Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis – Some Thoughts…
Posted by Maman Poulet on 01 Mar 2009 at 02:42 am | Tagged as: Blogging, Elections, Irish Politics, Live Blogging, Recession
Lots and lots of random thoughts from a day at the 72nd Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.
- Party Membership – Where were all the 30-40 year olds? Mostly running for election in the locals? Or working for the organisation or a minister? But as members where were they? What’s the Party age profile? All I saw really the Ogras’ and the over 55’s and some well over that.
- Where were the disabled members? 4,000 people and a TD and MEP but disabled people don’t seem to do party politics or have the resources to attend conferences. This is not a Fianna Fáil specific problem. I saw one member and maybe there were many more??
- I know Fianna Fáil have membership from ethnic minority and candidates and they were visible speaking and there was a shot to the section in audience where many of them sat. Is there a caucus within the party?
- I know there are Lesbian and Gay members of Fianna Fail, I saw a few gay men there today, some of whom don’t like to see an out lesbian around but that’s always been the way and not just in Fianna Fáil. I assume someone is lobbying Dermot Ahern on Civil Partnership? Caucus meetings?
- In reference to above – Cowen’s speech - It was a speech nearly devoid of mention of anything beyond the economy and banks…It was about all standing together and weren’t the banks terrible. So if you were waiting on your rights to participate in society equally and weren’t an economic unit or had double and triple disadvantages forget about it. I’ll leave others to do the finer details on the announcements – but it was clear little new was announced yesterday except by An Taoiseach. I kept waiting for the news today but there was little. Dermot Ahern had a bank raid and got good mileage off camera for it, and did any one else think the other raid – ie. Anglo Irish bank raid by Gardai et al was useful speechwise?
- Some Junior Ministers got a chance to shine today but only when no RTE cameras were around doing live coverage in the afternoon. They were the ones from policy areas where cabinet seats were held by Greens or a PD. It must rankle a bit not to have the main minister but gives the juniors a little chance to glow.
- So little of political Ard Fheiseanna are covered by the mainstream media these days and probably because it’s thought people are no longer interested. But the responses to liveblogging today have been very positive, people learnt things, maybe different things and traffic on blogs was high and lots of new people took part by reading or twittering or blogging. So it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it? (Bananarama moment!)
To the Fianna Fáil party – (and FG/Labour/Greens are you reading this?)
- Firstly thanks – we got passes, tables, wifi, plugs and food – does anyone do anything other than eat in the press room? – A happy press marches on it’s appetite maybe! From what I could see bloggers went everywhere we knew about and got to cover gaggles and sit in the press area in the main conference hall. Also we could also get text alerts for doorstepping or other events – this was very useful.
- Put the Ministers speeches up online – first the scripts from Ministers and later the videos. Paper speeches are not very web 2.0. More coverage would be possible if we could cut and paste text – or maybe you don’t want us/mainstream media to cover it?
- Ask bloggers what they thought after the event and get ready for next time. Maybe have a blogger specific coverage event/briefing opportunity? It’ll take me a while to think it all through but I think the coverage from those there yesterday was very comprehensive given numbers and resources. Next time it’s safe to say we’ll need more briefing especially for those who don’t know their way round a political event.
- Also remember the bloggers following online – maybe sign them up to a blogger mailing list?
- It’s a first – ie first time bloggers went en masse (not first time asked by party though) and we can hopefully work together on it again and come back next time?
I’ve loads to say to the Mainstream Media -who I think today got their first full on view of blogging in action in Ireland.
- like – yes we blog for free, we have fun doing it.
- We can teach you how to blog (yup I overheard one journo saying ‘I must learn how to blog’)
- We can cover things quicker than you can in a different way. Some of it short and pithy, some of it indepth and considered. With bits of audio, video and picture thrown in for variety.
- Stop questioning our sanity.
- We’re not selfish. We took our place at the table and enjoyed ourselves and shared information amongst ourselves.
- You’ll stop staring at us soon enough! (It was like Vicky Pollard giving me the evils at one stage this afternoon but I did like having info to give out before other people had it thanks to Twitter and Bloggers!!)
Finally a word of thanks to the bloggers in City West – Eoin, Gavin (the Videos are his), Mark, and all the bloggers and livebloggers and tweeters all over the world who were following online and joining in, commenting and creating their own content.
