What?

Day One Breakfast, including a Newbie Breakfast!We love the idea of giving people who are attending their first BlogHer a chance to connect with one another before walking into a room with a thousand other people. This year we decided to try a Newbie Breakfast as a way to ease into the BlogHer experience, instead of a pre-conference cocktail party. Come meet other first-timers, hear a little bit about what the next two days will entail, and some tactics for not getting lost in the crowd!

PS-Don't worry, there will be breakfast for everyone...and we heard the 2008 plea for more protein with breakfast too :)

Welcome...and Speed Dating, BlogHer-styleFirst things first: We'll talk a little bit about who you are and why you're there. Then: It wouldn't be a BlogHer without some Speed Dating, BlogHer-Style!

BreakBrought to you by Ketchum Communications.

Identity/Passions: The Transformational Power of BloggingYour blogs are instigating change In Real Life, from changing how you make a living to changing your own self-perception. This session will inspire with stories of true transformation, but this session will also instigate transformation! Moderator Ponzi Pirillo goes deep into her career's online transformation, Kelly Russell-Donner shares how her blog gave her a voice and shed light on her insecurities, Kate from Sweet|Salty gets frank about how her blog helped her work through and grieve her infant son's death, and Daniela Capistrano discusses her work documenting the post-queer movement, and how blogging about this movement has transformed her own heart. What do you say on your blog that you wish you could say In Real Life? Well, there will never be a better time to stand up and say it…we are dying to hear what it is!

Business of You: Bloggers are Pioneers in a Post-“Employee” WorldBrought to you by HP.

Bloggers have created any number of “portfolio careers” using blogs as a jumping off point for freelancing, consulting, starting businesses, etc. This session will look at the fundamentals of valuing your work, skills and expertise from a business perspective. How to market yourself, how to attach appropriate value to what you do, how to decide when you’ll do something gratis, and when it’s time for that gravy train to roll to a stop. Maggie Fox, founder of one of the world’s largest independent social media agencies, moderates the discussion among women who have used their blogs to come into their own and who have held their ground as women entrepreneurs. Melissa Lion, a professional writer and blogger, Karen Rani Bodkin, who moved from freelance web designer to self-employed designer and Paula Gregorowicz, a life coach specializing in empowering women, draw on their experiences to help you successfully propel your own business. Additionally, Kaveri Subbarao joins us with legal advice on Internet practices, blogging, trademark issues, advertising law and more. Come get your questions answered and share with us what has been the best (and the most difficult) part of launching your own blog-based business.

Leadership: Owning Your ExpertiseBrought to you by Motherproof.com.

This is a Beginning level session geared towards those who feel passionately that they’d like to start raising their voice on political and social issues, but need help finding the confidence and internal validation to spread their word farther and louder. If you’re already submitting Op-Eds to the New York Times on a regular basis, then this session might not be for you, but if you’d like to be that person getting their Op-Ed published or being interviewed on CNN, or even if you’d like to gain the chops to blog more openly about your ethical, philosophical and political beliefs, then this session will leave you feeling empowered to do so in a way you never have before. This session features Katie Orenstein, founder of The Op-Ed Project, facilitating one of the most critical segments of that day-long seminar, assisted by Op-Ed Project alumna (and BlogHer co-founder), Elisa Camahort Page.

MommyBlogging: Have You Found Your MommyBlogging Tribe?Brought to you by Strawberry Shortcake.

Or do you feel out of the loop? We often say: “There’s not one blogosphere; there are many.” This actually has become true of the Momosphere too. There are many momospheres. Long-time MommyBloggers may feel dismayed about the fragmentation, while newer MommyBloggers may be having trouble finding their own part of the momosphere to hang out in. And they might even be wondering, “What’s so great about the MommyBlogging community anyway?” Things have definitely changed since that first MommyBlogging Room of Your Own session at BlogHer ’05, and there’s no reason not to talk about it head-on. In a momosphere featuring literally thousands of bloggers, how can you tell who is in, out, big, small, popular, unpopular? The answer is you really can’t, and it might be worth discussing what we can accomplish in our own personal momosphere.

Tribeswoman Megan Jordan ventured out through her blog to find her own community, while Kelby Carr created her own community through TypeAMom.com. Though she's relatively new on the blogging scene, Renee Ross has found her place in a number of mommyblog communities, and Briar Sauro is looking for that delicate balance between her infertility community and this new mommyblogging world that she's found herself a part of. Join this session to discuss with us the difficulties we face searching for our own tribes, how we can each come into our own within the MommyBlogging community and what it takes to get there.

Room of Your Own 1: Realllly Personal Blogging - How much info is TMI?If you've ever found yourself cringing as you hit "Publish," asking for another's input before posting, or experiencing backlash from something you've written online, you're in good company. Whether you blog about your family, your friends, your co-workers, your health, your relationships or your children, at some point most of us have dealt with issues related to privacy and censorship. Join Miss Britt, Genie Alisa and Terra Atrill in discussing how to define boundaries for your blog, and how your online writing affects you In Real Life. We'll talk about online honesty, oversharing and how to balance the two.

