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The Blogalicious conference this weekend in Atlanta was mind-blowingly great. Over 250 bloggers, primarily women of color, " black, white, Latina, Caribbean, Asian-Pacific, and Native-American bloggers, among other nationalities", gathered for the weekend to talk, make connections, support each other in our writing and careers, and celebrate each others' fabulous blogging. The knowledge shared during Blogalicious was phenomenal.
Personally, it was a highlight of the conference to meet some of the more technical women, like Adria Richards who blogs about business and tech, and software like Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal. Adria and I had some excited conversations about teaching people more about WordPress and other platforms commonly used, basically, about empowering women through giving them more capability to control everything about their blogs. Or, even just knowing enough so that they don't get overcharged for blog setup, design, hosting, and maintenance. My geeky heart also thrilled to Corvida Raven's technical skills. She really came across for me in the panel "Taking Your Blog to the Next Level". But not only that, she shone out as the sort of person whose enthusiasm catches everyone on fire. I think that everyone in the room for that panel walked out infused with extra confidence about taking control of their own technology. It is rare to hear a speaker who can talk about computer software and nifty new tools with clarity and in a way that makes people feel they can tackle the complications, instead of leaving everyone mystified and insecure and convinced they have to ask for help. And also representing in the especially-geeky area, Rosemary from The Sexy Geek Files and Leticia from Tech Savvy Mama! Thank you Adria and Corvida, Rosemary and Leticia, for geeking out! May there be much more of it!
The best thing, though, was listening to all the women there connect with each other and getting into interesting and productive conversations. There was so much spontaneous sharing of knowledge and a lot of positivity. The general atmosphere was like this: Here's what I'm trying to do, and here's where I've gotten, how about you? What do you want to do? Can I help you get there? From what I saw and heard, the women at Blogalicious were taking away validation, inspiration, and an implicit promise of future networking support from their fellow bloggers.
The Broke Socialite says it best and I'd like to highlight and amplify some of her words:
This conference literally took my breath away. I've never been involved in a gathering that was charged with so much intellegensia and emotion. Most everyone was passionate about whatever it was that they brought to the table...be it "I want to start a blog; so I'm here to absorb every piece of information possible" to "I'm a veteran blogger...how can I help someone else build her brand?" What I loved most was the authenticity of the attendees and the organizers (these girls are the best, y'all...I just met them last Thursday and their passion, smarts and sincerity bring tears to my eyes right now)...everyone was so open. It makes my heart sing.
Read her whole post; it sums up the core of the conference! Like The Broke Socialite, I came out of the conference refreshed and inspired. Heartened and with the feeling of having some of my mojo back, ready to fight a thousand battles, knowing that my life has a point to it and all our work is valuable; last but not least, feeling like somebody's got my back. There was so much love and sincerity at this conference as well as hard core expertise, knowledge, and let's not forget the great swag and parties - fun and profit, an important part of life!
The panels I went to were excellent. Audience participation was very high, with tons of questions, commentary, and a very open and welcoming attitude. I especially enjoyed the plenary session on Social Media and the Woman of Color, with Gennipher Weeks, Gwen Peake, and Jessica Carter demonstrating in-depth knowledge of the current web 2.0 landscape.
The keynote speeches I saw had everyone's attention. The first was by Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks (and BlogHer), on the principles all bloggers should keep in mind. Her beautiful photography illustrated each simple point on her slides as she spoke eloquently about blogging your passion and being creative. Denene Millner, author of many books and blogger on MyBrownBaby, read an amazing
