BlogHer '07 - Day Two Schedule (Saturday July 28th)

Elisa Camahort — Sun, 13 May 2007 10:42:00 -0500

BlogHer Conference '07
July 27-29, 2007 in Chicago, IL
Day One's schedule is here.
--> Register now.

A Note re: Tracks
The BlogHer conference is organized into five different subject areas or "tracks". Feel free to stick with a single track, or to track-hop as the mood strikes you.

This year's tracks are:

Art of Life: This track is devoted to the passions about which so many of us blog...food, art, photography, crafts, knitting, writing, music and more.

Business of You: This track is devoted to personal and business advancement. We will discuss speaker and media training, self-branding and promotion, mentoring, turning your blog into a book or a business, and even managing your time, your finances, your blogging policies and best practices...the business of you.

Community: This track is devoted to the care and feeding of communities. We'll discuss building bridges between different online communities, how to galvanize social change with your blogs, and how blogging is a voice for different communities around the world.

Politics: This track is about how to use the power of blogging and bloggers to improve the level of discourse and increase the level of action in our communities.

Technical: Day One's technical track focuses on presentations that will help you decided how you want to get your geeky on, while Day Two will be more lab-oriented, so you can get your hands dirty.

Each track contains sessions you will notice are called Room of Your Own sessions. The original description of BlogHer's Room of Your Own concept can be found here.

Day Two Schedule - Saturday, July 28th, 2007

8:00-9:00

Ask the Google Experts Breakfast, sponsored by Gold Sponsor, Google.

Chat in person with product evangelists, Google recruiters and blog-savvy geeks at the Google-sponsored "ask the experts" breakfast. Whether you are using Google Analytics to track the stats on your readership or have a Blogger account to share vacation tales, Google offers a full suite of tools that can support your business or personal blog. Earn revenue from your blog by running relevant ads using AdSense, ask experts from Webmaster Tools how to make your blog more visible in Google searches, and how to enhance your work with applications like Google Calendar or Google Apps.

9:00-10:15

Keynote Breakfast: What Humans Do with Artificial Intelligence
Whatever web version we're heading into now might just bring about those apocalyptic 1984/2001 Space Odyssey/Battlestar Galactica visions of man vs. machine...or it could facilitate more blurring and even eradication of current boundaries and barriers than we can possibly imagine. Some complain that technology isolates us and erodes the glue holding society together. But, what have we humans done? Found ways to rebuild the concept of neighborhoods and "social glue" online. Technology only amplifies the best and worst of our human nature, so we'll discuss what blogging women can do to drive technology developmentâ€¦as users, developers, marketers etc. Elisa Camahort moderates this discussion featuring technology gurus Slideshare CEO Rashmi Sinha, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, She's Such a Geek editor and tech journalist Annalee Newitz and renowned tech visionary Esther Dyson.

10:30-11:45: Breakout #5
Click session name to jump to detailed descriptions and speakers.

Art of Life: The Art of Foodblogging, sponsored by Butterball

Business of You: Book to Blog and Back Again: A Room of Your Own session, , sponsored by Wiley

Community: Women Across the World

Politics: Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?

Technical: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level (A Lab Segment)

11:45-1:15

Lunch, sponsored by Platinum Sponsor, AOL Body.

AOL Body invites you to participate in an exciting, life-enhancing luncheon with one of six top lifestyle coaches. Come as our guest and gain insight on everything you've ever wanted to know about relationships, fitness, business, finance and more in a unique and intimate setting. Sign up today! RSVP here.

1:30-2:45: Breakout #6
Click session name to jump to detailed descriptions and speakers.

Art of Life: The Art of Crafts: A Room of Your Own session

Business of You: Professional Blogging: Ways and Means

Community: Blogging: the Voice For Silenced Communities

Politics: How to Write Great Political Coverage: From Breaking News to Op-Ed

Technical: Multimedia Labs

2:45-4:00: Breakout #7
Click session name to jump to detailed descriptions and speakers.

Art of Life: Itâ€™s Your Passion, Not Size, That Matters: A Room of Your Own session

Business of You: Professional Blogging: Art and Commerce, sponsored by Edelman

Community: The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Online Communities

Politics: Patriots Act: How to Turn Your Blog into a GOtV (Get Out the Vote) Machine

Technical: Food Photography

A Special Off-the-Record Session: Sex & Relationship Blogging Behind Closed Doors
This session will take place between 3-4PM in The Collaborative Workspace, and is an Off-the-Record session. Click on the session title for instructions on how to participate.

4:00-4:30

Break

4:30-5:45

Closing Keynote: A one-on-one chat with Elizabeth Edwards
BlogHer co-founder Lisa Stone sits down with Elizabeth Edwards: attorney, author, mom...and longtime blogger. We'll find out how blogging and social media has changed her life...and changed life on the political trail. We'll also ask her what, if any, potential she sees for these technologies to changes the lives of women she meets as she travels across the country and around the world. Particularly for women who traditionally haven't had money, power, a voice. Using questions contributed by the community pre-conference and in real-time, we'll have one big one-on-one with one of this year's most compelling public figures.

