Even if your assigned event is only an hour long, don’t go without a smart phone of some sort.
Access to your Twitter and Facebook accounts (as well as to other industry-specific community sites, such as Architizer) will allow you to post moment by moment updates. Beyond the obvious reasons for Tweeting your on-the-scene-experiences, there are two additional benefits. At the event, once you hit “tweet” your mind is clear of that thought and you’re ready for the next encounter (no mental notes required) and, after the event, when you do sit down to compose a blog post, you have a body of retrievable impressions to work from.

 
How I know this: I used a digital camera for images and a sketchbook for notes to compose my posts later. This combination worked earlier in my carrier, but it’s all we had then. This time a smart phone with web access and the appropriate apps would have allowed me to merge real-time words and images for even better blog content. Learn to work with the best tools you can get your hands on.

 Even if you tend to be frugal personally, don’t cut costs at the risk of jepordizing professionalism.
Unless your event and your accommodations are on airport property, or you find a driver holding a card with your name on it, you will have ground transportation choices to make. Taxis from the airport cost more but are more timely than shuttle circuits or public transportation. Daily car rental will likely be the most expensive, but most dependable, form of local transportation. Don’t loose control over your schedule and timely arrivals; plan ahead for these links. Oh, and have some tip money handy.

 
How I know this: My sponsors had forwarded me a check calculated to cover the taxi fair to and from the airport. Nice perk, right? Well, my big idea was to pay for the less expensive round trip shuttle service and apply the difference to the airline’s checked baggage fees. The math worked. The problem – money is time, and I lost hours of it in that choice. I arrived to the hotel after the lunch gathering and would have missed the Disney by Design tour if not for a wonderfully patient guide (thanks again, Nichole).
 

Even if you regularly blog in your pajamas, you’re being sent to an industry event. Dress the part.
Face it, some of us blog (or hope to one day) in order to ditch the corporate culture of grave-sized cubicles, paperwork tedium and company dress codes. (These non-conformity traits may have begun in preschool with checkmarks next to ”does not play well with others.”) However you choose to conduct yourself at home is your business, but when you are invited to a place of other people’s business, respect that industry and its leaders. Dress and present yourself appropriately.

How I know this: No, I didn’t arrive in Florida wearing sandals and a flowered shirt. There were no Mickey Mouse ears either. Fortunately, I had learned this lesson long before I’d ever heard of blogging. In preparation I determined the event’s expected attire (and packed an extra change of said attire for “just in case”) and I filled my identification badge cover with a thick stack of business cards. This part I got right.
 
 

Fellow bloggers, I hope these tips, some learned the hard way, serve you well on occasions when you are invited to guest blog at such an event. Feel free to share your story or add your advice below.

Appartment Building, Concepcion, Chile

I didn’t take action right away however, and when I did sit down to write (that is, to gather data and potential blog links) I learned the building code aspects of the story had already been well covered. It was a good idea, shared by many and developed quickly online. These writers had produced timely news-based posts for their blogs. I hadn’t.
 
Although this blog, Building Content, does address current events and trends, it is not intended to be a news blog, per se. News reporting, aggregation, and commentary are popular blog types, but Building Content has a different objective; it is specifically devoted to offering coaching and content to fellow architectural bloggers. The earthquake in Chile was no longer news, but it still held a story.
 
As I looked at how others were covering the earthquake, I saw a range of writers’ insights. The facts of the event were set (other than the rising death count, which is the human aspect that trumps all other data) but each writer beheld – or imposed – a different perspective on the story.
 
In my evaluation of blog coverage of the Chilean quake and building codes, I found the more pertinent theme for readers here:
 

A professional blog should manifest the writer’s a unique point of view.

 
In light of this, let me show you how five different bloggers have approached the building code aspects of the Chilean earthquake and presented the story to their readers in a unique way: 

USA Today – Lessons learned should be lessons applied; “I look at the reports of collapsing bridges and highways in Chile and worry what would happen here.”

The Huffington Post - The significance of preparedness; “No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled their poorly constructed buildings.”

Treehugger – A refutation of “the Libertarian point of view (that) building codes are evil and an intrusion.”
 
 Seattle Times – A look at the socioeconomic context of the building codes; ”Poverty is what ultimately kills most people during an earthquake”

News busters – Exposing a political activist’s ”gotcha” quote about Haiti’s lack of building codes.
 

When you initiate a professional blog post be accurate with the facts and details, of course; but press beyond the raw data. Deliver your experience and expertise as well. Whether personally or professionally, share your unique point of view as you write. If you engage your audience and promote dialogue, your blog will be richer and your reader may, in time, become your client.

The follow-up advice is just as simple; “Blog How You Know.” This has to do with authenticity, with point of view, with voice. It is an established axiom in the blogosphere that corporations don’t blog, people do. And the people best equipped to blog are the thought leaders and subject matter experts. Furthermore, it is accepted custom that the tone of a blog can – and should – be less corporate sounding than other writing coming from the corporation. The blogger is free to express ideas in a less formal manner.

Reflect the authority you have gained, as a good mentor would. Write on pertinent issues from your unique point of view. Use the voice that is naturally yours. There is no need to be intimidated and no cause to be pretentious; just write authentically and you will be blogging how you know.

The Internet is a wonderfully synergistic and serendipitous place. On a mental break from preparing this post I came across this Twittered gem from Chris Guillebeau;

“Authenticity- you already have it. There’s no need to be anyone else, or anything less than you are.”

I won’t assume that simply because you are reading this that you are part of my intended audience – professionals in the design and construction industry. But I will take for granted that you intend to be a serious blogger, one who will express a level of experience in your chosen field. (I say this because there is another realm of blogging that is of the personal journal, private musing, pictures-of-my-pet genre. For this you’d be writing what you know, but as random ideas on a spectrum subjects.)  For a professional-audience blog the subject matter should be focused, not freestyle. This focused approach is known as niche writing or niche blogging.

If you are part of my intended audience and contemplating a blog about your place in the design-construction field, then you may already be on to my point. You serve a particular market. You work with a specific type of client. You have gravitated to a niche within the industry. Consider writing along these lines and you will be blogging what you know. Your blog will be (and it really should be) an extension of your established practice, an online billboard of your place in the industry.