BlogHer Reach Out Tour Update: Boston and DC are on, but other four cities have been cancelled

grr...oh well! i'll meet up sometime, somewhere!

Some of us are still goign to meet up in NO just to have a bloggers day out instead. Come to

http://www.momdot.com/?p=2103

to sign up!

As someone who lives in Denver, I wasn't about to make the Southern conferences - but I know how disappointing it is to have to call them off.

Conference planning is far harder than most folks realize.  I grew up with a Mom who was a professional meeting planner and watched those headaches for years.

It's actually really saying something positive about the folks at BlogHer that you guys withdrew rather than trying to push on and maybe lessening the BlogHer experience for those attending in the cancelled cities.  It takes courage to say "no, we don't think we can provide the kind of experience we promised you given the current situation, we'd rather cancel than let you down."

Major kudos for being that brave guys.  I'll see you wherever the main '09 show is.  I *WISH* I could make it to either boston or DC - those sound amazing! :)

Lucretia (aka GeekMommy)

Raising a child in a digital world, still a digital girl

I was one of those too.  I as planning to go to Greensboro for sure, I just hadn't registered yet.  I too hope it wasn't because of people like us!

If you have bought a ticket and still wnat to go to NO, some of us bloggers still want to meet! Email me at my blog

momdot@live.com

www.momdot.com ( http://www.momdot.com )

trisha

I'm new to blogging and would like to get more info. I would go to Atlanta too. Making Boston might be a hike. I'm in Milwaukee right now! Have a house in Atlanta. Maybe next year?

I don't think we can say "no one", actually ;) But in any case I tried to address this above, that it's about delivering equal experiences and equal value.

We're all very focused on the sponsor/money side of it in this thread, but again it was both sponsor *and* community interest that were at issue in the four cancelled cities vs. the two cities we're still doing, and how that aligned with BlogHer's own commitment of $$ and people resources. Yes, conference organizers will tell you that registration is, in general, something a lot of people leave to the last minute (except for our annual event, where we seem to have the opposite experience) but there are limits to how much you can rely on that when you're talking about what was going to be involved in this two-week, traveling tour.

As for the focus on making money at the annual conference. Some folks do perceive that, and others perceive a focus on mommyblogging, but there was one track focused on $$, one on mommies, and three more programmed tracks, plus two self-organized tracks, that were focused on Identity, Technology, Politics & Activism, and meet-ups across a wide array of subject matter interests. You can build a BlogHer schedule that never mentions $$ if that's not your thing...and our general sessions have never been about making $$.

But also, I think it's pretty well-known that our sponsors (who often are focused on those who are interested in $$ or those who are parenting) are what enables us to make the conference more accessible to *everyone*, no matter what kind of blogger they are or subject matter they're into. That translates directly into more diversity in attendees and speakers. Past polling has shown that our community agrees that it's a good trade-off, if we set good guidelines.

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

No-one's coming to these conferences for fancy food, cocktails, and bags of junk we throw away as soon as we get home. What I would most love would be a BlogHer unconference, which still requires promotion and some sponsorships, but which would take advantage of the incredible energy and creativity of participants without so much overhead.

I have already lost interest in the SF conference because there's so much focus on making money, which isn't something I'm interested in doing with any of my blogs. What I'm missing is connection to the BlogHer community.

Well, I was coming to sign up for New Orleans.  I was going to use it as a test to see if I wanted to spend the big bucks for the big conference.  I guess I will sit by and watch from the sidelines.  I was looking forward to meeting other Southern Bloggers.

We're sad it didn't work out this year, but still happy you love us southern girls enough to try to visit so many of our gorgeous cities.  We know exactly what you mean about businesses who don't yet understand blogging, and we are appreciative of your first efforts to at least raise awareness for us.  We'll pull it off another time, and in the mean time continue to work to support this important community with our (sometime drawling) voices.

 Deb

www.debontherocks.com ( http://www.debontherocks.com/ )

blog

www.3smartgirlz.com ( http://www.3smartgirlz.com )

consulting

I don't envy Elisa and Kristy and the rest of the BlogHer team one bit.  Even trying to schedule something as small as a book signing in an unfamiliar city without knowing for sure who will come and who won't is maddening.  You don't want to pressure anyone, but it becomes very difficult to find space and plan food, etc., without having an accurate head count.  I remember one of the founders saying BlogHer is like planning a wedding every year. Can you imagine?  I cannot.

I think one thing we as a community could do to ensure BlogHer events keep happening and keep happening closer to us is to register right away for events we plan to attend.

Surrender, Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com )- When I was your age, we just let them ride in the back window.

Rita Arens is a contributing editor for BlogHer -- Mommy & Family.

Thank you, almostgotit, for letting us know.

---
Kristy Sammis
BlogHer's Conference & Event Planner
e. kristy@blogher.com

There was a Virtual BlogHer Conference via Second Life held in
conjunction with the physical 2008 Conference. Maybe that will happen
again next year.