Room of Your Own 2: Blogqueers - LGBTQ BloggersQueer bloggers are in every corner of the blogosphere. Sometimes, but not always, their identities bring many issues to their blogging because they write and live through the lens of being queer. Their community is made up of mommybloggers, lifebloggers, craft bloggers, garden bloggers, foodies, business and marketing SMS pros, political pundits, infertility bloggers, literary bloggers, special topic bloggers and bloggers who feel that they don't fit into any niche.

So let's discuss some of the things that come up when blogging, such as: What is the state of the LBGTQ community? Does it meet your needs? Do you feel accepted by straight bloggers in your niche? Do you feel safe enough to blog out of the closet? Have you experienced backlash, and if so what has helped you respond to it? How have you dealt with your partners' and friends' thirst for privacy? And perhaps most importantly, what support do you need to continue blogging with your fullest passion and truest voice? Join Kathryn Martini, Stacy Jill Jacobs and Liza Barry-Kessler as they discuss with you the answers to these questions.

Geek Lab Beginner 1a: Blogging Basics 101 - Getting Started (10:30-11:00AM)If you came to BlogHer to start a blog (or start actually writing in the blog you started months ago), start here. This tutorial, given by BlogHer's Community Manager, Denise Tanton, will provide a quick tour of the top things to think about, and a practical list of where to find resources to dig deeper...including throughout the day at the BlogHer Geek Lab Beginner track.

Geek Lab Beginner 1b: Wordpress for Beginners (11:15-11:45AM)An Introduction to Wordpress: How to get started using one of the most popular blogging platforms. In this session, Roni Noone will cover the How, What, Where and Why's of using Wordpress. We'll include benefits of using it and where to find the best resources.

Geek Lab Advanced 1a: CMS Pros and Cons - Discuss Your Development Experiences (10:30-11:00AM)Are you developing blog and sites for organizations, companies, web communities...anything more complex than a basic single-contributor blog? If so, you've probably tried and tried again many content management systems (CMS). Day One in the Geek Lab Advanced track is all about exploring some of the CMS options out there and deciding which one(s) might work for you. To kick off the day Sarah Dopp will lead a discussion with any developers who want to show up about what you need, what you've tried, and what you wish you could find. Show up, show off, sound off...just share your experiences and learn from each other, before we launch into 5 tutorials that dig deeper into 5 different CMS options out there today.

Geek Lab Advanced 1b: CMS Tool #1 - Wordpress (11:15-11:45AM)Wordpress is gaining ground as a simple blogging tool, but its rich development environment makes it a perfect choice for a more robust CMS, too. Come find out from Shazia Mistry what you may not even know that Wordpress offers.

"Birds of a Feather" Lunch: Find your blogging flock over lunchEvery year we provide a time and space for attendees to self-form into Birds of a Feather groups around any number of topics. This year we are returning to the method we used in 2007: Birds of a Feather lunches. Find your flock over food. :)

Brought to you by Ragu.

Identity/Passions: LifeBlogging Outside the Lines: When you’re not a Geek, a Political Wonk or a MommyBloggerBlogging started as a geek’s game, and by 2004 political bloggers were making waves and mainstream media news. Post-BlogHer 2005 the rise of the MommyBloggers, first as cultural, then as commercial, force began. So where does that leave the rest of us…blogging about who we are and what we do with as much dedication, passion and amazing writing as any of those other blogging archetypes? We know that many of you who don’t fit neatly into the above boxes share the same concerns:

How can I dispel stereotypes about people like me?

How can I build community without something like an ideology or a kid of a particular age to serve as the common thread?

How can I get a piece of the monetization pie…I have income and spend money too, you know?

Maria Niles moderates this conversation featuring Natalie McNeal, who blogs about living the high life on a budget, Trish Bendix, who explores lesbian and bi-sexual issues at AfterEllen.com, Jane Gassner, founder of midlifebloggers.com, and Amber Rhea, a feminism and sex blogger, as we delve together into myriad LifeBlogging issues.

Business of You: Brands and BloggersBrought to you by HP.

BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins will moderate this discussion with Liz Gumbinner, co-founder and blogger at Cool Mom Picks, Sarah Pasquinucci, a brand advocate and public relations manager for Procter & Gamble Fabric Care, Jaden from Steamy Kitchen, a food blogger who has worked successfully (and extensively) with various companies, and Wheatley Marshall, an expert on strategic brand planning and social media outreach. These women represent both sides of the Brand/Blogger Border, and we’ll get you talking about:

How to market in the blogosphere without being dismissed as a shill

How to work with brands without being reviled as a BlogWhore

How both sides of this commercial relationship have equal responsibility to set their policies, be transparent and remain ethical in the eyes of their customers, readers, etc.

Leadership: Writing Your Op-EdKatie Orenstein kindly excerpts the most actionable and practical segment of The Op-Ed Project with this session about quality opinion writing. Both the basics of crafting a high-quality, credible piece, and then the tactics to get that piece wider distribution. You’ll learn about the basic structure Op-Eds have, how you can play with that structure, what different kinds of evidence lends a piece credibility, what mainstream media editors are looking for, how you can become part of their pipeline and more practical, actionable information on getting your word out. Even if you have no other intent but to publish your opinion pieces on your blog, mainstream media be damned!, this session will improve your skills and persuasiveness.

