BLOGGERS IN THE HOUSE: A REPORT ON BROOKLYN BLOGFEST 2008

Last night, 200 or so people gathered at the Brooklyn Lyceum for the Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest. Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn started the Blogfest in 2006. It was her way to pull together bloggers – new, veteran and aspiring – as well as the folks who read blogs and care about the impact of blogging on our daily lives.

For two years, Louise held the event in the Old Stone House. Last year, people had to be turned away from the door because of the risk of exceeding maximum capacity. This year, to accommodate the growing number of Blogfest participants, Louise chose the Brooklyn Lyceum as the venue.

The event started with a video montage of Brooklyn Bloggers from Bluebarn Pictures, followed by an official welcome from Louise. From there, a lineup of bloggers and guests from other medium – print, television and radio – spoke about different aspects of blogging.

I spoke about blogging as a vehicle for putting down roots and building community. Petra Symister of Bed-Stuy Blog talked about the importance of diversifying the blogging community in terms of race and class and geography. "We definitely need more place bloggers," she said.

Gersh Kuntzman, Editor of the Brooklyn Paper, asserted that bloggers need to moderate their readers' comments more carefully so that people don't have to sift through pages of hate-filled, purposeless stuff.

Brooklyn Optimist showed his Tribute to Brooklyn's Photobloggers.

Heather Johnston of So Good presented Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers.

Chris of Flatbush Gardener (the photographer of this post's photo) invited all bloggers to participate in the Brooklyn Blogade – a monthly gathering of Brooklyn bloggers who meet in the various neighborhoods of the borough.

The evening concluded with the Shout Out, where roughly 60 bloggers from the audience came to the mics up front to introduce themselves.

People stayed well past the ending of the program to dine on the donated edible goodies, mingle, and get their portrait taken by Hugh Crawford of No Words Daily Pix from Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

A personal highlight from Blogfest was being part of the team of bloggers and non-bloggers who pulled together as Staff to make every aspect of the event go well, from the food to the DJing, to the sound system. It definitely takes a village to raise a Blogfest.

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THE BLOGFEST CLICK HERE.