Edit: Michael Arrington is saying on his blog that he was never confirmed to speak in the first place. This may be true, but I will say that I spoke with the conference founders about this before I posted.
So, I leave the keynote session this morning anxiously awaiting my first session of the day: The Cult of Blogging presented by Leo LaPorte, Om Malik & Michael Arrington from TechCrunch. This is my big day. This session, and the next one on finding funding for your new media business, are the two sessions at BlogWorld that convinced me to come. Although since I spoke here I didn’t have to pay for a ticket, I would have just for these two sessions.
I’m sitting in the first session, and there are no speakers. Leo LaPorte has just given the keynote and was swamped with questions after it, I assume he is running a bit late. I’m right, he rushes into the room soon, and gets on stage and says,
“This was supposed to be a session with A-Listers talking about the cult of blogging. Om Malik has hurt his back and won’t be able to join me.”
“Michael Arrington forgot to come.”
Excuse me?! FORGOT to come?
How do you forget to come to the biggest blogging conference in the world in which you are supposed to speak in two very key sessions at the event?
You know, I don’t want to pass too much judgment on Mr. Arrington here, but I have to be honest with you.
I’m really fricking disappointed. I wanted to learn from you, Michael. I wanted to listen to you. I was excited to meet you. You run a blog I admire, and my readers look up to you, too.
And I’m disappointed.
Michael, please come next year. And please write it down this time.