The next generation of bloggers is the next generation of journalists. Ten years from now print and video media aren't going to look anything like they do today.

Would it have been so hard for countries to shortlist their top blogs themselves, with perhaps a special section for pan-Euro blogs like ET - and then to base the competition on that?

Really, it probably wouldn't, which makes this conference look suspiciously like a rather pointless PR exercise for the media mainstream, and not so much an attempt to expand blog power for more open ends.