MommyBlogging: “Balance” is a Big, Fat, Lying, McLiar LIE for Moms who Blog (and the rest of us too)Brought to you by Strawberry Shortcake.

Let’s chuck the usual work-life balance discussions out the window and talk about how we get it done, what we don’t get done, and how we reconcile ourselves to the chaos. Oh, and that little blogging habit? How does that help us, and what do we do when we think it’s actually not helping at all? Come find out if balance really is a lie, and how we battle that lie every day. Lisa Belkin, who blogs about parenting for the New York Times, moderates this discussion with Angela Tseng, a mother who works in corporate America, Pauline/OHMommy, a busy mom who stays at home with her children full-time and Rita Arens, a working mom who authored a parenting anthology, Sleep is For The Weak, last year. This is the place to share your tips and tricks for battling the lie, and for picking up insider information from those who've beat the lie by creating some sort of balance in their lives.

Room of Your Own 1: Your Blog is Great, Get People to Know About ItYou've been blogging for a while now, and you know that your posts strike a chord with your readers. You're creative, or touching, or just chock full of useful information, right? So why is your site traffic remaining static – shouldn’t it be growing?

Jen Miner (the "Mudslide Mama") from the Traveling Mamas, Annie from PhD in Parenting and Jessica Smith from Jessica Knows explain that it's not magic that brings in the page views, of course, but it does take a little effort and knowledge. We’ll discuss paying attention to topical trends, SEO, social networking and more, plus we’ll talk about how to brand your blog, build relationships, and get your blog the love you know it deserves.

Room of Your Own 2: Blogs & Body Image: What are we teaching our kids?In a society where more young girls fear becoming fat than they fear cancer, nuclear war, or losing their parents, some bloggers are taking a stand against teaching their children learned behaviors that affect their body image. Heather Blessington from mamaVISION, Carla Birnberg, aka Miz Fit Online, Claire Mysko, Kate Harding, and Roni Noone from Roni's Weigh have worked hard to improve their own self-esteem, and are asking the question: How can your blogs be a conduit to transformation? Join this session to discuss how your writing can impact kids, whether you should think twice before publishing that self-deprecating post, and how you have the power to influence positive change.

Geek Lab Beginner 2a: HTML for Bloggers (1:15-1:45PM)You can start, publish and grow a popular blog without knowing HTML, it's true. But HTML is so fun, easy and useful, there's no reason not to dig a little deeper. Join Nelly Yusupova for a basic intro to HTML for blogs, and walk away with the resources to continue developing your HTML skillz.

Geek Lab Beginner 2b: You and Your CSS Style Sheet (2:00-2:30PM)Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a nuts and bolts element of blogs...providing a template for how your blog looks and behaves. Today's blogging platforms have made it easy for us all to get started blogging without ever having to understand CSS, which can be a wonderful thing. But even if you are a beginning or non-geeky blogger, you can learn to understand and even edit your style sheet...which allows you to make your very own corner of the web more your own! Virginia DeBolt's tutorial will introduce you to the very basics of CSS and include time for Q&A.

Geek Lab Advanced 2a: CMS Tool #2 - Typepad (1:15-1:45PM)Typepad has made leaps and bounds over the last year, turning it into a viable (and affordable) option for a CMS. If you haven't checked it out in a while, come learn from Stephanie Cockerl what you might not know is available on Typepad!

Geek Lab Advanced 2b: CMS Tool #3 - Expression Engine (2:00-2:30PM)ExpressionEngine can be a simple blogging tool, but it also provides more advanced functionality that makes it a good option choice for a more robust CMS, too. Join Mrs. Flinger to find out what you may not even know that ExpressionEngine offers.

Identity/Passions: PatientBloggers - You Are Not Your Disease, You Just Blog About It Every DayChronic or acute disease can change your life overnight…and make you feel as though you’ve lost control of your own body. PatientBloggers find support, information and resources, and regain a sense of control via their blogging. But are there also down sides? Privacy concerns abound. Being identified as just a person with a disease can feel confining. And what if you’re cured or in remission? Where does your blogging (and more importantly: that close-knit, supportive community you've developed) go from there? Share your own stories with us, and find out how to manage it all from Loolwa Khazzoom, who, despite enduring chronic pain, has used dance to help herself and others find joy, Kerri Morrone Sparling, who has successfully battled Type 1 Diabetes since she was six, Jenni Prokopy, who writes about life with Fibromyalgia, Raynaud's Phenonmenon and GERD, and Casey from Moosh in Indy, who has written about infertility and depression. Mr Lady, who has written about mental illness and working through depression, moderates this discussion.

Business of You: Blog to Book, the ThreequelBrought to you by HP.

This perennial favorite may never be left off the agenda. We’ll again talk to authors, agents and publishers about what it takes to move blogging brilliance onto printed page. Come hear from author and blogger Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, self-publishing marketing expert Penny Sansevieri, new media publisher Yvonne DiVita and self-published author Deb Rox on how to hit the best seller list, whether self-publishing is the right option for you, and how to do it successfully.