And hello to all my new Fianna Fáil supporting readers and twitter followers? Come join the fun and comment away!?!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6253123c-dd84-411e-9c29-7511e89016a5)
Did you see the boys around David Davinpower during the 9 o clock news. they looked as though they were going to throw a sack over his head and drag him away if he said anything bad.
squid, what i saw was the unbelievable sight of eleven men – no women -surrounding davinpower. the ff handlers must have seen that too, on live tv, for nearly ten minutes and none of the handlers saw fit to stop the all-male sight. (the males were pleased with themselves. it didn’t occur to them that it looked bad.
Hear hear. It looked dreadful – a collection of guilty men. They should be ashamed to have made such fools of themselves. A photo of that must win a prize.
Thank you Suzy for all those thoughts about how FF could do better next time. We need someone like you to tell them exactly what they need to do – for the sake of transparent democracy. We do not need imports from USA except as something to benchmark against. I better be clear: I’m glad FF got Obama on board but I think FG & Labour should have muscled in so as to prevent the association between Cowen and Obama descending completely into farce.
I’m critical of the Obama people for associating with FF now. They seem to have had no idea whom they were getting into bed with. I know money talks, but unfortunately they have taken sides in our politics – and FF have no right to claim they are best in tune with Obama.
Your business model is counter intuitive. Long may it cause the mainstream journalist to question your motives.
But I wonder if many bloggers are people of independent means? Or people who have decided they are not driven by the desire for money? People with a social conscience.
Squid/Nell – I bet the men were specially picked by FF or RTE – told by FF not to do any whooping or smiling like Brian told crowd on stage not to go over top at end (I watched the livestream online because RTE cut it so quickly. Some of those men were Offaly FF men also – the mullet/beard combination was instantly recognised by live bloggers. I’m hoping it’ll be youtubed by someone soon as it’s a real lesson to political parties and RTE in how ridiculous it looks.
Paul – In terms of news/politics blogging and most other categgories Ireland is too small a country for people to make money from blogging in the same manner that the well known bloggers in US and UK do – ie from advertising. Of course some will earn money from journalism etc and others may be paid to blog – but I would hope they would disclose the latter. Most of us do it for the fact we can do it. IIn other blogging sectors beauty/food/fashion I think there may be a successful business model and I wish people well with them as they turn them into more than blogs and build large followings.
Hi Suzy glad you enjoyed the event. I didn’t see those guys around Davin Power. Wouldn’t say they were hand picked though. Some people just like to wave at mammy over the tv cameras! The new candidates got to sit on stage (and were duly selected) but we’d been captive for over two hours by the time the speech ended so we just ran straight for cover/the bar/the madding crowd. Cowen’s speech – he had to talk about the economy (Remember Clinton – and it’s even truer now) but I think he could have kept the specifics for a separate release and outlined directions in the address. A few parts early on were a bit ‘jargony’ I thought, about the regulatory mergers etc. He did give an example about how last year’s issue de jour was turned around and became a success story (cancer care) which gets very little attention now it works. He also announced the creation of a 100M exports fund which I thought was a great idea to revitalise the indigienous entrepenurial side of the economy and one based on real products that real people actually want to buy (not like some apartments I could mention). I liked the mother eireann theme as well reminscent of the gaelic revival when penal opression forebade the notion of the Irish nation state and instead poetry and song used Roísin Dubh and other metaphorical matriarchial figures to eulogise Ireland. Dempsey did a great job of pushing the buttons for the party faithful. He knew the touch points and he hit them all. Five standing ovations in five minutes. The people were mad and the party were mad and Dempsey got it right.
Interesting point about the young(er) folk. Loads of people are involved in Ogra when in college but a few years out a job, mortgage, marriage etc many just can’t find time. Those that do stay are probably committed enough to want to run themselves hence most of us on the stage in that age bracket. The caucuses is an interesting one. The party is historically organised by geography rather than by issue. The states sees groups like ModDems (moderate democrats – I hate the idea – if you’re going to stand for something do it properly) and RepublicansForPalestine (I just made that one up but I wonder).. The Irish system doesn’t yet have such groups. Sometimes I wish I was active in the States instead
[...] Nice guide from Suzy on suggested Dos and Don’ts. [...]
I didn’t see the Davin-Power footage but as the day wore on it became clear that some delegates/candidates had a need, yes need, to the get on d’telly. People left for “the toilet” five minutes before Cowen was due to arrive then “coincidentally” bumped into him on their way back as he entered the hotel surrounded by cameras.
