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Blue Day, Melbourne

By Nick Hodge | August 22, 2007

Blue Day means a clear day. I could see the sky. After leaving a dark and rainy Sydney, 4degC Melbourne was a rude surprise.

Up at 4:00am. A cat wandered out, stretched and looked at me quizzically seemingly asking : "WTF?"

After checking the online world, my new residence, drive off to the airport. Megan's battery is stuffed. Oh well, time to jump in the other MINI (Scarlett) and off.

Virgin Blue to Melbourne left only 10 minutes late due to Melbourne being fogged in. The in-flight magazine "Voyeur" has a one-page article on Social Networking. LOL. It's mainstream now.

There are two reasons for being in Melbourne: PR Summit run by Frocomm. I am a panelist along with Marilyn Chalkley, Manager, CSIRO Media Liaison and Andrew Parsons, Director, Production and Digital Communications, Department of Immigration and Citizenship. My title merely said "Professional Geek"

(for those watching my Twitter: here is the real Air guitar Youtube: Dr Richard Helmer's Every wanna be rocker's dream come true)

The session prior to the panel was by Abigail Thomas from the ABC. Abigail talked about ABC's SecondLife island.

So, the panel was interesting. There is a big gap of experience and understanding of the "online native" world. Just podcasting a Press Release will not cut it for Podcasters and Bloggers. Creating a SecondLife island will cost, and attract 3 dogs and maybe a man (as much as I technically love SecondLife, we have yet to see the future)

My opinion on this in a forthcoming post.

Interestingly, the recent experience of Cameron Reilly, Twitterarti (including myself, I admit) and Telstra was mentioned in almost passing. Dr Hugh Bradlow from Telstra's response is an excellent step into the conversation.

Had a break-chat with Gabriella Stern, Senior Editor from Dow Jones Newswires Singapore. Chat was about Journalism in this new online world we find ourselves. Enron, Stock Option Repricing and all sorts of discussion around blogging and journalists. After watching the PBS documentary, Newswar, it was enlightening. One part of our discussion related to the "mainstream media" and bloggers working together.

On the subject of the famous (The Bulletin famous) Cameron.

So, I have a few hours to kill. Twitter-friend Andrew Barnett was in the Melbourne CBD. After consulting a map of Melbourne streets, I navigated my way to Starbucks on the corner of Bourke and Queen street. Twitter'd to all that I was there, ready for anything.

Anything happened. Cameron Reilly popped in for a few moments. Later, Froosh and Andrew Barnett popped in for a chat on life, universe, weddings, parties and anything.

Upon returning to the impromptu Twitter meetup, Cameron derided me for my choice of corporate-coffee and insisted we move to Nick's on Little Bourke Street. Let me say, it's my new Melbourne food joint of choice. We are joined by new Twitter-friend, Garth.

So, off we trot to Nick's.

Cameron interviews us all on Twitter: questions related to how it has changed our blogging; general Twitter stories and if corporations should "adopt" Twitter.