OJR 2006: One down, one in the works

March 9, 2006

OJR 2006: One down, one in the works

Commentary: Our first annual conference was a success, participants tell us. OJR's editor is already thinking about next year.

By Robert Niles
3 comments | Archive Link

Let's do it again.

The online journalists who attended OJR's first conference last week appear to have liked what they saw, so we soon will begin the process of planning a second conference. We'll keep much the same format, but move the event to another city in the hopes that some of the journalists who could not make it to L.A. for this event will be able to attend.

Forty-four people attended OJR 2006. As of Tuesday, half of them had completed a post-conference online survey. I'd like to share some of the results:

Overall, how would you rate the event today?

Poor - 0%
Fair - 0%
Good - 36%
Excellent - 64%

Based upon your experience today, how likely would you be to attend an OJR conference in the future?

Not likely - 0%
Unsure - 5%
Very likely - 95%

How likely would you be to recommend a future OJR conference to others?

Not likely - 0%
Unsure - 5%
Very likely - 95%

Today's conference was free. How much would you be willing to pay as a registration fee to attend a future OJR conference?

Would not pay - 18%
$50 - 41%
$100 - 32%
$150 - 0%
$200 - 9%

We would like to hold additional conferences each year around the country. In what other cities would you be likely to attend an OJR event?

Would not attend outside L.A. - 41%
New York - 36%
Berkeley, Calif. - 32%
Chicago - 27%
Indianapolis - 18%
Chapel Hill, N.C. - 14%
Orlando, Fla. - 14%
Miami - 5%

Today's sessions used a group discussion format. What do you think about using this format in future conferences?

Keep the group discussion format - 43%
Use a mix of panels, keynote speakers and discussions - 57%
Go to traditional panel format - 0%

We also asked people to rate the importance of including the following topics on the program in a future OJR conference. Here is how they ranked them, with the most important at the top:

Meeting others in person
Publishing technology
Advertising sales and tools
Managing reader content
Legal issues
Business management
Audio/video/Flash production tips
Speeches by industry leaders
Parties/Cocktail hours
Writing tips
Reporting tips
Presentations by vendors
Awards program

For the last four options, over half of respondents said they either did not care or were only mildly interested.

Obviously, there are some self-selection issues in play here. This was an L.A. conference, featuring discussion sessions, not panels, about managing communities, publishing technology and business issues. So, to a certain extent, no one should be surprised that we got a crowd that reported liking an event in L.A., with discussion sessions focused on business issues, publishing technology and managing communities.

But the results do confirm to us that there is a market out there for what we've done. And, I think, one could infer from these results that the people who joined us aren't likely to be attracted to existing online journalism gatherings, like the Online News Association's and Editor & Publisher's, both of which prominently feature awards programs, cocktail hours, speeches by industry leaders and other features in which our attendees expressed little interest. Indeed, just 20 percent of our participants had ever attended one of those two conventions.

From personal experience and private comments shared by others, I thought that our discussion format was a bit intense. In the future, I think we need to add a more breaks or presentations between the discussion sessions, where participants have a chance, literally, to catch their breath. Indeed, a majority of respondents wanted us to mix in panels or speakers with the discussions. One intriguing suggestion was to add short sessions "in which any participant could give an impromptu presentation in the new 'unconference' format as practiced at BarCamp and MashupCamp."

Many participants also asked for a second day, or, at least, to spend more time on each topic, as many attendees felt our discussions just "scratched the surface" of what we, collectively, have to ask and to say.

But participants loved the "speed dating" gimmick we used at the start of the day, to get everyone out of their seats and meeting one another, face-to-face. In the opinion of many, the whole point of an offline gathering is this personal interaction, and they responded well to a structure event that forced it, right at the start.

Participants also were willing to pay for the experience, which will be necessary at future events to cover costs. In addition, a registration fee would eliminate bogus registrations and discourage no-shows, ensuring that more people who want to attend won't be shut out. Still, I think it is important that we keep this event affordable. Holding the event at USC allowed us to avoid the expense of renting a hotel ballroom. And holding the event in a city with a large number of working online journalists allowed a sizable audience to attend without having to book a flight or rent a room.

For future events, we want to partner with other journalism schools located in large, easily accessible cities. We might extend the event to two days, and pick a single topic -- such a open source journalism or implementing a revenue model -- for each of the two days. By rotating sites and topics we can keep the event fresh and accessible to many online journalists whose sites are not yet generating the revenue to support a four-day, cross-country jaunt.

So what's the next step? Well, I'll be working the phones, and the in-box, speaking with colleagues at other schools who already have expressed interest in hosting a future OJR event. And we will continue to solicit feedback from our readers about what OJR could do to help them with these events. Many of the conference participants have subscribed to OJR's new e-mail discussion list, and I would encourage anyone else who is interested in a future OJR event to do the same. That's the first place we'll announce details of the next OJR conference, and the place where we will shape its format and topic.

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Comments:

From K.Paul Mallasch on March 10, 2006 at 3:56 PM

Add my vote to meeting somewhere in the Midwest next (Indianapolis or Chicago would be nice ;)

From Vijay Karthik on March 11, 2006 at 4:57 AM

Hello,

Greetings to You,

This is Vijay, from Chennai, India. Any plans to conduct such conferences, here??

Thanks,
sincerely,
vijay.

From Diana Day on March 11, 2006 at 3:46 PM

I enjoyed the conference very much and got a lot out of it. It's very interesting that nobody who attended voted to use the usual conference panel format. I wonder if the results from our small conference are indicative of a larger trend -- are conferees everywhere ready for a change?

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