@ Paul
As far as I know FF don’t have Obama on board, I’m sure he’d be happy to work with FG or Labour if they were in power, yet his image was plastered all over the Ard Fheis. I’d be surprised if Obama was even aware there was an Ard Fheis going on, let alone FF’s Ard Fheis.
@Nell
I wonder how many of the FF handlers were women. If that area was the responsibility of the press office than I’d guess the staff there were about 60:40, men:women. They should of been aware of how it looked.
@Suzy
Regards bloggers, I have a foot in both camps as a blogging freelance journalist. Personally, I don’t agree with treating bloggers differently to journalists. I understand you had problems getting to explore the battleground, but believe me, the journalists who have been covering that type of event for years had the same issues finding conference rooms and press briefings yesterday as bloggers.
I reckon blogger-specific briefings would be a scythe down the press room, bloggers one side, mainstream press the other. I think it would be counter-productive. We’re both “media”, FF didn’t do print-specific briefings or TV-specific briefings yesterday, so I don’t see why they should do blogger-specfic ones. Bloggers realise they’re doing a different job to mainstream journalists but most mainstream journalists haven’t worked that out yet. This is an area I have a lot of opinions on but here is not the correct location to continue the debate, a more devoted post may be in order, I have one in the drafts already which I’ll post later in the week. Safe to say I’m impressed that bloggers were given the same access as MSM yesterday.
Hopefully the comments will stay on-topic after that, apologies if not.
Mark Coughlan
sorry what did ‘we’ learn about ff,the state of the nation, you said yourself you didn’t really get anything worth posting about.
listening to the podcast of the webtalk, yerman said they’d always worked with the good guys…. i heard an audible murumur what was it like there
was nobody from ff blogging, they sent out a few timing twitters thats about it, dismal.
Ah Suzy, once a political animal, always a political animal huh? Glad to see you were enjoying it all. And your comments/ advice to Continuity FF were spot on. I thought the old men (and one or two women) on the platform were shaking in their boots, hoping nobody called him Biffo aloud. Their nervous sideways glances reminded me of a Knuttel painting… perhaps there’s a theme there for Knuttel junior!!
I did watch the speech, purely for fun and to yell at the television.
The “Minister for Biffo Introductions” (I’m olf enough to recall how some would suck up to Haughey, with oi love my leader), we Dempsey really looked like he’d had really bad botox and make-up done… I’m sure Panti and other drag queens could advise on the make-up… see, FF needs gays!!!
On the speech, I’d say that both Poodle and I agreed with the banks are bad/ reforms needed comments, but I do have to question why FF only seems to be ’starting’ to ‘get it’. The big applause after quips about bankers and salaries IS NOT the BIG ISSUE tho! There was nothing practical for the rest of us. Telling us that the employed would get training and help getting back to work is rubbish: FAS does not help with a one-size fits all model of intervention. Cowen seemed to suggest that the dole will be cut by not saying it will be maintained … he really needs to clarify this point.
I need to go and look in more detail at the language used but did Cowen suggest something along the lines of people out there are suffering and I’ve just realised it. He continued along the lines of for “them” this is terrible, losing jobs, etc’ The tone was all about them, as if he didn’t really know (in an embodied way) about their problems. Needs more of a common touch, this was still responding to events rather than leading. He could have said he will just take a regular TD’s salary until further notice if he wanted to be practical, but he didn’t make any personal sacrifice.
My other thought was that Leadership is needed on a whole range of issues too. My frivolous comments of yesterday, etc. to your blog does raise the key problem with the speech (supposing its Obamaesque), and that is the speech was like that of a man who could only ride a unicycle when we need someone who’s like a supermum and can multi-task. Just in terms of ‘presence’ Cowen seemed invisible in the current GCN, for example. GLEN had a big advert, along with many others in the excellent commemorative edition, but what I noted in GLEN’s own advert was there was no image of GLEN members and Cowen – have they met yet?
A couple of replys to some comments
@ James – you say that the Irish political system doesn’t yet have caucus type groups for different issues – That is not strictly speaking true – The Labour Party has had an active LGBT group since 2004
@ Sean – if you do a search for Cowen on http://www.glen.ie – there is not much there – So I would say they have probably met privately but not publicly
Just one more thing – I’m confused about one thing – Mark refers to Paul as an FF member – but is he?