6:00-9:00PM

Thank You Cocktail Party at the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier, sponsored by Dove

Detailed Session Descriptions

The Art of Foodblogging

Few blogging communities are as passionate, connected and consistent as foodbloggers. Weâ€™ll hear from a diverse group of foodbloggers as they dish about how they started following this passion online, what has surprised them (good and bad) about foodblogging and the foodblogging community, what theyâ€™ve learned about food, cooking, blogging and technology since they became dedicated foodbloggers, and how foodblogging and its community of bloggers and readers has affected their offline lives and perspectives. Last year Shuna Fish Lydon told us how blogging has changed her world from the audience of our Opening Session. We've brought her back to tell us more, along with other great foodbloggers like Jasmine from Cardamom Addict, Nupur Kittur, Susan Voisin from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and Alanna Kellogg. Kalyn Denny will be on hand to make sure that everyone in the room contributes, like a "Stone Soup" of a conversation.

This session is sponsored by Butterball

Book to Blog and Back Again

Letâ€™s talk tactics: what does it take to get your blog turned into a book. What are agents and publishers looking for? What about self-publishing? And then once you have a book, how can your blog augment and enhance the book and help its sales? Denise Wakeman moderates a discussion with people on both sides of the aisle when it comes to the Blog/Book opportunity, including blogger/authors Ariel Meadow Stallings and Gina Trapani and literary agent Kate Lee.
This session is sponsored by Wiley

A Room of Your Own session

Women Across the World

Blogging and social media is taking hold across the globe. What do blogging women of the world want? Many are activists; many are trying to raise their voices to improve their own lives. Either motivation is worth supporting and exploring, especially since studies show that when a woman improves her own economic standing it has a large ripple effect in her community. What are the biggest barriers to bridging cultural, geographical or language divides? How accessible is the technology necessary to support social media? Is social media making a real difference in women's lives outside urban centers? What can you do to amplify your voice if you are trying to reach a global audience? And what can you do to improve the chances for those who are trying to raise their voices? Georgia Popplewell introduces you to women from around the world, such as Juliana Rotich from Afromusings, who blogs about "Africa and beyond", and journalist Amira Al Hussaini, who works with women from the Middle East and Northern Africa who are struggling to be heard. Discuss how you can get more involved in the global conversation.

Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?

Attendees will work to develop a Voter Manifesto based on questions that women from across the political spectrum agree are currently ignored, but must be a priority in the next presidential election.

The session will open with strategist presentations, one from the left end of the spectrum, one from the right, reflecting their latest thinking on what women voters want in '08. Next, attendees will break into multipartisan groups to take four critical issues raised by the survey, (such as health, the environment, global strife and the economic future of our extended families ). Working together, each group will build a list of the burning questions women who blog really want answered by anyone who wants our votes for president. Attendees will work collaboratively to make a list of 3 questions per topic, 12 in all. We'll close with a presentation on how attendees can take the Voter manifesto and take action, both from a "netroots" perspective, and with the mainstream media. Morra Aarons will MC the sessions activities.

Confirmed experts include pollster Anita Sharma, McCain internet strategist Sarah Simmons, Gina Cooper who puts on YearlyKos, Zoe Chafe from WorldWatch, Dr. Val Jones, Mary Katharine Ham from Townhall.com, Jen Hogg from Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Jennifer Pozner from Women in Media and News (WIMN).

Women bloggers will use these questions to measure the quality and depth of:

solutions recommended by candidates

coverage by the media.

The outcome of this session will be a template for candidates, (and the media covering those candidates), to follow if they want to address the issues that women voters care about. And the information on how to help make them answerable to that template.

Note: Due to the large number of topics to be covered, this session will extend an extra 15 minutes into the lunch hour.

Taking Your Blog to the Next Level (A Lab Segment)

On Day Two, weâ€™ll stop talking and let folks get their hands dirty. Look for hands-on work with tool and application experts to help you get that blog up and runningâ€¦and to start customizing it. Will also cover shifting to hosting your own blog for those bloggers who are ready to take the next step.

Section #1: Starting a hosted blog (Beginning Bloggers)

-Nelly Yusupova will be on hand to assist anyone looking to start a Typepad blog.
-Elizabeth Edwards will be on hand to assist anyone looking to start a Wordpress blog
-Jenny Cisney will help you start a hosted blog on Blogger
-Are we missing a basic blogging tool you want to start with? let us know.

Section #2: Transitioning to a self-hosted blog (Intermediate)
Heather Sanders and Jessica from Kerflop will be on hand to walk you through everything from setting up your domains and redirects to importing existing blog content into new platforms.