Leadership: What is "Pro-Woman" in a Post-Palin World?2008 was a volatile year for women in the public eye. Not just for those women, but for all women as we watched them in action and the reaction to them. BlogHer.com featured substantive, weighty and (mostly) civil conversations that dug up ongoing questions that dog all of us that consider ourselves “Pro-Woman”:

How do we address the rift between many women of color and the perception of the mainstream feminist movement?

Can pro-choice and pro-life women find common “pro-woman” ground?

If we believe that women are true thought leaders and change agents for the world and that women’s leadership is more important than ever in turbulent times, how do we reconcile this with the fact that women certainly do not all agree?!

What does it mean to be “pro-woman” when woman are anything but a monolithic bloc who think…or vote the same?

Join the conversation to answer all these questions and more. Dedicated feminist Danielle Henderson moderates this conversation with conservative libertarian blogger Emily Zanotti, liberal feminist blogger Veronica Arreola, and conservative Fausta Wertz, who blogs about Latin American politics, news and current events. Join them to discuss what it means to be Pro-Woman in today's world.

MommyBlogging: Is MicroBlogging the Path to MommyBlogging Bliss?Brought to you by Strawberry Shortcake.

Speaking of balance? Moms are taking over Twitter, and we gotta talk about it. Is microblogging a way to maintain community and conversation without the time suck of writing long, substantive posts? Or is it just a different (and even more insidious) time suck? Moms are finding innovative ways to use Twitter to connect, to take action, to raise their voices, to have fun. And some moms are backing away slowly from the addiction that is Twitter. Where do you fall?
Come share with Erin Kotecki Vest (@QueenofSpain), Lucretia Pruitt (@GeekMommy), Alana Reynolds (@Momku) and Susan Kang Nam (@PinkOliveFamily) where you fall on the Twitter scale.

Room of Your Own 1: Blogging Identities and YOUDo you blog in secret, under a pen name or completely anonymously? Have you ever thought about coming out of the blogging closet, changing your blogging direction or your identity? Or do you blog openly, using your legal name? How do you handle self-censorship, if at all? No matter how you deal with your blogging identity, there are pros and cons…What’s your story?

Come dish with Anissa Mayhew from Hope4Peyton, Tanis Miller, the blogger behind Redneck Mommy and Janet Dean, who writes The Caffeinatrix and IzzyMom, and hear from other attendees whose online identities range from those who hid their online life until recently, those who gave up everything to come out of the closet, those who let it all hang out no matter what and those who grapple everyday with how much of themselves they want to share for the sake of keeping it real when everyone they know is reading.

Room of Your Own 2: Gadgets for BloggingSo you want to stay ahead of the curve in the latest tech gadgets? In this session, you’ll learn about the newest developments in vlogging, blogging, liveblogging, uploading photos, taking photos, going wireless and using mobile technologies. Get the scoop from Beth Blecherman from TechMamas, Eliane Fiolet, the writer behind Ubergizmo, Gina Hughes, who blogs at Techie Diva and Ponzi Pirillo, who blogs at Ponzarelli and has hosted Gnomedex. These four women are driven by staying in-the-know about the latest in social media technology and gadgetry.

Geek Lab Beginner 3a: Make Your Blog More Accessible (2:45-3:15PM)Make your blog more accessible - to people with disabilities, mobile device users, and even the almighty Google. Do you have to be a programmer? NO! Most of these changes are easy to make and have big benefits for your blog itself as well as your visitors. Join Skye Kilaen to learn how to (and why you should) make your site more accessible.

Geek Lab Beginner 3b: Photoshop - Basic Tips and Tricks to Get You Started (3:30-4:00PM)If you have Photoshop, but have never gotten over the hump to really understanding how to use it, join Photoshop author and expert Jan Kabili to demystify this powerful, practical tool. Thirty minutes is enough to quell your Photoshop-phobia and significantly enhance the photos you want to post on your blog.

Geek Lab Advanced 3a: CMS Tool #4 - Dreamwidth (2:45-3:15PM)Let Liz Henry introduce you to a new blogging platform and CMS, Dreamwidth. Wanna know the best part? It's an open source project whose development and contributor community is 80% women!

Geek Lab Advanced 3b: CMS Tool #5 - Squarespace (3:30-4:00PM)Squarespace powers everything from simple blogs to robust, professional websites. In this Breakout Session, Senior Designer Krystyn Heide will show you how easy it is to add features and functionality you may not even know about!

Break

Community KeynoteAbout one minute into 2008's Community Keynote session, it became an instant BlogHer tradition, so yes, it's back for 2009. The Community Keynote features 21 bloggers from our community, reading their own work. Like 2008 we have multiple, diverse categories in which hundreds of attendees submitted their work. Also like 2008, the selection process was curated by Eden Kennedy of Fussy and NaBloPoMo, assisted by a committee.

Congratulations to our 2009 Community Keynote readers!

Cocktail PartyBrought to you by PepsiCo.

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Breakfast

Day Two RecapWelcome to Day Two of BlogHer '09...announcements, reminders and other useful information!