Lovely coverage, some great thoughts and I love readin ghte comments too.
However, in spite of your indepth coverage one burning question remains – just what exactly does an award-winning blogger wear to an Ard Fheis??
Ah Siobhan, I wondered when that question would arrive
and black trousers. In terms of fashion reports on the ground I failed miserably.
I wore a red jumper
The lovely Gavin took a shot of me at ‘work’.
http://twitpic.com/1r08n
@Ian
Jesus, just re-read Paul’s comment. How I ended up mistaking him for a Fianna Fail member I don’t know. I was talking to/debating with a FF member named Paul O’Something yesterday, must of been half-asleep (still knackered from the Ard Fheis) this morning and let my brain put two and two together and get a Fianna Fail member.
Sorry, no, Paul O’Mahony (Omaniblog) is not, I presume, a FF member. If you could edit my earlier comment to reflect that correction Suzy, I’d appreciate.
Done and you know I think the whole wrecking bloggers is part of a cunning masterplan
(Joke in case Damien B is reading!!)
[...] etc, and there were even an accredited group of bloggers along for the ride – some output at SuzyB, EoinBannon and even GavinsBlog here. I even managed get a few tweets out from offstage myself [...]
@nell mc cafferty
The clip is on youtube, and there is one woman, at the back on the extreme right.
It’s good to see an alternative view of the Ard Fheis rather than the same tired old clichés trotted out in print by the various print journalists who attended….I will be giving my own impressions as Gaeilge later on.
Did the question arise over the weekend whether or not FF had done the right thing in getting a US company to design and, it seems, host its website while there are legions of web designers and web hosters in Ireland who could do as good a job at a fraction of the cost? Surely this is not economic patriotism?
A final thought – I can’t find it on the FF website – was there a speech by Eamon Ó Cuív at the Ard Fheis? And was there an online ‘clár’?
Good stuff on Ryan Tubridy this morning….
Suzy,
Sorry to burst your bubble but blogging is nothing new to the “Mainstream Media” at party conferences.
David Cochrane of Politics.ie started the trend five years ago when he went live from the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis before the 2004 local elections.
Harry McGee was also blogging from each of the party conferences before the 2007 general election.
Acknowledging he was a new face on the scene, I specifically recall David going around the press room introducing himself to everybody.
I did the same myself at the Labour Party conference in 2001 when I was starting out covering politics.
Maybe if your gaggle took your heads out of your laptops for two minutes and mingled you’d find the “Mainstream Media” don’t bite.
You’re around on the party conference scene long enough to know that.
I recall meeting you at the National Youth Parliament in Kilkenny in 1993 and you’re a pretty affable type of person.
From my own experience, nobody in the press room could care less who turns up there throughout the day.
It’s all one big dysfunctional family.
The Sunday paper lads are always stressed because they have early deadlines on Saturday afternoon and start tearing their hair out from lunchtime onwards waiting for the Leaders Address to arrive.
This is much to the amusement of the daily newspaper crew, who are under pressure the other five days of the week.
The radio hacks always have technical problems but band together to help each other out.
The snappers are constantly uploading their photos throughout the day and running in and out of the room.
And now there’s the bloggers, sitting together Twittering away to their hearts content.
No big deal.
We’re all in the same boat.
The plate of sandwiches is always gone by 12 noon, leaving bits of lettuce as the only source of nutrition over lunchtime and the pot with ‘coffee’ written on it is invariably ‘tea’.
And regarding your divide between “Mainstream Media” / Bloggers: “Maybe have a blogger specific coverage event/briefing opportunity?”
Hmmmm………now who is being exclusive.
Welcome to the press room.
See you in White’s Hotel in Wexford for the Green Party.
Fionnan
Member of the “Mainstream Media”
Not my bubble needs bursting Fionnan… If you have any knowledge of blogging and blogging relationship building in the UK and USA you may know there are specific outreach positions held in political parties and indeed large events take place along side conferences e.g. The Big Tent at DNC 2008 – http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/14/144755/405
By the way Politics.ie isn’t a blog. Would David claim it so? Ah sure he spends enough time hanging around the comments here and will be along to claim it shortly.
As for Harry – He’s been very clear on being a journalist first and blogger second cf his presentation at the conference in EU Commission Office in October.
