I don’t think I’ll ever stop talking about BlogHer09. It was an incredible event. After a year of this blog, and a few years elsewhere I’ve finally jumped in and met “my tribe”.
My tribe isn’t Moms, or even only women. My tribe is you. I was so happy to meet so many of my readers, and so many whose blogs I follow. The stack of cards is a mile high, and the pictures… oh y’all took so many pictures.
What I noticed about BlogHer is that the lobby and the sessions had distinctly different tones. While the parties were all about partying (and you know the babes who blog can throw down) the sessions were decidedly altruistic and raw. If you wanted to learn advanced coding it was available, if you wanted to laugh, there was that too.
The AdAge article kinda skeeved me out. I felt bad for the brands, because a lot of thought went into their parties, and what I witnessed was clearly a very different conference than what was reported. As I’ve said before, a headline like 1,398 Women Get It Right probably wouldn’t get much attention.
I did my own giveaways in the lobby. Much like every blogger, it’s hard to walk into a room full of strangers. I’ve chosen a life behind the screen, because I have all the same anxieties you do. I handed out gifts from Sephora, Brainy Baby, I Am Beyond, 10 Again Clothing and Guitar Hero. If you want to make friends, giving them amazing gifts is a great method. It’s really fun to try and find pregnant women to give gifts to, or a size medium, what the heck is a medium? Ooh, that was a dance…
At the moment my stories are completely unedited on Whrrl. I’ll going to edit them up by category and show you the amazing women I met, but do take a look now, and if you see yourself there, please feel free to join the story. I know it’s been three days already, but I still haven’t quite processed the event.
It really was that much.
Gotta say, I freaking loved your line to AdAge. I was sitting here cheering from behind the screen.
And hello, Guitar Hero? I think you’re right. You could have interrupted my conversation for Guitar Hero. I suppose it just goes to prove that not all swag is created equal.
Well, I love, love the yoga clothes I have an entire post about them. Not in a review sort of way, more like a braggart sort of way. PS I wrote about you today.
I am a big fan of community and see a lot of value in that. I understand why so many people would want to participate in a blogger conference.
But I really question the motives of some of the participants in the so called Mommy Blogger community.I have read far too many posts in which people complain that they are not being given enough respect/credit by brands.
Do they really want to get into blogging for all that.
I don’t think that is the case with everyone. Certainly many do not fit that mold. I guess some of those people have blogs that seem less authentic to me.
Just my two cents.
It sounds like you have a great time and learned some stuff too. I wish I was there to have met you and possibly some of my own readers. Next year it will be in NYC and rumor has it that they actually let guys attend as well. Hmmm….
I can’t thank you enough for the Brainy Baby gift set you kindly gave me at BlogHer. Evan loves the music CDs and I will write a review and send you the link asap.