BlogHer: My Take

I’ve been trying to document this whole BlogHer experience since the beginning. And now that I’ve been, and talked to my friends back home, and tried about a dozen times to start this very entry, I am pretty confident in the saying “I can’t explain it - you just had to be there.”

I know. What a crappy cop out. But it’s the truth. If I learned anything from the experience, it’s that any conference or networking event, BlogHer included, is what you make it.

I flew out to BlogHer actually having met (”in real life”) only ONE person and with the goal of walking away with knowing at least 50 more. It was that simple for me.

In the week before I left, I was lucky enough to have the help and support of Boston-based friend John Wall (John writes about marketing at Ronin Marketeer and has a weekly business podcast “The M Show” as well as a podcast with PodCamp co-founder Christopher Penn called “Marketing Over Coffee” - both are full of useful information and can easily be found in the iTunes store. Best of all? Both are free!).

John e-troduced me (see what I did there?!) to a number of women also attending BlogHer, so as an addendum to my goal of meeting 50 people, I decided that at the very least one of them had to be someone John recommended. (What can I say? He knows good, smart people).

So I flew out to San Francisco with a few new names in my iPhone and a goal.

By the end of the conference, I can say with absolute certainty that I met some of the very smartest, very funniest, very sweetest women (yes, including one of John’s recommendations!). But I also think that I had a very different approach and very different idea of what I thought BlogHer would be.

First of all, I am a networking addict. I went into BlogHer having just redesigned my main website for ultimate social media networking, I was armed with business cards and buttons, I was ready to meet people and talk business. Basically, I was ready for the events that I’ve been to and organized myself in Boston.

BlogHer is not a Boston event. And, in some ways, that is what made it great. It was a completely NEW experience with new people. There were well-designed sites, and business cards and buttons all over BlogHer, sure! But I definitely made more friends than business contacts. And that was definitely ok - you know I love to socialize as much as the next person. I was able to participate in many conversations about the business of blogging and privacy issues, so it wasn’t alllllll drinks (but there were a lot of drinks - wow BlogHers, me included, can throw them back!)

My favorite part of BlogHer was meeting and really getting to know the group of amazing women I spent the majority of the time with - especially because I was half expecting to not really get to know anyone, just meet a lot of people in passing. I went out there knowing Kerri (who I visited for the first time in March out in Portland) and then met and spent a great deal of time with Sarah from Whoorl.com and Hair Thursday, Jenni from SchnozzFest.com, Amber from MooseInTheKitchen.com, Angella from DutchBlitz.net, and also (for only a day!) San from TheInBetweenIsMine.com. We had an amazing time and I can say without hesitation that I am entirely grateful to have met everyone I did, but spending an extended amount of time with that group of women really made it all worth it for me.

Also entirely worth it? Even though I spent a very short amount of time with them, I met two really great Boston-based women: Laura aka Pistachio and Boston-newbie Mle-Mle aka Lucy’s Spleen. I honestly can not wait to spend some more time with them here in Boston.

I met a number of other fantastic women (and a few guys!) who I’m working on adding to my Blogroll and just because I didn’t link the majority of the people I met in this entry, doesn’t mean I think of them any less. I literally have not yet sorted through ALL. THESE. CARDS. I’m sure as the week goes on I’ll have more things to write, more links to link.

I do have some “least favorite” BlogHer list makers, but to be honest they’re not worth discussing. The things that I disliked about BlogHer is not a person, an event or anything really specific or tangible. It would be difficult to explain and I would rather take what I learned, the good and the bad, and put those lessons towards future events.

(While I won’t write about it here, if you have questions about what I disliked or if you want to know because you’re considering attending BlogHer in the future, I would be more than happy to explain and answer any questions through email.)

So in the end, I am happy I went to BlogHer. I was inspired, got some fantastic ideas for future events here, and have a list of dos and donts if I return for BlogHer ‘09. Plus I got to spend a lot of time wandering around my second favorite city in the US which is always worth it.