One of my team (thanks for the heads-up Steph) was just asked by a hack if an event we’re holding is ‘off-the-record’, NDA, or NFB? …NFB?

That’s “Not for Blogging” folks. And I am sure it’s going to be asked more and more. Apparently this jounro had just been instructed that an event was NFB – which is totally understandable if it was under NDA or OTR. If you know what I mean.

Seems companies are not just worried about something appearing in print over time – an event that might actually, dare I say it, be able to be ‘managed’. Now they are also worried about an event being spontaneously blogged, live from the floor.

My view is in general, lets leave it up to the media – if they feel a blog can offer a new or different perspective, have at it. This is less of an issue with a formal event where the real-time view from the floor is better than reading about it three weeks later. Say a JavaOne or a SunNetwork.

It’s more of an issue with the informal get-together. Here you’ve got to have the the confidence that journos will exercise common sense as to the appropriateness of blogging a portion of any event – however big or small, formal or informal. Information taken and delivered out of context is as bad as lies, drivel and misrepresentation.

It’s going to be a real challenge for PR to define a NFB policy. OK, we can just say it. But doesn’t that undermine the value of blogs in the first place? Why hold an event and not allow blogging? In fact, as I discovered a year or so ago, you’d better have a WiFi network in place to enable it. Wouldn’t a ABP (Always Blog Please) be better for transparency?

But now that you’ve asked, our events are totally blogable… unless we say otherwise 🙂