Section #3: Messing with your default blog template (All levels)
Kim Holmes and Marilyn Porter will be on hand to help beginning to intermediate users and Krystyn Jones will be on hand to help intermediate to advanced users work through the most common changes bloggers want to make to blog platform default templates.

The Art of Crafts

The CraftBlogging community is diverse and large, covering everything from scrapbooking to knitting to other handi-crafts. They use their online communities to collaborate, to provide critiques, to engage in commerce, and simply to learn. How do you find your piece of the CraftBlogosphere? And yes, we'll also talk crafts...our favorite solo and group projects. Leah Petersen moderates the conversation with Kathy Cano Murillo (aka Crafty Chica), Kristin Roach, Natalie Zee Drieu and Amy Sedaris.

A Room of Your Own session

Professional Blogging: Ways and Means

Exploring the many ways you can be paid to do what you love...and use blogging as the tool to get you there. Lots of bloggers are doing business as bloggers, and the approaches vary. We'll talk to women who are taking different approaches, and we'll hopefully send you away with ideas about how you could emulate their success doing what you love. Arieanna Schweber, both a mega-pro-blogger and someone who hires pro-bloggers, will moderate a discussion as Jody DeVere, Paula Neal Mooney, Stefania Pomponi Butler and teen professional blogger Chloe Spencer as they describe their paths to combining blogging and business.

Blogging: the Voice For Silenced Communities

Sometime communities arenâ€™t silent, theyâ€™re silenced. Blogs are the only voice they have, and sometimes a very small number of those lucky enough to have access and ability to blog end up speaking for a much larger community. Whether oppressed by governmental, religious, familial or emotional pressures, blogs can bring the first amendment freedoms of speech to even those who arenâ€™t free by conventional standards. Liz Henry, for example, has always spoken out, via blog, first about alternative sexuality, and now about becoming physically disabled. You won't hear her stories told by the nightly news or the women's magazines. And Katherine Stone feels like she speaks for thousands of women who suffer from Post-partum depression, but are afraid to reach out for help. Jen Hogg will speak up for military personnel and families, and talk about restricitons on their blogging. Amira Al Hussaini leads this discussion and will herself update us on the many women bloggers around the world who try to overcome the deafening silence by blogging out...even those who were unable to physically attend the conference because of governmental restrictions on their movements.

How to Write Great Political Coverage: From Breaking News to Op-Ed

Youâ€™ve decided what issues matter most to you, and you want to cover them on your blog. Do you want to be a great political reporter who uses reputable sources to shine a light on stories of the day? Do you want to write great political commentary without being a blowhard? Do you want to avoid the straw man argument, the ad hominem attack and other techniques that only serve to undercut your message? Professor Kim Pearson moderates this session will focus on the steps any blogger can take to write high-quality political content, whether you want to write news or Op-Ed pieces. Also featuring Faye Anderson and Katharine Daniels.

Advanced Multimedia Labs

Make your blog more compelling by adding multimedia. Attendees will be able to choose between two different lab sections, working with multiple instructors to learn new techniques and try things hands-on.

Section #1, Video: The Advanced Video Lab will kick off with a brief word on file formats, compression ratios and favorite software tools, but quickly break into three working groups: Editing tips, tricks and techniques; how to pull off better lighting on the cheap; and storyboarding...how to shoot video that goes beyond simply pointing and shooting your subject. Cheryl Colan, Gena Haskett and Robyn Tippins are signed on to be your video experts.

Section #2, Audio: The Advanced Audio Lab will focus on how to improve the quality of your audio no matter where youâ€™re recording and how many different elements youâ€™re mashing together. Look for info on how to build you â€œgig bagâ€ to be best prepared to shoot different kinds of audio from one-on-one interviews to live music, and how each situation changes your set-up. Weâ€™ll also cover post-production issues, including how to add effects to your audio, how to find great (and non-copyright-infringing) music, and how to mix together, clean up and level-adjust disparate audio clips to get a clean, consistent sound. Mur Lafferty, Yukako Tajee Tajima and Lena West are signed on to be your audio experts.

Itâ€™s Your Passion, Not Size, That Matters

Small is beautiful according to some bloggers, who find establishing relationships with a more intimate community helps them get the most from their blogging without experiencing blog burnout. What would it change if you stopped checking your stats and logs? What would it change if you didnâ€™t care about who and how many were reading you? How would you blog differently if you were whispering to your best online friends, not broadcasting to the blogosphere? Jen Lemen explores the beauty of a more intimate online space with passionate bloggers, Elaine Gingery and Rachelle Mee-Chapman.

