Meeting the team!

I spent the majority of my 3rd day here attending the BBC News and Sports festival. Apparently it’s all Chatham House rules- so I can’t say much but there were some interesting discussions.

Saw Huw Edwards interviewing David Mannion about the future of ITN and what he really thought of BBC news- David Mannion came across really well he is very committed and enthusiastic about what he does and has big plans to re-brand ITN. However, until they get more resources to raise their game in multimedia I can’t really see them making much of an impact on the BBC or Sky News.

I then listened to a talk on the future of blogging chaired by Evan Davies. It was a very interesting discussion there were many pro-bloggers but it was also clear that there is a strong wave of old school BBC opinion that think it’s a bit of a joke and still only done by a few grey nerds in a windowless room somewhere.

In my opinion this is a dangerous attitude. The internet was started by a small group of ‘nerds’ and look were it is 15 years later. I don’t think it’s wise to make judgements based on such a short term analysis of blogging.

I also listened to some insights into the way Litvinenko was reported and saw Mark Thompson interviewed by Jeremy Vine in front of a disappointed BBC news team following the license fee announcement.

It was vaguely bizarre to be seated amongst Huw Edwards, David Loyn, Alistair Leithead, Frank Gardner, Helen Boaden, Jeremy Bowen and Fergal Keane to name but a few…