What a blast! I think it’s fair to say we lived up to the rockstar theme folks. You and 249 others rocked the Pakhuis de Zwijger the whole day.

We’ve been reading articles and tweets about BLOG08 all day and I think we can draw a few conclusions:

• Dutch people aren’t into monetizing their blogs. Why would they? There are only 16 million people speaking the same language
• The discussion about journalism vs blogging is never-ending, but only because we can’t stop talking about it
• Blogging is hard work, really hard. Just ask Cashmore how he has built up Mashable (it concerns 4 hour nights and lots of coffee)
• Loren Feldman thinks bikes from Amsterdam are too crappy to be true

Edial and I think have a lot to think about. And when we’re done with that, we’ll definitely share our findings with you. For now, enjoy these photos and a video of our BLOG08 band Love O.D (featuring speaker Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten).

Love O.D. - Funkalicious ft. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten from Love O.D. on Vimeo.

Our Journalism versus/ heart Blogging panel is complete now we’ve added professor dr. Piet Bakker to the list of four. During a Dutch interview with Marketingfacts, we called it a “clash of the titans” - which it will probably be.

Piet Bakker is professor at the Hogeschool Utrecht and associate professor at the University of Amsterdam. He introduced me, Ernst-Jan, to Communications science at the University of Amsterdam in 2004, was my teacher during my first bachelor seminar in 2006, and sent me to New York in 2007, so I’m glad and honored to have him at BLOG08. He has been blogging about free daily newspapers since August 2004, so he knows his material.

Together with Clo Willaerts (Sanoma), Tim Overdiek (NOS), and Paul Bradshaw (Onlinejournalismblog.com), Bakker will discuss the future of journalism and the influence of blogs. Do you have an urgent question to ask these experts? Drop me a line at ernst-jan@blog08.nl.

We’ve added another great name to the Journalism Versus/ Heart Blogging panel. If you’re into journalism and blogs, he doesn’t need an introduction. Just a wild guess: most of you aren’t, so here’s his bio.

Paul Bradshaw is the man behind the Online Journalism Blog, one of the world’s most popular journalism blogs, as well as various other blogs he keeps forgetting about. In between blog posts he works as a Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media at Birmingham City University in the UK, and as a new media consultant for publishers. During the panel, he’ll be accompanied by Tim Overdiek and Clo Willaerts.

He wants us to let you know that he doesn’t bite, so feel free to walk up to him for a good chat about journalism and blogs after the panel. Disclaimer: don’t blame us if he DOES bite.

Since we’re organizing an international conference here, we not just want speakers from our home country. Therefore, we asked around to scout some international blog talent. Robin Wauters from the Brussels-based PLUGG conference advised us to ask Clo Willaerts, famous Belgian blogger and marketing manager at Sanoma Magazines Belgium. When a man like Robin gives you an advice, you gladly take it. That’s exactly what we did.

When we Googled Clo, we found some captivating stuff. Like her presentation What Marketeers Could Learn from pr0n at Barcamp II, Brussels. After reading her personal blog Bnox, we realized she HAD to be part of our Journalism Versus/ Heart Blogging. Moreover, there’s a rock music link here. [Read more]

We’ve invited our first panelist for the Journalism Versus/Heart Blogging panel. Tim Overdiek will be one of the professionals who will touch this interesting subject.

Overdiek believes that journalists without a blog don’t have a future. That’s quite a statement, coming from a respectable journalist as he is. He currently occupies the position of Deputy Editor in Chief of the Dutch national public broadcasting news outlet. [Read more]