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Here's how bad at self-promotion and networking I am: I didn't bring cards to BlogHer.
A writing and photo-blogging conference with 2,500 attendees and I met precisely three women who didn't have them either. The fact is, I don't even own cards. Why on earth would I?
"I just write about my family," I told people when they asked what I blogged about.
Did you catch that? "Just?"
As if my four children, my garden, my love and losses, my observations, my chaos aren't as important as the stories other people tell. The hell they aren't. That's one of my biggest take-aways from New York: my voice may be a hushed one in a sea of operatic stars but the online community wouldn't exist without all of us - the tiny and tall, round and boxy, geeks, freaks and fashion models.
We all walked the catwalk in NYC. And I tell you what: it was extraordinary.
I went to the big parties with boisterous, drunk revelers, unicorn cakes and disco balls. But I much preferred the intimacy and warmth I shared with new friends at a small table in the corner of a Midtown bar.
I shook hands with "important" bloggers and sat in panels led by wildly popular online personalities, but I was most moved by writers and photographers I'd never heard of.
Here's what I realized at the conference: there's one hell of a lot of fantastic writing and photography that gets posted every day to a mind-boggling vast number of blogs. So much good stuff, so many places that my head spins with the futility of trying to keep up with it all.
Here's what else I learned:
Design matters.
Good shoes matter too.
Bergdorf Goodman has the most kick-ass windows on 5th Avenue.
I start to drool if I ogle the outfits in said windows too long.
How to use my f/stop. Thank you, Ry of ArtsandDafts and Aimee of Mamieknits.
Corporations spend unseemly amounts of cash marketing to bloggers.
The sponsor halls make me feel icky.
Some people are funny. Outrageously, ridiculously funny.
A shoe shine at Penn Station costs $3 and gives new meaning to putting your feet up in stirrups.
At a conference with thousands of people, it's stunning how many times you run into the same faces over and over.
I'd pay more than $20 for the view from the "Top of the Rock."
I think I'm in love with the Brooklyn Bridge.
And I'm going to bring cards to San Diego next year.
The first and third photos courtesy Ry Pepper of ArtsandDafts, one very cool woman and a righteous photographer
http://www.feastafterfamine.com