I’m well used to how mainstream press works having dipped in and out for nearly 15 years as a writer and radio presenter/producer and as you acknowledge the political/non political scene nationally and internationally for nearly 20 years. (Was the food comment so offensive?)
It’s with that experience in mind and also my knowledge of blogging developments inside and outside of Ireland for past 4 years that I and others offer advice to political parties as we wish to see more people involved.
Not all bloggers have the same level of experience as I/others have and as I said during my speech in Cork last week I want to see more people involved and would support all initiatives to do so.
If Irish bloggers are to become more involved, invited and focused on political activities there needs to be some recognition of the different needs and agendas.
I realise that it’s a threat to some outlets and it’s fashionable to scoff – we’ll cope!
PS if you are talking to your colleagues in the newsroom you might ask them to ensure they credit me and other bloggers for the stuff they lift off us in future. No rush but it’d be nice
I may not see you in Wexford but maybe back in Citywest, some other bloggers plan to cover the Greens – I’m sure they are looking forward to your greetings and words of welcome!
young whipper snappers – eh fionnan?
i was “blogging” back in 1996.
it was called a home page.
joking aside – i think the very term “blogging” is a bit of misnomer. what was quite new about what suzy, gavin, mark and all of us on twitter were doing was a far more flash-mobbish kind of affair. sure blogs are part of the equation – but other technologies are now part of the whole experience. twitter, qix, twitpix, flickr , mobile comms, iphones, youtube etc
rather than just reading a “live blog” , its now a much more immersive affair – gavin, for example , was posting youtube vids taken on his phone minutes earlier. lots of folks were tweeting pics taken from their mobiles.
and then there was slugger with his live chat widget, and the #ffaf tag on twitter. it was a far more immersive affair than just live blogging – and far more social.
plus , may i add – fianna fail live streaming the ard fheis from their site was a BIG plus too. for expats like me , that was an added bonus as i was able to watch it and see the reactions online. another tech development thats greatly assisting is the wireless internet radio – i have a freecom musicpal. so i can tune into newstalk, today fm and rte as if i was back home.
even though i dont live in ireland, i felt irish, and part of the process. and i havent felt like that in all the years i’ve lived abroad.
david mcwilliams is right – ireland needs to engage the diaspora.
i think we saw that first engagement at the ard fheis. but it wasnt exclusively because of FF. it was bloggers like suzy, gavin , slugger and others that brought it together in their own spontaneous flash-mobby way. and twitter was an important vehicle in doing that.
suzy – yer onto something. keep doing what you do. appreciate it!
Your wife did well with her speech at the Ard Fhéis, you must be really proud Fionnán. You’ve come far from bumping into people with you camera around the Quad in UCC. Again, you must be really proud! Whippersnapper indeed.
Is Fionnan’s wife a Fianna Fail candidate?
Well, that explains how he was able to divine the mood of the nation on the front page of the Indo on Feb 13th after the poll showing their support has plummeted.
“the opinion poll was taken after a relatively good week for the Taoiseach. There was a widespread perception of a “lift” in the public mood after his impassioned speech last Thursday.”
Granted, this scientific poll suggested that perhaps the public mood towards the Taoiseach is one of black, unrelenting hostility. But using the powers shared by all members of Fianna Fail since Dev looked into his heart, Fionnan can sense their true, lifted mood.
All one big family all right.
of course brian cowen never explained that the reason ireland got into the mess its in because of the EU – low interest rates suited Germany, but they didnt suit overheated ireland.
when this disaster is over, you’ll find that our real masters are not in dublin or even in brussels – they’ll be in frankfurt and berlin.
which might not be a bad thing – the germans know a thing or two about avoiding downturns. is germany in meltdown right now? no it isnt.
but i fear we’ll end up doing a deal with the devil – if we hand over financial matters to the germans, then you can say bye bye to the Irish Republic. of course, the “republic” will still be there for show – but underneath, we will have lost our independence.
is that a price we’re willing to pay? or are we willing to think the unthinkable. are we willing to break away from the EU and make our own way in the world.
i think we can – if and only if , we go hell for leather with forging alliances with the irish abroad. and if we really sell ourselves as a bridge between europe and america.
and to be honest with you , the EU has made us lazy. its made the political elite lazy.
going cap in hand to the ECB in not my idea of a solution.
of course, Iceland, outside of the EU , is another example and they got royally screwed.
but if the EU doesnt bail us out, and we end being shafted as much as Iceland was, then the question is – whats the point of the EU? is it more of club for France/UK/Germany? for if we get shafted as much as Iceland, then what was the point of losing our fisheries (an immense resource that we lost to Spanish fishing fleets..)