A Room of Your Own session

Professional Blogging: Art and Commerce

The other side of the professional blogging coin is looking at the business ramification of making money with your blogging. This session will cover the things to consider and that you may regret if you wait to long to address: copyright protection, tax ramifications, managing personal vs. paid-for blogging, your site policies, and blogging ethics. Nina Smith moderates, Denise Howell is our in-house legal expert and Liz Gumbinner's background in marketing, advertising and blogging gives her insights into how to set and disclose consistent blogging policies, in other words: how to blog and take advantage of business opportunities without selling your soul. Finally, Kelly Erb (aka TaxGirl) will be on hand to discuss, gulp, your taxes.

This session is sponsored by Edelman

The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Online Communities

Comments, link-love, blog-rollsâ€¦whoâ€™s in, whoâ€™s out? The Internet has the potential to be the great equalizer, to breakdown artificial barriers. Is that what weâ€™re doing, or are we all sticking to our respective corners of the online world? What signposts do those who feel outside the online majority look for when deciding if an online community will be welcoming to â€œpeople like me.â€ Can you build community that becomes more inclusive, rather than exclusiveâ€¦and does it have broader social implications if you do (or donâ€™t)? Join Joy Palmer, Liza Barry-Kessler, Dory Devlin and Valencia Roner as they take a look at this often-sensitive subject. We'll cover everything from anecdotal experiences to research data on how online communties tend to behave and evolve.

Patriots Act: How to Turn Your Blog into a GOtV (Get Out the Vote) Machine

Women represent more than half the eligible voters in the U.S. How can women who blog help register more women to vote and get a larger percentage to show up at the polls? Could we leverage BlogHer.org as a way to sign up many more women voters? How many? To be addressed:

- Who's voting, who isn't and how that could affect Election 2008.
- Do the big "Get Out the Voteâ€ campaigns really work? What does/n't?
- What could social media change?

Attendees will learn the voting trends amongst women and then get applied training on how to use their blogs to get more women registered and voting. There will be further training for those who are interested in taking GOtV activities offline into their neighborhoods.

Kim Gandy, President of NOW and driving force behind their 2004 "Women Vote" campaign, will be on hand to lend her considerable expertise on the subject of women and voting. She will be joined by Liza Sabater, who drives progressive grassroots activism both nationally and locally in New York City and Zephyr Teachout, political strategist and formerly Howard Dean's Director of Online Organizing.

Food Photography

This focused workshop on food photography will address not only the photographic skills that enhance any photograph, but the special circumstances that food photography entails. If you've wondered why your own food photos never come out as well as the work of some of the best foodbloggers, this session will reveal their secrets! Bea Peltre and Lara Ferroni are the foodie/photogs who are willing to show you how they do it. Jan Kabili will moderate and be the bridge to non-food photographers who want to apply their techniques outside the kitchen.

Sex & Relationship Blogging Behind Closed Doors, and Off-the-Record session

Facilitated by Susan Mernit and Viviane
Cloaked behind another name, bloggers are writing more freely than ever before about private personal experiences they might be hesitant to share publicly. In doing so, they are creating community and making their voices heard in powerful waysâ€”but also dealing with issues of privacy and exposure.

This BlogHer session is for everyone at the conference who is using the web to share personal narratives about sex and relationships, and/or to share erotic fantasies and desires, so that members of this community and those supportive of them can talk freely with one another. We intend to offer a safe, facilitated space to talk about your blog, identify and privacy concerns, and share personal and community experiences related to blogging about sexuality, personal experience, and relationships and to create a safe space for those writing on these topics behind a veiled persona to speak freely in real time.

Other interested parties will be welcome at the session, but only on a space-permits, rules followed basis.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This session is committed to protecting personal privacy and facilitating open discussion; for that reason, the following protocols will be practiced:

Those Blogher conference attendees wishing to attend this session must send an email with expressing interest and agreeing to respect confidentiality to organizers Susan Mernit (susanmernit@yahoo.com) and/or Viviane (viviane212@gmail.com). In the email you need to affirm that you will follow the confidentiality guidelines and not share or discuss the session in ways that identify participants.

When you write, it is not necessary to identify your personal blog, but it would be appreciated; confidentiality protected.)

No photos, live blogging or audio recordingâ€”this is an off the record session.

During session, no identifying of participants or their blogs by speakers unless you choose to self-identify with a specific blog you write and maintain.

Shared commitment to maintaining a safe private space for honest discussion reaffirmed at start of meeting.

Participants admitted only at organizersâ€™ discretion and as space permits.

BlogHer - BlogHer '07 - Day Two Schedule (Saturday July 28th) - Comments

happy to see..

No. I do. NOT. Squee

hahahaha

TW: Do you normally squee?

Squee

I feel your pain, Ms Grace!

And then I realize with horror that...

Swooning!

Diversity

BlogHer '07 - Day Two Schedule (Saturday July 28th)

Day Two Schedule - Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Detailed Session Descriptions