A. L. Venable is a Random Citizen. She writes at Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com ( http://www.dimpleandasmirk.com/ ) and Our PDX Network ( http://ourpdx.net/ ).

I think the point we are trying to make above, is that a lot of things have to come together. We were going to send 8 people on the road for two weeks to hit all these cities, so that's a lot for company resources. We were charging $100 per conference, which doesn't cover the cost of putting on such an event, but our actual experience in doing these for several years is that in our community $100 is an investment, and after reading for years about how the annual conferences were run for that same attendee price, I do not think attendees would be satisfied with a meet-up style event. I think we'd get a lot of grief about cutting corners, and I could hardly blame anyone who thought so. I was just at a conference where attendees paid $400 for two days, and they didn't feed us anything. And yes, people were not happy. And there was way more talk about food than you could imagine!

So we have always been open that sponsors subsidize our events and make it possible for us to keep them at a low price, but yes, as A.L. points out, they do it because they want to support a community of bloggers, not BlogHer itself so much.

My point in the post is that all of these things have to come together. In Boston and DC they definitely were, but only four weeks out, even doing the most optimistic projections, they were not. We certainly realize that many people register in the last 4 weeks, but trying to do something at the scale of the Tour also scaled up the risk. And to those of you who mention the economy and the weather and all of those things...yes, I'm sure those were factors, and the uncertain economy is certainly a factor for BlogHer just like it is for our community members.

Regarding the week vs. weekend...actually, oddly enough, the weekday stops were doing a little better than the weekend, but the annual event will continue to be a Friday/Saturday thing for sure.

I know I'm not really saying anything different, but I hope I've shed a little more light on the same explanation? :)

And almostgotit: I'll tell the ConvergeSouth to kill that link right away. Thanks for the heads up!

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

Good news: Converge South blogging conference in Greensboro (Oct 16-17) is still on, for those who still want a Greensboro blogging conference

http://2008.convergesouth.com/

HOWEVER:  Converge South is still cross-promoting and linking to the BlogHer Greensboro 2008 conference page as well, which is still live and still reading that the BlogHer conference in Greensboro is a "go". 

http://www.blogher.com/blogher_conference/conf/3/c...

I was just coming here to register too... AND to grab the link so I could post a "Let's all meet in Greensboro!" entry today.  (Greensboro was going to run back-to-back with another big blogging conference, too. Oi!)

I agree the weekday schedules were problematic... to do with "BlogHer touring," I do understand, but weekends are easiest for those of us who work AND those of us who need spousal help with kids.  Sometimes airfares are cheaper if you can spend a Saturday night, too.

Don't need schwag.  Don't need cocktail parties.  Happy to simply share space with fellow bloggers and buy my own drinks...

Here's to next year.  Or, hey... how about a virtual conference for those of us who can't attend a real one?  How might we do that?  Ideas, anyone?

I have no knowledge of the exact reasons why those cities were scrapped, just thinking aloud here...but I wonder if it was more due to the lack of participation/advanced registrations in those cities.

Seeing the responses to Elisa's post where folks hadn't registered yet, makes me wonder if others were waiting until the last minute and that turned out to be more of a factor than swag and parties. If the sponsors had the expectation that X amount of people would be in each city, but that threshold wasn't met, maybe that meant BlogHer would have to eat more of the cost of the conference than anticipated. 

Again, I have no inside knowledge, but having worked on conferences, I do know that advanced registrations vs. last-minute registrations can impact a lot of things, from cutting back on sessions offered to the availability of space in the conference center where the event is being held.

I'm doubtful the conference in those cities was canceled because swag and parties wouldn't be offered nor do I believe that was a primary expectation of anyone.

A. L. Venable is a Random Citizen. She writes at Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com ( http://www.dimpleandasmirk.com/ ) and ( http://ourpdx.net/author/angel/ )

I was just coming here to register for Atlanta. Oh well, maybe next year! 

Stacie Haight Connerty

Atlanta-based Mother of 3

Knack Parenting Entertainment, Style and Family Writer

National Family Travel Examiner

I don't purport to speak for anyone else, but schwag bags and cocktail parties aren't really what I thought BlogHer was about. I was just looking forward to exchanging ideas with some inspirational, interesting women and learning how better to operate in this fast-moving Web 2.0 world.

I'm very disappointed that the southern states' BlogHer events have been cancelled, especially if it's really due to lack of "cool giveaways." The idea that fancy gifts are a prerequisite to get smart women together and talking reflects pretty poorly on our motivations, IMHO.

I hope you all re-examine this next year.

With nothing scheduled in the Midwest.. What no Chicago?  I was ready to make the 5 hour drive to Nashville.  Won't be able to go east for this one, but hope you to go to St. Louis in '09 .  I will definately be there.

Post lots of notes so we know what we missed. 

