Double blogging

Oh, I do enjoy reading Scott's blog sometimes. I nearly didn't bother today, cos I assumed it would all be about bloody football, but no, it was about Online -- something I too have been thinking about all week...

I used to work with Scott in the house on the hill where Online was based -- I wasn't involved in organising it but my year too revolved round it, as I was a journalist on 'Europe's Leading Information Industry Monthly Publication', as the Marketing Department rather hopelessly branded it (some stiff competition for that accolade, I can tell you). Its usual 32 pages became 72 or 80 for the December issue, and my job was to get that to press on time, at the same time as the events team were working round the clock doing whatever it was they did, I have no idea, I was far too busy chasing filler columns from obscure German information scientists and trying to write knowledgeably about esoteric classification protocols and the virtues or otherwise of this big new thing called the World Wide Web.

And at the event itself, I would trail round trying to get news stories, which for my first Online was a bit like the blind leading the blind, as I would ineptly interview spotty youths in bad suits, they would trot out some brochure speak, I would record it on my wildly inadequate, brick sized tape recorder, take their business card and move on. Later I would try and transcribe said tapes, cringe at the inanity of my questions, which would be recorded perfectly, and have to turn the volume up to maximum to try and decipher their answers, which would be lost in background noise.

In subsequent years I became more accomplished, and also a bit better known, so I would get to talk to the big people and we would arrange to meet in civilised places like the press office. They had also invented mobile phones by then, which helped, and I qualified for a real dictaphone. In time, I became so efficient that I had time to scope out the stands which had no visitors (usually obscure Eastern European database companies who could only afford to send one person) and perform a valuable public service by interviewing them about anything they wanted to talk about. I never did take up that invitation to Finland.

But it was the nights that made it. In those days half the company would decamp to Hammersmith for the week, and come six o'clock the show would close and the receptions would start. And after endless surreal conversations in strange venues with members of the international Info Pro community, the staff would reture to the Dog and Bucket, or whatever the hotel bar was called, and things would deteriorate. For some reason, they let us sign for drinks -- very dangerous when you are 25 and underpaid. So nights would end with an almighty row, or someone falling asleep in your lap, or you finding yourself bouncing from wall to wall as you made your way down the corridor to bed.

And in the morning you would need to be up at some ungodly hour, and five people would ring to make sure you were awake, and you would take off the clothes you had slept in for three hours, stand under the glorious, lifesaving hotel shower for ten minutes, put them back on again and hope your eyes weren't really more red than white. Ten minutes later you would have a face off with a plate of hash browns that had been under a heat lamp for two hours, lose, and the fun would start again.

I nearly went this year, because I have a New Job as a Knowledge and Information Manager and I figured I should get myself up to date. But going as a punter would be just too, too weird. And I also fear its glory days are over -- everything's online information these days, innit? But I will always remember it fondly.

joella