Keynote: Traditional Media Chops meet a New Media CallingIn 2009 we, the readers and audience members, continue to express our love and respect for the entertainment and information traditional media delivers. Last summer was a record-breaking season at the box office. New TV shows continue to become watercooler phenomena. Some authors are publishing books that prove we all still like to read! The 2008 election had record turnout, with record numbers of people tuning in before turning out to the polls. Even bloggers continue to use much-linked-to traditional news sources as a starting point for their commentary. And yet... And yet there is no doubt that our attention is shifting online. The rise of online media, including participatory media, but not limited to it, has challenged traditional media. And challenged traditional media's, well, traditional business models. Over the past year we've seen some newspapers convert to online-only reporting. We've seen media and entertainment productions, like CNN and television’s CSI: Las Vegas integrate services like Twitter into their news streams and story lines, respectively. We've seen kudos for online media sources and backlash against online media too. It's been quite a year, and we're going to talk about it with some of the top names in the media industry.

BlogHer’s co-founder and CEO, Lisa Stone, will interview these influential women: Tina Brown, founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast; Donna Byrd, publisher of The Root and Ilene Chaiken, creator of "The L Word" and OurChart.com. We’ll talk about how they have become - and are remaining - powerful examples of how to marry traditional experience with new tools and incisive business savvy. And then we’ll discuss how each woman is revolutionizing popular, for-profit media by placing online, social media front and center (and what that means for you).

Identity/Passions: TravelBloggers as Boundary-Breaking EvangelistsBrought to you by Orbitz.

TravelBloggers bring the world to us, whether it’s their own home town or halfway around the world. We are inspired by the idea that TravelBloggers can truly “flatten” the earth, bringing us closer to cultures and people that seem completely different, venturing into areas that are off the beaten path. We are also inspired by the idea that TravelBloggers can revitalize and revive parts of the world that need it most…from visiting Phuket post-Tsunami to singing New Orleans' praises, to uncovering what’s great about Detroit. We’ll talk to TravelBloggers on a Mission, including Portland place-blogger A. L. Venable, globetrotter and field trip enthusiast Pam Mandel, travel writer Nancy Brown, and cultural TravelBlogger Rosalind Cummings-Yeates about how they close the gap between their front door and the rest of the world. Join this panel to discuss how we break boundaries, why we leave our comfort zones, the best tactics for bolstering our own communities through travel blogs (as well as local and global cultures), and why writing about and evangelizing travel is so important.

Business of You: Advanced Social Media, Syndication and StatsBrought to you by HP.

There are so many services that help you spread your content around. Twitter may be king, but other options, like StumbleUpon, kirtsy, digg and more abound. The issue is how to use them effectively. To know, you’ve got to become an expert at reading your analytics. In this panel, we'll make sure you're getting the most bang for your syndication buck. Featured speakers include Corvida Raven, a student who blogs almost exclusively about technology and social media, Denise Tanton, BlogHer's community manager (and a technophile in her own right), has helped online communities get their word out for the past 12 years, and Cathy Brooks, who for the last 25-plus years, has worked across a variety of communications and media channels. There will be Beginning Stats and Beginning Syndication tutorials in the Geek Lab, so if you don’t already know all the services and how/why to use them you can get the basics in the Lab. This session is intermediate to advanced only.

Leadership: Hope and Change in ActionThis session is quite simply about inspiration. Come hear about case studies of women bloggers affecting real change In Real Life…online and off. Jessica Ferris will talk to Gina McCauley, founder of Blogging While Brown, Kathrin Ivanovic, creator of The Diversity Projekt and Naomi Hirabayashi from the New York City Changemakers about the impact their blogs are having on the world around them, and how you can cultivate the same effect.

MommyBlogging: Blogging as a Homeschooling ToolHomeschooling moms are a tight-knit community in the blogosphere. How do they use blogging to support one another’s goals to educate their children? And can blogging be an educational tool that they actually use with their children? Come find out blogging’s practical application in education, featuring Jennifer James, who homeschools her children and writes about homeschooling and parenthood for a variety of publications, Dana Loesch, who homeschools her children while managing her blog, Momversation video-blog and radio show, and Shannon Entin, who homeschools her children and contributes to several blogs, online magazines and design sites. We'll get you talking about ways to use social networking and blogs in safe, fun ways to connect with other parents and to educate your children.

Room of Your Own 1: Vaginally challenged bloggers - the men of BlogHerAmong hundreds of women, we stand out as the men of BlogHer. We view the world differently. Some of us are single. Some of us are married. Some of us have kids, some don't, and some of us are just big kids ourselves. The male personal/life blogger is a minority among the personal/life blogging community, and our perspective could be invaluable to any blogger, mommy or otherwise, who wants to make the most of her audience. Join Adam Heath Avitable, BusyDad, and Matthew from Child’s Play x2 in a discussion about the role male bloggers play within the blogging community, and how that impacts what they write, how they network, and why you should be on board with the work they’re doing.

Room of Your Own 2: Women of Color and MarketingDuring a panel at BlogHer ’07, Kelly Wickham of Mocha Momma asked why marketers and PR companies don't often approach women of color (any color). She discovered that many companies didn’t know how to speak to this community of women.