@fionnan
Interesting to get your perspective on the press room on Saturday.
As a freelance journalist, working (and yes I do consider it working because I put in the same amount of effort as I would had I been getting paid) at his first Ard Fheis in a blogging capacity I was unsure exactly as to the etiquette.
I had briefly met John Burns and Deaglan DeBreadan several months prior but the rest of the journalists there were all new to me.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t go around and introduce myself to the rest of the newsroom because one, I didn’t want to step on any toes and two, everyone seemed busy and focused, I reckoned the last thing they needed was some laptop-jockey interrupting their train of thought.
Regards the first point, there are journalists who think bloggers are trying to take their jobs, I’ve met a few in the last year or two, and the last thing I wanted to do was sour relations with anyone early in the day. I figured banter would flow naturally between anyone who wanted to chat, and it did, I had a good natter with several journos and snappers throughout the day. Unfortunately I didn’t share a few words with yourself but after your post here I’ll make an effort to do so next time.
Regards the “if they took their heads out of their laptops” comment. Look, I can understand where you’re coming from. I urge you to consider my perspective however, I posted 6 articles (nearly all somewhere between 500 and 800 words) between 12 and 9PM on Saturday. I didn’t eat, I didn’t watch the match. I was working right through. As someone with much less experience than the majority of other journalists in there it took me longer to analyse the comments and speeches and pick out the parts worth writing about. If I had time to pull my head out of my laptop I probably would of gone and found something to eat to be perfectly frank…
Personally speaking at least, it wasn’t a conscious “snub” on anyone not to go around and shake hands. Probably more nerves.
Either way, I’ll probably be there at the Greens on Saturday, if you’re around I’ll make sure to approach you to say hello, hopefully you’ll be willing to do the same.
Mark Coughlan
Also… while I’m here. What has anyone’s wife got to do with this? Completely irrelevant.
Fionnan before you come back and start complaining about the nature of the responses to your comment you may look at your own. Suzy definitely does not deserve the catty personalised commentary from yourself. It’s really beneath you. When you do meet Suzy I hope you do remember the affable person she is and apologise to her.
Regarding the points she made of advice to political parties already the Green Party have taken on board many of her observations and made suitable arrangements for this weekend.
Can we take it that this is the view of everyone in the mainstream media? I doubt it but maybe you doing a father of the chapel on it?
I would think if you polled any blogger who attended an event where mainstream media were present you’ll find stories of people getting questioned as to their motives or would you believe an actual ‘right’ to be present. No wonder people keep their heads down. And with this sort of drivel from a sister paper of yours who could blame them! One friend at a business conference last month was publically abused by someone from a national paper for daring to ask a question during a press briefing.
By the way Politics.ie is a message board which is now completely discredited as a recruiting ground for Libertas. Publishing press releases and giving YFG/Ogra/SF/BNP types a place to hang out and swear may be a form of online engagement to some but it’s not creating content of any note. The founders may well have liked to dine out on it but that train left the station a long time ago.
Interesting to hear Fionnan’s views on the whole business.
I also blogged from City West on Friday and Saturday but, due to essays, I’ve been unable to blog a summary of my views on the blogging experience.
I’ll make a view quick comments here for the time being. For the record, the FF Ard Fheis was the third party conference I have blogged from; I was at SF’s Ard Fheis the previous weekend, and at FG’s national conference in Wexford last November (as far as I know, I was the only blogger at the FG and SF events). In my experienece, I have received absolutely no negativity from mainstream media journalists in the press room. I didn’t introduce myself to every single one, but those I spoke to on all three weekends were friendly even though many were quite busy. And yes, some were curious about blogging in that they might like to give it a try (only it would be more work for them on top of their day job).
I’ll go into more detail on this on my blog, but I think FG, SF and FF did reasonable jobs in accomodating me at their conferences. Yes, there is room for improvement and I think they will up their game when they see how blogs are growing in readership and influence. I only have minor qualms about how they handled us and I will detail them later on our blog, when these bloody essays are done.
However, I will be attending the Greens conference in Wexford this weekend and I hope to see a few more bloggers there.