The next Talk About Local Unconference [1] is fast approaching and I thought I’d jot down a few things I’m hoping to get from the event. The general election How can hyperlocal’s cover the general election? We’re looking at running coverage on Blog Preston [2] but with limited resources and candidates not seeming interested in being interviewed - it’s looking like a different task. How are other hyperlocal blogs planning on covering the event itself? Will they be asking people to volunteer? Or linking up with initiatives like The Guardian & The Straight Choice’s [3] partnership? I’d like to think that local candidates would see local blogs as a great opportunity to get their message out to the community. The big money question Is anyone making money? How are they making money? It’s the big question for a lot of people as although the local blog might be a labour of love there needs to be a business model of some sort. Providing good, quality, local, content is time consuming and labour intensive. Will advertisers take local blogs seriously? Let’s hope there’s a few people there who can shed some light. Taking it to the next level You’ve got the blog up and running, you’re getting traffic, you’ve got contributors. Where next? How do you find more content? How do you expand? Should you expand or keep to your current level? There’s so many questions for those who run hyperlocal and local blogs and have been running them for a while. Keep it as a hobby, try and make money, invest more time. Getting offline Are hyperlocal and local blogs running events? What are they doing offline? Are they organising tweet-ups, bloggers meet-ups and other events that get their community together away from the computer screen. I’d like to think they are but let’s see how many are actually doing it and what tips they’ve got. That’s just three topics. I’m hoping to meet some interesting people and decided I don’t want to run or help run a session this time, but just participate, take some notes and contribute to the discussions that are happening. You can read my report from the last Talk About Local Unconference [4] in Stoke-on-Trent in October 2009 - it was a very inspiring event - and I hope this event will be just as good. [1] http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/tal10/ [2] http://www.blogpreston.co.uk [3] http://www.thestraightchoice.org/ [4] http://www.edwalker.net/blog/2009/10/04/talk-about-local-unconference-2009-oatcakes-community-media-and-hope/