This is an example of the value of curated content but before I start let me clear up the misleading title - no one paid me for the curation I am about to describe. It would have been nice but I actually wanted to do it anyway.
Also, let me get the downside of curation out of the way now and that is that it takes a lot of time. You can pull feeds of tagged or hastagged content but if you want to hand craft the content ie put it into a new bog post with headline, link, image and them let people know about it then it takes time. Be warned.
Oh, and I am awaiting access to Storify - I hear that could be good for this type of curation. I also did quite a lot of this sort of thing at Reed Business Information (where lots of my former colleagues do this kind of thing) where we used tools such as Coverit Live to curate content.
The curation project I am talking about here is this post that aggregates all the blog posts from the Tru London 3 recruiting unconference. All I have done is pulled together all the posts that have been written about the event (last count 52).
NOTE: if this event had NOT had a hashtag this piece of curation would have been a nightmare. As it was I followed the tag on Tweetdeck and double checked what I pulled from that with a Google search.
Taking the time to create such a post brings these main benefits:
Good search rank
Your efforts will be rewarded with high placements in the search engine results page - especially if you are curating event content and lots of people write about it. I curated posts from the Tru London 3 recruiting unconference. Search for 'Tru London 3' in Google and this is what you get.
Add value for other readers/writers
You provide value for those who attended the event, those who blogged about it and those who did not attend the event. You have all the content in one place. Looking at the referrals to the post I see it has been bookmarked in Delicious. By adding a line about the post your including you are also adding a filter - a help to users to let them know what that post is about.
Provide content for other services
You enable others to use the links to help them produce newsletters or ebooks or whatever else they might use them for. You will get credited for your efforts (and complain if you don't) which is good for you - your efforts have not gone unnoticed. Far from it, you get known for the person who is helping create more value from the content
Build connections
You can provide commentary on your curation project via Twitter or other channels - see below for an example tweet. This enables you to build up connections and reinforce relationships (if you are already connected/have met face-to-face).
This is a straightforward example of how you can approach curation. It does take time but it does add value for others and anyone can do it (who cares enough to want to)- it is especially useful for events.