BlogHer - Announcing the Dates and Location for BlogHer '09, our 5th Anniversary Conference! - Comments

Will Happily Attend!!

Parentsgear — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:49:51 -0600

I am very excited about the conference location in Chicago. I live here, so I will save much time getting to the event. I can't wait to meet other bloggers from the community! Hope we all have a great time together. Good Luck to everybody!

Marcia Mink

http://www.parentsgear.com/

Flying In

Typ0 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:22:56 -0600

I think that i'm going to go. It means that i have ot watch my budget for hte next few months but Hubby said that i've gone to enough of his conferenes that now its my turn. :) I can't wait to see the agenda for the entire conference.

Is there a prize for comes from furthest away? LOL

From outside the US..too bad

desertgirl — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:42:51 -0600

I wish Blogher will grow really, really big (although it's already) and provide a scholarship contest for international bloggers! Someday!

Grace @ Sandier Pastures

If Vodka Mom's making an appearance... I might have to be in.

csquaredplus3 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:53:50 -0600

I'm with ya Vodka Mom. Maybe if we start saving now, we'll have enough pennies. Focus on the goal...

Chris at Csquaredplus3

I would LOVE to go. Can I

vodkamom — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:18:16 -0600

I would LOVE to go. Can I get someone to pay my way? PLEASE? I'll throw in a bottle of vodka.

Where do we sign up?

Nancy France — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:18:55 -0600

I'm excited, I'm planning on coming, and have roommate and flights booked. Now,

WHERE DO I REGISTER???? and WHERE DO I SEND THE CHECK???

Gardening is patience, rewarded

Us Crazy Canadians from Craftastrophe...

Karen Rani — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:02:39 -0600

Are road-tripping our way there! Can't wait!

~ Karen ~

Craftastrophe | Swank Web Style | Catapult Web Development |

BlogHer Virgin

themanicmommy — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:25:37 -0600

Do you realize it's just eight months from today??

I'm really going to have to pace myself. I'm a BlogHer virgin and I can't wait!

Christine

Manic Mommy

http://shesjustanothermanicmommy.blogspot.com/

any combo super duper deals?????

artpax — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:38:02 -0600

I've wanted to go to BlogHer Business but couldn't swing two BlogHer conferences -- so.... '09 is the year for me to do business and annual! Got my room reserved, the dates blocked, and am now ready for flight finding and I was just wondering.... will there be any super duper early bird deals giving a discount for combined registration for both conferences?

Nancy

p.s. Go Cubbies!

Build Peace
Virtuality
My Life As An Avatar

I live in Chicago and I'll be there!

mcpelvic — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:30:58 -0600

I'm glad you've chosen the windy city for your next venue, tho I wouldn't mind going to any other city. There is a lot of cheap places to eat and stay if you do the research. The Sheraton is "berry berry niiice!"

But, folks I absolutely detest the Cubs. They totally suck. I mean, not every team in the National League has the distinction of saying that they've had a bad century. What a bunch of 100 year losers! Blech Cubs. Go White Sox!

On the other hand, Wrigleyville (where Wrigley field is located on Clark and Addison) is very cool, lots of cool bars and restaurants, and my favorite place for improvisational comedy, the IO club (f/k/a Improv Olympic).

If you want to pick my brains about inexpensive ways to see the windy city, by all means give me a shout.

All the best,

Aud

i think i can i think i can

lisanoel03 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:33:12 -0600

OK it's really more of I hope I can I hope I can. But I sure hope to make it, its in my backyard. How sad it'd be to miss it

Lisa

www.lisanoel03.blogspot.com

Direct flights from Toronto...

zchamu — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:19:00 -0600

And Ottawa and Montreal. Getting to Chicago = easy peasy!

Visit my blogs at ThreeSeven (all that's irrelevant and amusing) and
ecochick (all that's green, cool and Canadian).

Canadian contingent?

JennG — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:10:27 -0600

I definitely hope to go - I think there are direct flights from Toronto, whoo hoo. Time for a Canada party.

"After 40, nothing is black and white anymore.... Most importantly, you
are a better friend to yourself." - "Circle of friends" on More.ca

So glad Chicago is such a hit!

DeBorahBeatty — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:34:49 -0600

So glad to see from comments that the choice of Chicago is such a great hit! Unfortunately, it means I will not be able to attend. I was really pulling for a west Coast location that I could get to. I'm heartbroken but I know our time will come.

DeBorah Beatty

DEBORAHBEATTY.COM

Opportunity's Knocking Open the Door!

I help solopreneurs Visualize, Optimize and Materialize their Dreams by putting systems in place to handle repetitive tasks and break overwhelming tasks into bite

You won't have to go

Suzanne Suzannadanna — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:00:32 -0600

You won't have to go alone-Uno's is on my list. And Ed Debeviks and Navy Pier and a half dozen other places.

Suzanne

www.suzannesez.blogspot.com

Announcing the Dates and Location for BlogHer '09, our 5th Anniversary Conference!

