Up front question after intros for the panel (which I missed) - have PR people picked up on the change in the media relations model? Do they get the idea that "the users are in charge?" yet? The panel thinks that clients of PR firms are picking up on this faster, and that west coast firms are further along than east coast firms. I'm not sure about the latter, but I buy the former. The push model of marketing messages is pretty much dead.

Interesting - there aren't many PR people here in the room (or at the show, for that matter). Hmm - is that evidence that PR firms still haven't picked up on this stuff? The old agency model is still in place, and the "up and coming" generation of people haven't made an impact yet. The agencies don't think that they have time to get involved ([ed] - they need to make time).

Good observation from the panel here - the agencies are still in early days in understanding this (and the ones that aren't paying attention yet are falling behind). The ones that aren't paying attention will be utterly oblivious to nascent negative PR events - and with that obliviousness comes an inability to respond early.

These guys are very interested in the activity surrounding Digg, Techmeme (et. al.). These sites allow you to follow an ongoing conversation - and, depending on the conversation, it may well be of interest to a client. This is more useful to PR than tagging. A lot of this is just basic fubdamentals: Can you write well, can you listen. The difference now is, there's more to listen to.

Heh - good comment: "There are a lot of tools out there that will tell you you're on fire, but not many that will tell you how to put it out". You need tools to learn that you're on fire, but you need PR skills to put it out.

Pitching a reporter vs. pitching a blogger. Before blogs, you would read previous writings and know the ground rules. With bloggers, getting those interests/sphere of influence is every bit as important, but the rules of engagement (i.e. - what will get published) are different. Another take: don't pitch them, ping them (link to them, comment on their blog, be part of their community).