Sebastian mentioned the complaints that RNC bloggers are lodging compared to blogger treatment at the DNC. He noted that NRA had a much more successful blogger outreach through the Blog Bash. I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree, but not just because I planned it.

Here’s a breakdown of features and services I’ve seen for mentioned for bloggers at the RNC and DNC. I’m comparing it with NRA-ILA’s offerings to bloggers at their Annual Meeting. I won’t pretend that everything was 100% perfect at the NRA meeting, but it was pretty darn close. For a first time event, neither of which was the case for RNC and DNC, NRA-ILA performed beyond expectations. The RNC and DNC have had a go, and from what I’ve been reading, one of them actually performed worse in the second go round than they did the first time.

As a disclaimer, I’ll note that as the Blog Bash planner, I have full insight into what happened. I was not involved in planning anything with the RNC and DNC (obviously) and did not attend. I’m relying on reports from bloggers who did attend.

*I have run a media room before, and this is a problem I have faced. I have also heard it is not an uncommon problem. I still think it’s vital, so it needs to be attempted. However, I’m pretty forgiving of technical problems.

All-in-all, it sounds like the NRA Meeting surpassed the two conventions. Granted, there are more media and bloggers to serve for the conventions, but they also have more staff and bigger budgets to focus on these outreach efforts. The only issues not listed here that I had at the NRA Meeting were some communication issues. However, they were minor and since I was a clear point-of-contact for bloggers, and I had connections to staffers and Board members, we managed to get it worked out.

1) Some of the communications staff clearly didn’t have a full understanding of everything we were doing with the Bash. That’s fine, except a few told bloggers they were flat out wrong about things like banquet tickets instead of just finding the people who did know and asking.

While I know it’s not efficient for every staffer to know every detail, I would suggest that lower level staff handling registration be instructed to ask someone who does know rather than dispensing false information. But that may be a personality issue as much as anything, and that’s just something we may have to work around. I think I can plan around it so that it’s not an issue in the future.

2) Communication about press office hours, Bash events, and computer access was an issue. One of the cool features that NRA offered was setting up a computer with internet access in the press office for anyone with credentials to use. I don’t think everyone understood this, and those who left their laptops at the hotel didn’t know they could use it. I also know that there was some confusion over press office hours, and when Bash events were scheduled.

The hours issue was eventually solved by posted notes on the doors the last two days. I will supplement this, and solve the Bash event communication issue, with my own posted note in the office each day (with permission of NRA of course, but I don’t think they will object). I thought the emails out to the attendees each morning were enough, but apparently not many people checked their email. I will also use Twitter a lot more next year. I really didn’t think to use it nearly enough for all its usefulness this year.

3) The willingness of NRA-ILA to work with us really can’t get enough applause. Pretty much any request I made, they were happy to work on. When issues came up, they were happy to work with us and be responsive, not shuffling us off to someone else who didn’t work with bloggers, as I understand happened at the RNC in one instance. If their hands were tied with an issue, they communicated it clearly and kept us up-to-date with everything.

4) Communication prior to the event seemed to be pretty thorough, moreso than what I heard RNC staff did for bloggers. I didn’t see any complaints about what the DNC did, so I can’t really speak to that. Granted, I’m probably biased since I handled it all, but I didn’t see any complaints in the survey about pre-event communication. I also didn’t get many emails asking questions, so I read these lack of issues as good signs.

Overall, I’d say that things went well. I think the hiccups we did have from NRA are not at all uncommon and were very minor.

Consider that with the recent Para USA event for gun bloggers, I had to remind them that internet is vital to bloggers if they are going to serve their function. Initially, only two computers with hard wired access were going to be available to bloggers all weekend at Blackwater. However, I questioned this decision and asked if we could provide a wireless router since coverage would not have been nearly as thorough if bloggers weren’t able to post because they had limited computer access and likely wouldn’t be able to upload video or pictures. Blackwater and Para eventually worked out the problem and provided wifi, albeit slow speeds were apparently still an issue.

I don’t think that bloggers can really demand VIP treatment at events like this, and they have to acknowledge that they don’t have the reach of MSM. However, I do think that blog outreach is useful and important to keeping the lines of communication open to your grassroots. The internet, power supplies, and a place to sit with a direct view (or direct connection via monitor) are the absolute basics to successful outreach. Oh, and communicating with bloggers about those functions is also key. Anything they do above and beyond is just that. However, I believe they do have an incentive to go above and beyond because unlike the MSM, we don’t typically hate whoever we’re covering. We also tend to be the grassiest of the grassroots, to steal a phrase from SayUncle. There’s value in treating bloggers well, but I also think that bloggers need to know that they are in competition with other media – larger media.

That said, I do have some ideas based on feedback that we got after everyone returned home. I have my pitches to the appropriate folks at NRA lined up, and once they recover their sanity after the election, I’ll start hitting them up for some special treatment. However, the special treatment I will request won’t be expensive food, power hookups at every inch of the exhibit hall, or anything else. Instead the requests focus on the ways in which we bloggers can get the most relevant and unique stories out to our unique readers. In other words, they did such a great time with a first time event that I think we can all step it up a notch and still put on a great event that serves everyone’s needs. We’re going to do it again working with only a couple of contacts in NRA-ILA, one volunteer, and no budget.

If any RNC & DNC bloggers are interested in covering the NRA Meeting – an annual event that draws 50-60,000 people and features top politicians and personalities – feel free to sign up to receive more information once planning really gets underway. I don’t think you’ll regret it at all.

RNC Reports: PajamasMedia, Atlas Shrugs, Fausta’s Blog, Boots & Sabers, The Dead Pelican, Marty Andrade, Cake Eater Chronicles, Right Wing Nation

DNC Reports: CBS News Horserace, Buckeye State Blog, Panic {RE}_Programming, KnoxViews

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