My First (and only?) TV TeleConference

In another interesting by-product of this blog, I was invited to participate in a teleconference on a new TV show from ABC called "Notes From the Underbelly".

I confess, I called in mostly out of curiosity about what a teleconference would be like — with 90% intent to just observe and see what it was all about, and 10% intent to actually participate. They sent an advance viewing copy of the pilot episodes and I watched the whole thing. And I took some notes to prepare for the conference call.

I'll go ahead and assume you're also curious about what a teleconference is all about, and give you a quick report. I don't know what I was expecting, but I thought the call was a little odd. The invitees were all bloggers, but the teleconference was set-up like we were television critics or journalists. Now, I know that people have discussed the idea that all bloggers are "press" — that we're each our own mini-media outlet — but I don't think bloggers in general feel that way yet. So many participants weren't prepared with questions. And it turns out that's really what this teleconference was. Not a discussion, but a question-answer session. In this case, a question-answer session featuring nervous giggling by the two women being questioned during the frequent silences where nobody was asking questions.

The other odd thing, was that participants didn't know how many other bloggers were on the line. Were there two of us listening in? Or twenty? Or fifty? When someone had a question, they were announced by name and blog title, and then at least you could know who was there. The only downside to this method was that there were only 4 questions total — and mine was one of them. At the end, there was a mention that "people must be feeling shy today" which left me assuming that there were many others on the line keeping their silence. My guess is that the rest of the bloggers were there mostly out of curiosity too, just like me.

Which reminds me, I should really thank Kristin from Manic Mommies and Amy from Mommy Track'd for helping to break up the uncomfortable silence with their own questions.

Well. I'll just count that as another interesting life experience, and next time (if there's a next time) I'll pretend I'm a TV critic for the day and pound them with provocative questions.

I'll tell you about the actual TV show another time. . .