Has IABC Brussels finally created an emonster?

On a hazzy Sunday morning early in 2009, Hugh Barton-Smith,came up with the idea of a Web 2 EU event for the IABC Belgian chapter. The idea was to get a few peeps together to discuss the benefits and use of web 2.0 (or has Hugh says web 2) in our European public affairs strategies and political communications.

The first Web 2 EU event in May was excellent but was somewhat dominated by PowerPoints from:

• Charles Crouch, eBusiness Lecturer at Boston University
• Philip Weiss, internet entrepreneur and HyperThinker from ZN
• Me, eCommunications Manager for a pesticide trade association
• Mathew Lowry, the driving force behind the launch of Blogactiv
• Neville Hobson, the UK’s influential blogger and podcaster

All good stuff, but left little time or energy for the audience to ask questions and have a real conversation.

So ZN stepped up and hosted a follow-on event last night to really get a conversation going about how communication professional can get their head around web 2.0 concepts and tools. What works, what doesn’t and to seek answers to the tough questions that colleagues and clients keep asking about Web 2.0. We had a lively discussion but if you missed it, don’t stress, just join the growing IABC Ning community where the networking and discussion just keeps on flowing. Other offline events will follow.

I took a lot of video material at the event of deeply profound comments ;-), but being a part-time airhead, deleted it all except for this passionate introduction by Phil followed by Hugh’s musings on IABC and Ninging it.