“Content is King” was the theme for this year’s BlogCamp Ghana 2013. It was held at the Kofi Annan centre of ICT - some meters away from the Parliament house of Ghana. This program was organized to help bloggers improve on their blogging and to encourage others who haven’t started blogging yet to do so. It is also a platform where bloggers, vloggers, tweeps and facebookers will be officially recognized. I was indeed overwhelmed by the number of people who participated. Actually, this was my first time to be at such an event. I went through a registration process that took me less than five minutes (my data was verified since I registered online and picked up my tag that had my name and my twitter handle on it). Afterwards I went to have a photoshoot with some friends. (Official photographer of the event was Nii Odzenma photography) afterwards, I tried to make some few friends who were also bloggers and met old friends I haven’t been in touch with for a long time. I must say the organizers of the event did tremendously well and a big Thank you to the sponsors who supported the event and gave out some goodies to participants for being interactive during sessions.
The theme for the event was explained further by @Kajsa (am using the twitter handles of the speakers because I have forgotten their names) who made us understand why they chose such a theme.
Next was @antirhythm; who took us through Social Media and the Law. He went further to talk about plagiarism, how to come up with good content for your blog, crediting references on your blog, and having a copyright of your original content. His speech was very inciting.
Next to speak was @MacJordan who dedicated his presentation to the late Chinua Achebe; one of his Role model and shared a quote of his. He shared his experience going around some parts of the world and talking about whether the internet should be free or not. I indeed enjoyed his presentation because he showed a video about how some countries are highly deficient with the use of the internet.
Next was an open discussion about how to increase content in a free world. There were quite a number of suggestions which included being able to be consistent on your blog because your audience will always want to find out your latest. Another was to talk with friends if you have an idea about anything so that you can have various angles to that particular idea. We then had some shoutout from some sponsors who were delighted to be a part of the event. Then Lunch came…..i was quite hungry and what overwhelmed me was the fact that we actually didn’t pay anything for the program but we had some good lunch and drinks from blueskies…that was soo cool. Thank u guys…
Myself and Seyram
After lunch we had to break-out into sessions to learn on different topics. I joined the Social Media for Organisations class. I joined this class because I wanted to help my organization to interact with its publics through social media, since social media enables speed information. Another important thing to consider for an organization was to align your social media plans to the communication plan of your company. I was really educated on this topic, thanks to the guys who shared their experiences with their organizations. A social media strategist and MacJordan took us through this session. They also advised on the use of newsletters for organizations using some softwares – mailchimp, mailmimi and surveymonkey – and interacting with your publics through online forums and instant messaging. (I had a goodie from Blackberry for asking a question….lol)
The next class I joined was the “Social Media Pays” class. In this class, we shared experiences about how we can make money from blogging or using social media to make money for a living. This class wasn’t as interesting as I wanted but I learnt a lot. (at a point I had wanted to join some other class)
After the break-out sessions we gathered at the auditorium to continue with the program. Nana Asaase gave us some poetry from his collection followed by rhymes Sony(I hope I got the name right). We then had a little speech from the US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Gene A. Cretz, who felt honoured to be a part of the event and advised us to make good use of the internet anytime we had access to it.
There came the time we were waiting for, I could feel the heartbeat of some of the nominees. I will want to congratulate all the award winners and the nominees…..you guys are fantastic!
The winners were:
Best technology Blog - techy-africa.com
Best Business and Commerce Blog - estockanalysisblog.com
Best Citizen Journalism Blog - circumspecte.com
Best Creative, Literary Short Stories, Poetry Blog - ganyobinaa.com
Best Showbiz and Entertainment Blog – ameyawdebrah.com
Best lifestyle Blog - ganyobinaa.com
Best Activist blog - adventuresfrom.com
Best Photo Blog - africaphotographer.blogspot.com
Best Organisational Blog - accradotalttours.wordpress.com
Best Blog - adventuresfrom.com
Personality with best social Media Presence - MutomboPercy the Poet (@MutomboDaPoet)
Best Original Content - poetrysoundbites.blogspot.co.uk
Check out their prizes here http://www.blogcampghana.com/social-media-awards/prizes/
3 comments:
I am happy you enjoyed the experience and i hope it spurs you on to blog more and create more content
The BlogCamp team is excited to know you enjoyed it. We hope this spears you on to produce more local content to rep Gh on the online map. Nice piece, Lydia
Thank u very much guys
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