There's been a notable open slot in the BlogHer '08 Conference agenda, and that's because we've been cooking up something very special: The First Ever "Community Keynote" event at a BlogHer Conference.

That's right: the closing keynote for Day One of the conference will be live blog readings from the BlogHer community itself. You'll submit your favorite posts, and we'll get 20 of you at the microphone sharing that favorite post with the entire BlogHer crowd.We thought of calling it BlogHerpalooza, the BlogHer Slam, BlogHer Open Mic or some other such name. But it's a keynote and it will be built from the community, hence: The BlogHer Community Keynote.

Originally the brainchild of Eden Kennedy, who has some experience organizing large community writing efforts via NaBloPoMo, here's how it's going to work:

1. There will be five categories of submissions/readings:

2. We are asking you to submit your favorite post that can be read in two-three minutes in any of the above categories.

3. Eden is working with a committee to go through submissions. Send your submission to Eden, cc'ing all three general committee members listed below PLUS cc'ing the applicable Category committee member from the second list.

Your submission should include:
Name (as you'd like it to be published/announced)
Blog URL
Favorite Post URL and its Category

General Community Keynote Committee
Eden Kennedy at: blogher08reading@gmail.com
Elisa Camahort Page at elisa@blogher.com
Kristy Sammis at kristy@blogher.com
Denise Tanton at denise@blogher.com

Category Community Keynote committee members:

4. There will be 4 readings chosen per category, ensuring that we feature work about a wide variety of topics and from a diverse group of bloggers. The criteria? Well, it will vary according to category, but the basics are:

Did it make us laugh?
Did it make us cry?
Did it make nod our head in an "I've been there" kind of way?
Did it make us want to send the link to a bunch of other people to share the bloggy goodness?
Is it fresh, unique...in other words, could it only have come from you?

5. The timeline:

6. One last thing: Question: Can you nominate your favorite post by someone else?

Answer: Yes, if you know that person will be there at the conference to read it, and you know they won't kill you for nominating them.

7. And to repeat, for good measure, the most important piece of instruction above: Send your submission to Eden, cc'ing all three general committee members listed PLUS cc'ing the applicable Category committee member from the second list

So, get to it! We cannot wait to start reading the Best. Posts. Ever. for the BlogHer Community Keynote event.