Great to meet you in Dublin. And sorry that I was the only one that responded to your great question about cultural policy in the face of all the changes described at the conference. It struck me as quite odd, actually, that I was the only one to respond, as ”policy” in the United States is necessarily vague and unfocused, where as policy in Ireland’s arts ecosystem is such a major player.

In an environment of so few major arts funders beyond government, of clear interest in preserving heritage while also sustaining a rich arts community, and in a small enough country to wrap your arms around the problem (not all the way around, to be sure, but further around than most countries can manage), I would have guessed the majority of people in the room would be voracious policy wonks.

Yet, the word fell just as flat in Dublin as it does in U.S. conferences.

Hmmmmm.

Emerging Writer – no easy answers there! The fact that the internet is so much crap is a frequent rebuttal I come across from university staff who are not interested in its potential, and who choose to ignore it altogether. Personally I think that forward-thinking arts organisations can be real leaders here– witness the Tate, the Metropolitan Opera, and others who have innovated in the area of new media & the arts– they’ve helped build a reputation that is based on connectedness with audiences, and as a consequence benefit from the dynamic relationships they create with visitors both virtual and real! In terms of the generation gap, it’s possible to bridge old media with the new– as with the Met Opera’s streaming of live performances on radio, etc. I think in particular radio is an excellent way to demonstrate the potential of new media for arts experience to more established audiences– so much worldwide is available to us now, it’s simply astonishing.

Omaniblog – the blogfringe idea is an interesting one– I think perhaps concentrating blogging activity would be a good idea. I was searching for the live blogs on the conference website, where they weren’t linked to initially, but now Annette has an index up there which is very helpful. I think the kind of ‘impressionistic’ blogspace you descrive is intriguing, but I don’t think it’s a substitute for simply absorbing presentations and talks as they are occurring, digesting them and then reflecting afterwards? This seems to me a very different thought process & experience than what live blogging seeks to capture. There’s room for both of course, and I think the conference tried to make space for both… I do think sometimes that instant, ‘from the gut’ responses are not always helpful or particularly insightful, apart from the gossip quotient they provide.

I always tend to go back to my main domain of experience, which is the classroom. Would I want students ‘live blogging’ my lectures/presentations? No way! They are there to learn and participate in discussion, not chronicle every individual reaction to the material for a future imagined public. In such a case blogging would be a distraction, not an aid to learning. A class blog built cumulatively would be a different matter– and I’ve heard of lecturers using the form very successfully. In a conference format, the intended outcome is different, and casual comment & reaction has more of a place I think. I would be interested to hear of conference examples where the live blogging format has been successful, that have had mixed audiences (not just the tech crowd!).

I may be taking you up incorrectly here Emily but every delegate who registered was asked to indicate whether they wanted to host a Your Space event – we then organised enough spaces to accommodate everyone. All delegates were then emailed with the list of sessions and invited to think about them in advance. Nothing was pre determined by the conference organisers – perhaps as a panellist you didn’t see the conference registration form?