Clash: “Discussing the Digital Controversy” is a rather dramatically titled conference set deep in the city of Vienna. It is part of a very good annual festival for art, photography and fashion – the conference room was literally bursting with bloggers from Europe, and perhaps a few traditional media journalists, who (like me) were eager to get some insider info on how the fast moving/ever changing new media environment was affecting our industry…. A summary below….
Fash Clash: Discussing the Digital Controversy presented by 9festival for fashion and photography
Host:
Joachim Bessing
Symposium with:
Imran Amed – www.businesoffashion.net
Julia Knolle – www.lesmads.com
Birgitt Kohl – Wirtschaftsmagazin FORMAT, www.format.at
Susanna Lau aka Susie Bubble – stylebubble.typepad.com
Diane Pernet – www.AshadedViewOnFashion.com
Johannes Thumfart – Süddeutsche Zeitung – www.sueddeutsche.de
Venue:
Bulgarisches Kulturinstitut Haus Wittgenstein
Parkgasse 18
1030 Vienna
“I like Vienna a lot. I’m really honoured to be here. It’s so great to openly discuss issues to do with blogging with other bloggers, face to face.” Susie Lau – Stylebubble.co.uk – Which leads me to the one of the most fundamentally interesting elements of this bloggers talk – how to unite a global voice that is so fragmented. The organisers appear to be one of the first that I, or Susie, know about that has opened up this group to face-to-face discussion. Susie commented she has given plenty of talks either to a group of students etc or with a traditional media journalist – but it’s rare to have a forum between bloggers of this level as well as to an audience of bloggers.
Indicative of their growing realization of their importance and/or influence, this talk enabled each of the attendees (and those in the discussion itself) the ability to communicate their voice outside of the platform – taking online offline.
A funny thing, this mixing of worlds and media – everyone seated together in real time and real place, yet the buzz born from new media and being streamed live at the same time. Slightly awkward!
The three hour conference began with an introduction by traditional (offline) Austrian journalist Joachim Bessing, who discussed the intention of the event, and then passed over to each guest.
The conference could be (quite) neatly summed up; “How did we suddenly become so relevant and what does it mean?” — ‘we’ being each of the bloggers and the community they represent.
The most significant points of discussion were the commercialisation of blogs, and how profits/revenue can be made and how blogs attract readers and keep them there. Of fundamental importance was the discussion of how blogs ‘compete’ or overshadow traditional forms of media, and how retailers and brands can harness the power of the blogosphere.
I’ll leave you with a concluding statement by Imran Amed from The Business of Fashion
“Regardless of whether you (the brand) are involved in the dialogue or not, the dialogue will continue without you”
–George
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