This year, Kelly raises the question again, bringing together Heather Barmore from No Pasa Nada, Karen Walrond from Chookooloonks and Stefania Pomponi Butler from CityMama. Join this discussion about whether companies have gotten better at approaching bloggers of color in the past two years. Have you received offers or similar opportunities as other bloggers? How do you believe companies should approach bloggers of color? Let’s share do’s, don’ts, and beware’s of dealing with marketers and PR companies.

Geek Lab Beginner 1a: Stats for Word Nerds (10:45-11:15AM)Sure, there's an advanced stats session going on, but for many of us bloggers we've always been about words, not numbers. Alanna Kellogg can present a very concise and compelling argument for why you care about your stats...and some key tips on how to analyze those stats. Learn how to read and *use* your traffic stats...even if you're math-phobic!

Geek Lab Beginner 1b: Twitter Basics: How and Why? (11:30AM-12:00PM)NO, you are not the only person in the world (or at BlogHer) who is not on Twitter. Or maybe just doesn't get it yet. Come out of the shadows and join Annie from PhD in Parenting to talk about some of the basic motivations people have for using Twitter, some of the newer innovations around @s, #s and other strange symbols, and how to stop dipping your toes and dive right in to the Twitter culture.

Geek Lab Advanced 1a: Apache Servers Are Your Friend (10:45-11:15AM)Join Nelly Yusupova for an open format discussion about Apache servers. Come with your questions and get ready to geek out: we'll discuss log files, virtual host setup, the mod_rewrite module, working with SSIs, and more.

Geek Lab Advanced 1b: .htaccess for Bloggers (11:30AM-12:00PM)For those whose blogs are self hosted, .htaccess files can do a lot of neat tricks!  Skye Kilaen will teach you how to block people who are re-publishing your photos, set up nifty redirects, customize your "file not found" pages with a little personality, get password protection, and more.

"Birds of a Feather" Lunch: Find your blogging flock over lunchEvery year we provide a time and space for attendees to self-form into Birds of a Feather groups around any number of topics. This year we are returning to the method we used in 2007: Birds of a Feather lunches. Find your flock over food. :)

Identity/Passions: FoodBlogging in the Time of RecessionFoodBloggers may just be uniquely qualified to help the rest of us make the most of the comforting ritual and economizing potential of cooking. In this economy, how can FoodBloggers stay relevant…and actually provide a public service…whether they’re blogging about Crockpotting or Gourmet Cooking? Join award-winning foodblogger Elise Bauer and the woman who brought Bento-box lunches back again, Deborah Hamilton, as well as Hetal Jannu, who video blogs how to make simple, easy-to-follow Indian recipes, wine blogger Michelle Lentz, who documents and promotes local wine events, and Stephanie O'Dea, who created crockpot-friendly (and budget-friendly) recipes for her family over the course of a year, for an in-depth discussion on the benefit of home cooking (and how they make it so interesting)!

Business of You: Advanced SEOBrought to you by HP.

This session, led by Vanessa Fox, an expert in understanding customer acquisition from organic search, is for attendees who are familiar with the basic principles and want to dig deeper. There will be a Beginning SEO tutorial in the Geek Lab, so if you don’t know your metatags, get the basics in the Lab. This session is intermediate to advanced only.

Leadership: The BlogHer ’09 International Activist BlogHer Scholarship Winners Share Their WorkIn 2008 BlogHer won the Anita Borg Social Impact Award. After community discussion we decided to use the award money to sponsor scholarships for four international activist women bloggers to come to BlogHer ’09 and share their work. Anita Doberman Tedaldi draws on her international experience and passion for affecting real change in others' lives to moderate this panel's conversation. She'll discuss activism with Annie Zaidi from India, who focuses her writing on encouraging readers to break stereotypes and established ideas about certain communities or groups based on gender, religion or race; and Bolivian national Cristina Quisbert, who blogs about the indigenous people of her home country, generating identity and pride among her communities. Pilirani Semu-Banda, from Malawi, has used her blog to bring awareness and social change to her country, even rallying authorities and donors on behalf of certain causes, such as poverty and child labor; and Nigerian blogger Toyin Ajao not only examines and investigates gender equality issues on her site, but also writes a weekly series highlighting other women around the globe who are committed to helping women.

Attend this session to hear all about the change each of these women are bringing to their communities and beyond, and how you can use your own blog to work toward achieving similar goals.

MommyBlogging: Healthcare by CommitteeBrought to you by Johnson & Johnson.

More than ever parents are turning to the Internet to help take care of their family and there are a wealth of resources out there, including medblogs. How can we all do a better job of assessing the credibility and usability of the medical information we find online? Caryn Dubelko, Community Director at iVillage, Dr. Gwenn O'Keeffe, a pediatrics physician who helps families find reliable information online, Kim McAllister, a registered nurse who has worked in emergency rooms for nearly twenty years and Dr. Jennifer Shu, a pediatrician and author focused on helping families establish and maintain healthy living habits, will help demystify when to seek a professional diagnosis and whether we can simply self-diagnose our ailments. Join the conversation with your questions and stories about Google-nosing: What worked and what sent you into a bout of paranoia?

