This is a terrific piece by Jay Rosen. I attended the panel he speaks of at SXSW and he's right, it was a really good panel. Great information was shared and lively conversation was inspired. But, as he also mentions, too many 'gurus' of social media showed up to SXSW with the assumption that their name was enough to draw the crowds.
Well, yes, the crowds came. But the crowds were not shy about walking out or commenting their displeasure via the backchannel. I walked out of several such sessions. If after 15 minutes I wasn't engaged, they lost my business and I went to a different presentation.
I must say, some of the most memorable discussions for me were in rooms with no big names at all, like the session on freelance not being free. Journalists, bloggers, and publishers discussed passionately the challenges they were facing trying to make a living in a market of 'free' content. Also, the panel on citizen journalism inspired great conversations and truly made the audience part of the discussion.
Hopefully some lessons were learned this year. Rosen outlines in his post the exact steps to a successful panel. So lets hope potential speakers for next year's SXSW take note.
