Blogcamp 2013 set for March 23

The 2013 social media event, the Blogcamp, designed to bring together for the second time bloggers and social media enthusiasts from across the country, will come off at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT on Saturday, 23 March.

Launching Blogcamp 2013 on Twitter, Chair of BloggingGhana Kajsa Hallberg-Adu said this year's event is dubbed “Content is King” to reflect and demonstrate how local content is important to the development of Ghana.

A Coordinator of the Blogcamp 2013, Edward Amartey-Tagoe, said BloggingGhana has observed the decrease in the upload of local content although more Ghanaians have migrated onto social media platforms. “We have however realised that, there is a shift towards the use of these tools more for communication than for the provision of content online”. Amartey-Tagoe said this observation informed the BlogCamp team to choose the theme.

“Ghana must be represented by Ghana and people who have direct interaction with the country. We want to reverse the trend where one googles Ghanaian terms only to land on a blog written by an individual, who perhaps has never lived in the country,” he adds.

CEO of Hatua solutions, a software solutions company in Ghana, Nehemiah Attigah, agrees with him . “We don't create anymore and there's the need to change that trend. We must push our own stories.”

Speaking about why BloggingGhana is organising a BlogCamp, Amartey-Tagoe indicated that “The organisation [BloggingGhana] through these workshops realised there was much interest in Blogging and social media”. There was a need to fill that gap to connect Ghanaians who shared the interest. According to Tagoe, the first Blogcamp, which was organised on 5 May 2012, had more than 450 attendees, filling up the auditorium beyond its capacity. He says the organisation has resolved to make it an annual event.

The Blogcamp will witness for the first time a Blogging and Social Media Awards to recognise Ghana's content creators and build more awareness about the positive uses and benefits of blogging. Nominations for the various categories include Best Technology Blog, Best Citizen Journalism and News Blog, Best Creative, Literary, Short Story and Poetry Blog, Best Activist Blog; Best Photo Blog, Best Organisational Blog, Best Original Content, Best Business & Commerce Blog; Personality with the Best Social Media Presence, Organisation with the Best Social Media Presence, and Best Showbiz and Entertainment Blog.

Following from the Blog and Social Media Awards, the Blogcamp team has scheduled exciting campaigns and online engagements, which are expected to allow many Ghanaians online to participate in the lead up to the event day on 23rd March.

Blogcamp 2013 is sponsored by Tigo Ghana, Google Ghana, US Embassy, Voltic Ghana, Born Again, A Thousand Words, Nii Odzenma Nfoningraphy, Ganyobi.com Africa.com, Dust Magazine, Citi FM, and the Be Bold Show.

According to Mrs. Hallberg-Adu, “the first ever Blog Awards in Ghana are to inspire more folks to create local content.” She added that “online people in Ghana have a responsibility to create”.

BloggingGhana is a membership based association for Ghanaian bloggers and social media enthusiasts, both in and outside of Ghana who write about the country."