Room of Your Own 1: Women Writing In The Age Of Britney: Pop Culture & Gossip & Feministy Stuff, Oh MyIn an age when Octo-Mom, Sarah Palin, LOST, Britney Spears, Twilight and Brangelina dominate the headlines on a near-daily basis, it’s about time we asked: What is the state of pop culture writing (writing about TV, movies, magazines, music and celebrity gossip) among women, and what good is it doing us? Is it a genre that empowers women as writers and readers – even as feminists? – or does it keep us locked in old stereotypes about women as gossips and consumers of soap operas and morning shows?

Join the ladies of MamaPop – Tracey Gaughran-Perez of Sweetney, Amy Storch of Amalah and Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mother – to weigh in on whether pop culture writing online is currently one of the best forums for really intelligent and thoughtful musings on the place of women in society, or if women’s writing should be focused elsewhere.

Room of Your Own 2: Sponsored v. Unsponsored - Blogging for $$ Where Do You Stand?Some people think bringing money into the blogging equation means sacrificing your integrity or reputation. Others believe that banner ads and link ads are okay, but when it comes to content, whether it's cash or "soft incentives" like items or trips, then it's crossing the line. A few say it's okay if it's a contest or giveaway, but not if it's an opinion or review. And still, others maintain that anything goes as long as you are transparent about the fact that the post is "sponsored" by a third party and items or cash have been provided to the blogger as an incentive to write about the subject…after all, it is a business.

So, where do you stand? Join Anne-Marie Nichols of This Mama Cooks! Reviews and Lucretia Pruitt of GeekMommy as they open the floor to discover whether there is a happy medium on blog monetization.

Geek Lab Beginner 2a: Managing Your Twitterverse: The latest, hottest, bestest tools (1:30-2:00PM)Sure, you're on Twitter, but have you seen all the third party apps out there to play with? Come find out from Erin Kotecki Vest how you could be having more fun with Twitter!

Geek Lab Beginner 2b: Beginning SEO (2:15-2:45PM)If you keep hearing the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and thinking it's something you should know about...and don't, then let Kelby Carr introduce you to the basic concept of SEO, why you care, and how to get started.

Geek Lab Advanced 2a: PHP for Bloggers (1:30-2:00PM)PHP is a scripting language that is used to create dynamic web pages. Almost all of the blogging software platforms are written in PHP and learning the basics of PHP will enable you to gain more confidence and control to be able to tweak the PHP code of your blogging platform.

Nelly Yusupova will cover the basics of the PHP Language Syntax (variables, data structures, conditional statements and loops - if, else, foreach, for, while, etc.) and functions, and walk away with resources that will help you learn more.

Geek Lab Advanced 2b: Stupid Unix Tricks (aka Learn to Love Your Command Line!) (2:15-2:45PM)Let's share our favorite tricks with awk, join, comm, grep, and so on. Those words mean nothing to you? The you're not making the most of your command line interface. Liz Henry can help fix that!

Identity/Passions: Enough About You...Who's Reading You?If you care about building traffic, then you must care about who’s reading you. How do you think of your readers? Readers? Audience? Friends? Fans? Community? And would it change your blogging if you thought a little harder about who's hanging onto your every word? Have you decided what kind of readers you really want? We’ll talk to bloggers with different perspectives on the identity of their readers…and we’ll talk about how blogging to build community is different from blogging to build a fan base or blogging to maintain friendships or blogging to find an audience…you get the picture.

Laura Roeder, celebrity social media marketer, Ree Drummond, noted for her honed rural-style blogging, photography and recipes, Twanna Hines, a sex, dating and relationships blogger, and Susan Getgood veteran online marketer and strategist start the conversation with their viewpoints on readers, and share their tips and tricks for blogging to maintain that relationship. But the real question is: Who do you think your readers are? And how does that relationship come to play in your blogging?

Business of You: Your burning questions about the BlogHer Publishing NetworkBrought to you by HP.

Join the BlogHer Publishing Network team, Jenifer Sharpen, Jenny Lauck, Gina Garrubbo and Lisa Stone, and learn how to make the most of your membership, if you already are a member. Plus have the opportunity to ask your burning questions, whether you're a current member or not. Get an behind-the-scenes look at how the network works, why our policies work the way they do, and even how the recent FTC interest in bloggers affects and doesn't affect us all.

Leadership: Green and Eco-BloggingBrought to you by Michelin.

A movement is afoot to save the planet, and bloggers across demographic profiles are pitching in. This isn’t only about making personal choices. This isn’t just about paper or plastic. This is about how to be a resource for real change for your readers. And it’s about how to impact companies, organizations and governments to join us to save the world.

Whether you're leafy green or just starting to bud, join the discussion on how to join the movement with Diane MacEachern, a best-selling author who encourages women green the marketplace with their purchase power, Jennifer Taggart, a concerned mother and environmental and consumer product law attorney, Siel/Green LA Girl, an L.A.-area environment writer and activist, and Sommer Poquette, who has made it her mission to educate women and mothers on eco-friendly products, practices and laws.