I also logged on today to register for Nashville, so I'm beyond disappointed.  I was really looking forward to it, and had even offered to share my newfound wisdom with others.  Now they are really out of luck!

I live within an easy drive from Nashville and really wanted to go to BlogHer, but knew I couldn't because it was on a Thursday and I had to work. I know many ladies probably could have gotten off of work, but I'm not one of them so I was really disappointed. I guess it's a moot point now, but if you try another conference in the South in the future, I'd like to suggest scheduling it for a weekend. With an extra day or two to travel, you might get better blogger participating from a larger region. 

A place for the renaissance woman:
The Modern Gal
http://themoderngal.blogspot.com ( http://themoderngal.blogspot.com/ )

That's unfortunate, but given recent economy strain, I understand.  See you in Boston ladies!

~ Karen ~ 

Sugarpants ( http://www.karensugarpants.com/ ) | Swank Web Style ( http://www.swankwebstyle.com/ )

 I was looking forward to BlogHer coming to Atlanta. In fact, I'd stopped by today to register. I hope you'll revisit this for '09. 

Jenn

Atlanta on the Cheap

http://www.atlantaonthecheap.com ( http://www.atlantaonthecheap.com/ )

but I understand. I just booked my hotel room in Greensboro two days ago. Well, I'll have to try to get to BlogHer 09. Thanks for your lovely e-mail, Elisa.

edgymama.com

Of course I'm sorry the full schedule didn't work out and I feel bad for anyone who was planning to attend and will be disappointed, but I'm very happy that Boston is still scheduled. This will be my first time going there and I'm really excited.

Thanks for all your hard work Elisa. I can imagine that it can get pretty overwhelming trying to plan these things.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

There are lots of women who blog on the universal hub site in Boston.  You may want to reach out to them.  I'm glad you're coming here since I couldn't afford to go to San Fran.

Having family in St. Louis, I look forward to Blog Her Convention in St. Louis.

I'm glad you're able to do two and I'm sure that # will multiply when it can and with the power of women.

blog.candelariasilva.com

Good and plenty!

St. Louis? St. Louis is beautiful in October. I'll attend a St. Louis conference in October next year.  I'd even help.

I hope people like me, who just haden't registered yet, didn't influence the decision.

Dawn
My Home Sweet Home ( http://myhomesweethomeonline.net )

I've already purchased plane tickets to get to New Orleans....

Disorderly Conduct ( http://www.infovirtuoso.com/blog )

Suzanne and Susan: Yes, I heard similar stories quite a bit.

Jenn: I never thought of it quite that way...the concentration of big cities around DC and Boston vs. the Southern cities.

Thanks for your understanding, everyone.

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

That is such a bummer.  I hate to see that  you "did not have that same combination of sponsor and community support in
the other four cities."  That makes me so sad knowing how many of us in the South would love to have been a part of this but can't because we are more spread out than the two major cities you are able to go to. 

I understand it, but still bummed by it. Must contemplate moving to California, Boston or DC now. 

Nah.  Once a Southern Belle, always a Southern Belle.

Never fear, darlins...the South shall rise again!

Bless your hearts for trying.

~Jennifer Satterwhite~

Personal blog: Mommy Needs Coffee ( http://mommyneedscoffee.com )

Parenting  ( http://forums.parenting.com/blogs/mommy-needs-coff... )Magazine contributor

( http://mommybloggers.com )

As usual, the bestest cities --the Southern ones-- are taken away.
**SNIFF**

Ah well; that'll be more pennies saved toward the Biggie in '09.
(if it's in the South...)

;-)

Susan

stonyriverfarm.blogspot.com ( http://stonyriverfarm.blogspot.com/ )

www.carersgroup.com ( http://www.carersgroup.com/ ) 

Elisa,

I think I'd twittered with you on this last month.  I'm planning on attending BlogHer '09 and just couldn't justify the expense of doing both.

Atlanta is a seven hour drive for me, so it'd involve at least one night's hotel stay, gas and meals.  That'd be at least 200 bucks.  I'd rather spend the 800 or so to participate in BlogHer '09, no matter where it ends up.

I'm sorry that the Road tour got downsized, especially for those who cannot make it to the larger events. 

Suzanne

www.suzannesez.blogspot.com ( http://www.suzannesez.blogspot.com )

 Ahh, the South, once again. We've been left out. Of course . . . if you really, reallly, really want to go South, may I suggest Honduras, or Costa Rica? Blogging is always better when you are closer to the equator.

Laurie, a gringa in Honduras,

 laurieishere.blogspot.com

You didn't hear it from me, but I'm pretty sure Sarah Palin had something to do with this.  :(

Elisa,

With the economic challenges and the weather challenges, I completely understand how this could happen.

Wondering if this puts an extra bit of power behind St. Louis as the next year's BlogHerCon home?

Debra
A Stitch In Time ( http://astitchintime.blogspot.com )
Weight for Deb ( http://weightfordeb.wordpress.com )