Thursday, August 21, 2008

JBLOGGER - NBN My View

On a hot, Israeli summer day, I decided to take part in history, the First International JBloggers Convention, sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh and webads. It was held in the Nefesh B'Nefesh offices, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem.

I had planned on walking from the Central Bus Station, but the driver who took me, a tremp before the bus came, decided to do me a favor and drop me off in Givat Shaul. They really are close, as you can see from the picture.


Jerusalem String Bridge

Gival Shaul reflected

I followed the directions NBN had sent, and then came across the first mistake. When we got to the office, we were sent out of the building, not to the offices. NBN has another entrance, which is to large rooms, where the convention was held. Now, this was an "anglo" event. Not only did many come on time, but quite a few of us were early and we weren't allowed to sign in.


Jbloggers NBN

Jbloggers NBN

But after that, things were better, besides running overtime. But that was no surprise considering that bloggers are communicators and love to ... communicate.

There was lots of food, salads, sliced meat and bread (which I resisted.) Actually, it would have had been much easier to eat sandwiches.


Jbloggers NBN

They even had a vegetarian section.


Jbloggers NBN

I can't begin to list all of the bloggers I finally met f2f.


Isramom, a friend who pre-dates blogging, internet, computers etc took this picture of me and Ya'akov, aka Dry Bones.


Jbloggers NBN

Here's some of the crowd/attendees at the first panel discussion.


Jbloggers NBN

Jbloggers NBN

Jbloggers NBN

Yes, Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu came and was very impressive, but I'll blog more extensively about him and what he said on Shiloh Musings.


Bibi Binyamin Netanyahu

Here's Rivka, who's an inspiration.


Jbloggers NBN

When I realized that there was a good chance I wouldn't get called on to comment and promote blog carnivals, I spoke to Steve of webads, who was very much in charge, and he told the moderator to call on me. I don't know if there are any pictures, but I got notes from fellow bloggers who were happy to hear my comment/question on the web broadcast. The "biggies" in the first panel were asked, by me, to at least mention when carnivals are posted and link to them to give more exposure. One panelist was very snobby about it and said that he didn't consider us a "community;" it was just his hobby. That was the low point of the entire day, since the entire point of the event was networking, community etc. The other panelists had davka used the term "community," which is why I did. He was very haughty and said some nasty stuff to another questioner who wanted advice on how to promote a blog. He said that he'd never seen it, but he knows that attractive blogs get more readers.

Frum Satire overcame his "under the weather" and performed. Afterwards he pulled out the name of the doorprize winner for a wafflemaker, admitting that he didn't understand why people were laughing--Jameel! Yes, that's my husband who won the wafflemaker. So, please send in lots of waffle recipes and tips.


Jbloggers NBN

There was an interruption during the Foreign Ministry's presentation about marketing Israel in a new way, like the "beach bimbo" idea of a few months ago and as "home of three religions." She was reminded that Israel's a Jewish Country!


Jbloggers NBN

And here's my husband speaking during his panel.

Jbloggers NBN

PS I understand that another blogger trashed my question in his report of the conference. Enough said about that. Since he "miss-heard" my request to put links to the jblog carnivals on blogs and to host jblog carnivals into some personal promotion for myself, I take that as a request not to be included in jblog carnivals. And therefore, when I next host a jblog carnival, I will try to remember that.

16 comments:

Benji Lovitt said...

Nice write-up! Definitely a fun night all around!

Baila said...

Batya,
some of the write-ups on the convention were a bit, uhm, snarky, shall we say? But for me it was all good fun, most of us are in it because its fun and not to change the world. I wouldn't worry about how others feel.

It was nice meeting you.

Risa Tzohar said...

I had a wonderful time. I hope it will inspire me to blog more. In any case, thanks for getting me started. With a large room full of such opinionated and diverse people I'm suprised there weren't more outbursts. It was well worth doing.

Mrs. S. said...

Sounds like it was quite the experience! We had a previous commitment, and so we couldn't make it.

What really strikes me about the pictures is the wide range of people who were there. It's very rare to go to a diverse event with everyone sitting together and enjoying themselves like that.

Anonymous said...

It sounds very exciting. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like fun!

The diversity was wonderful to see (even on the webcast)...

Batya said...

benji, baila and risa,
So great to see you. baila, I didn't take the insults personally, Nobody who was there heard what that guy claimed I said. We were there for the "community" and networking.

mrs. s, and t, there really was a great variety of people, and everyone seemed to be getting along.

ilana, too bad you weren't there.

Lady-Light said...

Batya,
which one is Jameel?

Batya said...

Sorry, he was sitting right in front of me. I didn't get a picture. Maybe someone else did.

RivkA with a capital A said...

Nice write up!

It was great to meet you!!

FWIW, I think your plug of the carnivals was just fine!

Btw, thanks for the link, and the pic. Do you think you can email me the picture? I think it came out great and I do not have many pictures of myself, since I'm always the one taking the pictures.

I wish I would have thought to bring a camera to the convention!!

Batya said...

rivka, thanks
I sent the pic.

Anonymous said...

Shalom Batya;

Thanks to you and Yisrael for taking the shot of me. Please note that my Sin of Expulsion blog sefer-torah.com/blog/ has two posts on the conference and particularly the presentation of the Foreign ministry's brand manager. Please, you and your readers, check out both posts. Thanks.

Moshe Burt

A Living Nadneyda said...

Thanks for the update. I was sorry to have missed it, but as it turned out, we were on a plane, coming home.

Until next year...

ALN

Batya said...

Moshe, I agree with what you said, but you should know that I take my pictures by myself.

aln, Too bad you werent' there. You would have had a great time, and then we could have f2f'ed.

Anonymous said...

Great night!

I guess sitting to your right kept me out of your pictures.



DoubleTapper
DoubleTapper@gmail.com
DoubleTapper, blogging on Guns Politics Defense from Israel

Batya said...

Hard to imagine anyone to my right.

But about the pictures, sorry, maybe there's one on the disk; I just didn't post them all.