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You came, you schmoozed, you listened, you learned, you shared, you partied, and now you're home and you're pooped. Like any conference, BlogHer '10 challenges you to DO something with your experience once you get home. Whether you attended for the social aspect, to network for business, to learn and be inspired, or all of the above, you are likely faced with the question "I'm home from BlogHer '10, Now What?!"
If you're like most people, you're still trying to juggle the laundry and playing catch-up after being out of town for a few days. This is the very reason why you need a plan for bringing the golden nuggets you discovered while in New York City to fruition. For the business-minded, this means maximizing the ROI of your time spent at the conference. Now before you hurl at the Dilbert-speak of that last sentence, what I mean is capitalizing on the energy, connections, and inspirations you received and not letting them die in the land of good intentions (where I hear over-crowding is now an epidemic.)
I know for me, personally, I took some time to chill on Saturday and literally scratch out a quick and dirty post-BlogHer to-do list. I wanted to capture the ideas and follow-ups that had the most energy behind them at the conference and literally put them on my agenda. If it sounds time consuming and complicated ... it was not. I completed most of it between the time it took me to order a drink and be served a salad at dinner time. So if you haven't done a similar list for yourself, I highly recommend you do!
That said, here are some ideas that come to mind of things you can do to keep the spirit of your conference experience alive.
Follow up
You know that large stack of business cards you collected? Well, reach out to the people you met and re-connect. Start with the people who you had the most in-depth conversations and connections with. Was there something you wanted to share with them (an idea? a link? a resource? a note of gratitude?)? Something you wanted to ask? Even a simple - "it was great meeting you" can open doors to continued connections. That said, the key to this exercise is being unattached to whether or not you ever hear back from them. Sometimes that is just the way it goes with networking (and spam filters).
Connect Online
Back to that stack of business cards ... connect on Facebook and Twitter with those people you'd really like to keep in touch with. Check out the speakers' profiles as well and connect with those that really resonated with you. Again, you never know how you might continue to be inspired or benefit from the experience. Ditto to being unattached as to whether someone friends or follows you back.
Write About Your Experience
Everyone's experience is different. The 2400 women in attendance span the gamut of diversity, and everyone will have their own opinion of whether the conference was a success or failure. So, if you're a blogger, you should have walked away from the weekend inspired like hell to write ... so write about it! Here are a few of those diverse post-conference recaps that I've read from:
- Pink Vanilla Cupcakes: "BlogHer: I came, I saw, I ate a cheeseburger"
- Stirrup Queens: "Second Thoughts on BlogHer"
- Sarah and the Goon Squad: "The BlogHer Hangover"
- Scoutie Girl: "BlogHer2010 - it was, um, weird."
- Rachel & The City: "BlogHer. wow"
- BlogHer '10 Recap: You Are Powerful (this post has the Mr. Linky attached so if you've written about your experience, add it here!)
Implement One Nugget You Learned
Unless you were hiding under a rock, you inevitably learned at least one new nugget of information you could implement for great success or satisfaction on your blog or in your life. So, take out your calendar and schedule some time to implement it. It might be a new exercise in sparking your writing creativity, it might be a handy SEO tip for your blog, or it might be a whole new business plan for some collaboration that got sparked during the weekend. Whatever it is, schedule some time to make it happen. For me personally, I am scheduling a 1/2 day date with my blog (thanks
