had any tips for event organisers about using the internet to help at events. As I sit now, I can think of the following:

1. What would you like? Put yourself in the shoes of your participants, your volunteers, your audience and think about what you'd expect, how you'd react, what you'd like to come away from the event with. It constantly amazes me how little this actually seems to be done. Looking after your sponsors is important, but unless people enjoy the event, what's the point?
   
   
2. Ask for help Don't do it badly yourself - get other people - your team, your volunteers, your friends involved and ask them for advice, for help in seeing the wood from the trees and for that added extra eye over things.
   
   
3. Look at what others have done. There are so many great events in Ireland - think of what they've done to foster that sense of "I was there and it was great".
   
   
4. Allow people to talk about it. Give them somewhere to give feedback, to say "That was great" and thank them for doing so. Dublin Docklands - why wait until Spring to hold an event for people? Ask people to share their experiences, collect them into a book, publish it for charity, invite the participants to the launch. All that work? A bit of time. The good Word-of-mouth/word-of-mouse you get afterwards? Priceless.
   
   
5. Say thank you to everyone. I particularly like the way the Street Performance World Championships followed up their newspaper ads announcing the event with this advertisement thanking people for being there, for being part of it, for attending and laughing their way through the weekend. It gives that "aww" factor, it lends to the good feeling someone has and it gives them something to talk about.
   
   
6. Keep people informed. If so many people had such a good time, consider they might like to hear about what's going on, what the next step is, if they can help etc.
   
   
7. Be kind to your fans. People (volunteers especially) can be enthusiastic, excited and interested in helping out. That may be a hindrance sometimes but in the long run it's worth it. The Dublin Writers Festival brought us out to dinner recently in Eden of Temple Bar as a thank you. Thanks to Pix.ie the SPWC have an absolute deluge of great photos to choose from.
   
   Niamh sent the Dublin Burlesque Ball a Facebook message this morning after attending on Sunday night, saying "thanks, here's a link to my photos, any idea of when yours will be ready?" They replied this morning saying "Thanks for coming to the Dublin Burlesque Ball and for the pics. Glad to hear you and your friends had such a great time. Please watch our coming events information here on Facebook. Our official pics will be ready next week." That's just brilliant.
   
   
8. Very importantly is managing things online properly. Stickler that I am, I like things to be done properly. I can understand Damien's annoyance at the Darklight Film Festival for how they handled their mailing lists and he's right - ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Resource may be, but again - ask for help!
   
   Do not put all the email addresses in the "to" field, do not have wrong information that requires a follow-up email to say sorry and please please please spell check and read before you send.

At the end of the email today from the Dublin Docklands Development Authority was the line:

Do not rely to this email

I certainly won't. Nor have I come away with a good feeling about this. A pity. A real pity. I've emailed the DDDA with this article and an offer for help. I'll let you know what they come back with.

The Next US President Could Be From Ireland

If I had a vote, I'd be voting Krishna De for the next US President.



How about you?