I went on vacation the first week of August. When I got back, we had an Open House & Dedication for our new MHA building on a Thursday and I flew to Nashville on Friday. My Inbox will never be the same - even after trying to slug through some of it at the conference. Even after getting through the e-mail, I haven't even started on the news feeds. (I'm still trying to decide whether to dump them all or not.)
But at least it was all worth it. I am proud of the job that we association blog-u-clumpers did at the conference - and I am proud to be associated with such a great conference. ASAE really outdid themselves this year.
And I think the blog accomplished what we set out to do - enrich the learning experience for those who could attend and give those who could not a taste of the experience. Rich of The Westerfield Group complimented our group on the blog and explored the question of how blogs are changing conferences, specifically attendance levels.
I understand the why-would-I-come-if-I-can-read-about-it-on-the-blog worry, but if a blog is done right (and a conference too - we have to have something to write about), it should make a reader want to be there even more. In other words, mabye it won't affect attendance that year - but it could very well affect attendance the following year.
A blog also gives you a chance to delve deeper into topics than the typical hour-and-a-half session (with generally very little interaction). If you start blogging beforehand, like we did, you can peak interest in speakers and sessions by referencing Web sites and excerpts from books. Of course, you should blog during a conference. But I also think you should keep blogging for a while after a conference. I think you could turn a conference blog into an everyday affair - talking about ideas from last year's sessions, previewing possible speakers (maybe even letting attendees vote on session choices on the blog), linking to articles from past and future speakers, talking about next year's locations (things to do, etc.) and getting possible attendees convinced now that they should mark their calendars and allocate funds to visit.