Elisa Camahort — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:58:00 -0600

Today we are pleased and proud to announce the theme, dates and location for BlogHer '09, our fifth annual conference.

The theme for BlogHer '09 is "In Real Life". One of the number one reasons we all attend BlogHer every year, whether coming for the first time or as an old-timer, is to meet our online community "in real life". So after five years we think it's a great time to celebrate the fact that our blogging, whether personal, professional or political, has brought us real work, real friends, real satisfaction and is most definitely a significant part of our real life!

Now, I'm guessing you're really waiting for this part: Where in the world is BlogHer '09?

After an extended period of polling, research, investigation, and comparing the pros and cons of venues from the perspective of our attendees, our sponsors and BlogHer itself, we are bringing BlogHer '09 to...[drum roll please]: Chicago, IL!!

Yes, BlogHer '09 will be at the The Chicago Sheraton and Towers from July 23-25, 2009. We will kick off on Thursday July 23rd with our 3rd annual BlogHer Business Conference, and will continue with the two-day 5th annual BlogHer Annual Conference on Friday and Saturday, July 24-25.

Some of you who have been following along may have just done a coffee spit-take all over your monitor, because Chicago was not one of the final three cities that polled the highest earliest this year. So, first let me tell you a bit about our 2009 venue:

The Chicago Sheraton and Towers is right in the center of all the wonderful downtown Chicago sights and attractions. It's right on the river and but a block from Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile. It's also less than a mile from the Navy Pier, the Art Institute of Chicago, and even American Girl Place! Chicago is one of America's great cities, and you might consider combining your BlogHer trip with a longer vacation...whether with your BlogHer friends or with other friends and/or family.

But these are but secondary reasons compared to the primary appeal of this terrific venue: It is big enough for us once again to house the entire conference, including our attendees, under one roof. If there is one piece of feedback we heard consistently after BlogHer '07 in Chicago and BlogHer '08 in San Francisco it's that our attendees loved Chicago, but they didn't love having such a long trek between the meeting space and their hotel rooms. I don't know how many times we all heard during and after BlogHer '08 in San Francisco that it was so much better to have everything under one roof. It became our #1 criteria when searching for a venue: It had to be big enough to accommodate our continued growth...growth in number of attendees, growth in number of sponsors, growth in number of programming tracks and meeting rooms to house them.

Our second criteria was accessibility and affordability...again for everyone involved, including BlogHer. The Chicago Sheraton will match our 2007 and 2008 room rate of $199, and we once again got comped in-room Internet for all BlogHer attendees (a savings of $12.95/day). Moreover as we took a look at airfares, we were reminded that Chicago is a top hub city right in the middle of the country. Even as airfares continue to rise, it is possible to find affordable, non-stop flights to Chicago from just about every part of the US and Canada. The Hotel also happily worked with us to find ways to help us and our sponsors save money too...and that will allow us to keep registration prices exactly the same as last year's registration pricing too.

Finally, there's a whole lot of other stuff that is a bit behind-the-scenes, but is going to make this the best conference yet. The Chicago Sheraton and Towers is simply made for a conference as big as ours has gotten. The facilities, and the flexibility of those facilities, are beyond compare. We can't wait to make the most exciting use of what this venue has to offer.

We hadn't originally planned to re-visit a city we'd been to before, which is why I didn't include Chicago on our city poll at all (mea culpa). But as we investigated the three top cities from the poll, we found that one city didn't have a single facility big enough for us (Portland); one city had only one facility big enough that was available during either of the last two weekends in July...and it was way more expensive than we expected, and management displayed little willingness to negotiate (Philly), and the final city actually wasn't that easy to get to and had more limited facilities for lots of tracks and lots of unique sponsor activities (St. Louis).

We fully expected we would produce BlogHer '09 at one of those three cities, but after spending lots of time investigating all three (and let me just say it was Kristy spending the vast majority of that time!) and compiling a grid that compared about 40 different criteria, we admitted we didn't have the perfect solution in any of them.

We went back to the drawing board and opened our mind to revisiting Chicago, and the rest is (and most definitely will be) history. We hope you will be as excited as we are to come back to Chicago, this time without a half-mile trek between hotel and meeting space!

Stay tuned for a post from Kristy that will announce that conference registration is open, and that will provide all the details on how to reserve your hotel room.

In the meantime, here is your html code to declare your intention to join us for the 5th annual BlogHer Conference, BlogHer '09, July 23-25 in Chicago, IL.

<a href="http://www.blogher09.eventbrite.com/"><img src="http://www.blogher.com/files/BH09-going.gif" alt="I'm Going to BlogHer '09"></a>

<a href="http://www.blogher09.eventbrite.com/"><img src="http://www.blogher.com/files/BH09-150.gif" alt="BlogHer '09 In Real Life"></a>

We hope that now that you know when and where BlogHer '09 will be you will mark your calendars. We also hope those ideas keep pouring in, in response to our Call for Ideas. Thank you all for your patience as we worked on site selection, and we hope you're as excited as we are to hit Chicago for the fifth anniversary BlogHer Conference!

Elisa
for Jory, Elisa and Lisa