A new treat at this year’s Midwinter Conference was the Bloggers’ Lounge. This centrally located space, sponsored by SMART and hosted by #BlogathonATX and qannection.com, featured seating for over 30 attendees and their electronic devices. With power sources for computers and phones spread throughout the area, the lounge became a place to recharge batteries as well as brains. Attendees used the area to perform remote work, document new strategies they learned in sessions, or simply check in with the office back home.
Aside from the Lounge itself, professional writers, bloggers and social media enthusiasts were on hand to attend and blog about various speaker presentations. These bloggers continued the conversation back at the Bloggers’ Lounge by moderating post-session Q&As with presenters such as Alan November, Scott Kinney, Tom Burnett, and more. These informal sessions allowed attendees to delve further into presentation topics and gave speakers an opportunity to address attendees in an informal environment.
In addition to writers, the Lounge provided technical support for attendees needing advice on blogging platforms, search engine optimization strategies and other issues affecting bloggers. #BlogathonATX representatives, Ilene Haddad and Julie Gomoll, presented a Q&A session about social media and blog management.
The Bloggers’ Lounge team kept attendees up-to-date with frequent posts to Twitter using the hashtag #TASAmw. Messages included everything from session highlights to reports from the floor of the Education Expo. People were able to view these updates in real time via TASA’s Midwinter smartphone app, as well as on a large SMART Board inside the Lounge.
We’d love feedback on the lounge, or, if you missed it, let us know if it’s something you’d like to experience next year.http://qannection.com/
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