MommyBlogging: Online Safety For Your Kids Who Are Online ThemselvesBrought to you by Intelius.

We know you all understand the value of the online world. You wouldn’t be a blogger or be coming to BlogHer if you didn’t. And a lot of you are watching your kids go online, starting younger and younger, and with more and more options as they enter junior high, high school and beyond. How do you help your kids assess their own risks online without freaking them out? How do you help them understand the Internet is forever and that self-control, not parental control, will serve them very well throughout their online life? How do you do all of this even when you know that the really bad stuff you hear about is also really rare, and chances are you and your kids won’t encounter anything more unpleasant than the occasional spam comment or flame post? We believe it's all about being prepared without being paranoid.

Come share your insights into this evolving online world with Microsoft's teen Internet usage researcher and Harvard University Berkman Center Fellow danah boyd, About.com's family computing guide Christy Matte, columnist, author and kids' freedom advocate Lenore Skenazy, AOL Consumer Advisor, best-selling author and national TV contributor Regina Lewis, and Founder of Net Family News and co-chair of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Online Safety and Technology Working Group, Anne Collier.

Room of Your Own 1: Dying is Easy, ROTFLMAO Comedy is Hard: It's two, two, two comedy panels in one!Many people have no idea what goes behind creating something humorous. As it says in the title, dying is easy, ROTFLMAO comedy is hard. Do your readers end up laughing out loud, or in a fit of giggles, every time they visit your site? When you write, do you ever wonder how far is too far? How you say it, where you say it and if you should say it are just a few of the many questions we’ll discuss in this session. Join top humor bloggers, including Anna Lefler from Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder, Deb Rox from Deb on the Rocks, Jenny Lawson from The Bloggess, Jessica Bern from Bernthis, Kelcey Kintner from The Mama Bird Diaries and Wendi Aarons, who writes at her namesake site, to explore your funny bone and put your comedic skills to work.

Room of Your Own 2: Blogging as StorytellingIf you’ve ever fought the battle between promoting your blog and spending time developing your writing craft, this session will help you try to recapture the most important aspect of the blogging experience: storytelling. Neil Kramer and Amy Turn Sharp will explore the principles of storytelling, and how they are fundamentally the same in Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Curious George, and your own blog. Join this session to discuss new methods for writing, developing stories and characters, and why the best bloggers learn their craft from watching … soap operas?!

Geek Lab Beginner 3a: How to Use Social Media to Promote your Blog (3:00-3:30PM)There are a number of social media and social networking sites that can help you find your audience. How you create repeat readers out of your new visitors once they show up at your site is a topic for another day, but in this session Sandy Carter will help you promote, intrigue, market, and generally drive traffic to your little corner of the Internet.

Geek Lab Beginner 3b: Web Video/Videoblogging Tutorials and Resources - Resources you can use to help upload your videos (3:45-4:15PM)Have you been thinking it's time to spruce up your blog/website with video? Do you have a webcam, The Flip or other ways to record video but you don't know what to do next? Join Gena Haskett for a tour of the Web's best video tutorial and resource sites targeting beginning video bloggers. You'll walk away knowing exactly where to go to take your next steps.

Geek Lab Advanced 3a: Hacking, mash-ups and other rebel coding (3:00-3:30PM)Another session that's all about showing up and showing off! Sarah Dopp will kick it off by sharing the tricks she uses to tweak the front-end and streamline her workflow, but everyone is welcome to share their own favorite tricks of the trade.

Geek Lab Advanced 3b: Adding social networking to your blogging environment (3:45-4:15PM)Have you been working with tools such as WordPress MU, Buddypress, bbPress, Ning or Drupal to add social networking features to your blogging environment? Come compare notes with Shazia Mistry and share your collective expertise with others doing similar investigation and development.

Break

Closing Keynote: Who We Will BecomeIt's 2040: Do we have brain implants? Do our kids "blacklist" prospective employees who don't have social network pages? Does Target know my shoe size when I walk in? Will the have-nots have no options left whatsoever to go digital?

We've spent two days looking at where we (and the blogosphere) have been, who we are right now, and how the online world has changed our real lives. But where will that change take us? Three futurists (or women so smart we think they can predict the future) will share where they think technology will take us next...culturally, commercially...even physiologically! Elisa Camahort Page will ask PBS Frontline's senior producer (and one of the early instigators of their Digital Nation initiative) Raney Aronson-Rath, Northwestern University professor and sociologist Eszter Hargittai and Berkman fellow and Microsoft Researcher danah boyd some of these burning questions:

Is the modern digital reality creating actual change in the world? Or is it just creating a lot of chatter about change?

What happens to people who miss the digital boat?

Will technology create a "world without cubicles"? In other words: is there any reason to ever meet "In Real Life"?

How will the way today's teens view things like privacy, relationships and work change the world (and the workplace)?

Aren't marketers just stringing us along with this power and influence stuff, while they infiltrate every nook and cranny of our lives?

You know how people joke "it's not brain surgery"?...what if technology effectively is like brain surgery!?

Many of us feel a great deal of hope that technological advances are making and will continue to make this world a better place and improve our lives. We'll close the conference with a look at that opportunity.

Cocktail Party