One week from now, 07/24/09 - 5:21pm CT, I will be blissfully exhausted and thrilled to have met all of you. I'll have a whole lot of business cards in my pocket and a whole lot of names and faces and phrases jumbled up in my head that I may or may not be able to make sense of once the post conference glow wears off and I'm trying to figure out just which of you said THAT brilliant thing.

On 07/25/09, while basking in the post conference glow, I'll begin to hear stories about amazing women who I did not meet and I'll be sad that I somehow missed your awesomeness in person.

I'll also have a wee bit of regret about not having spent more time with you, and you, and also you. With 1500 people in attendance, I'm not going to have nearly enough time to really get to know anyone.

I know this is how it will go because it is what happened in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

In the aftermath, I will spend days and days surfing links from the business cards I accumulated. I will spend hours and hours trying to find someone whose name I only partially got or whose face I'll recognize when I see it or who had such an interesting story that I wish I'd gotten her name or her card ... but I didn't. I'll search and search and search. Google will get a hard workout, I guarantee it.

The other search tool that will get a hard workout is the BlogHer search box. I'll be searching for your name in the BlogHer Member Search. I hope I find you there. I hope you've updated your profile with your bio and links to all of your online presences (your blogs, your Facebook, your Twitter, your youtube, your Flicker) so that I can find you and start reading your blogs.

Another way that you can help people like me get to know you is to introduce yourself in a blog post on BlogHer, just like Shash, Mel and JD have done.

I know more about these three women (and am already subscribed to their blogs because of these posts) than I'm going to know about most of you once the conference is over. And because they've given me some basic info, when I do meet them in person, I'm going to have some starting point that will help us break the ice. I'm not shy but at 4:34pm CT on Friday, I'm going to be tired and having a starting point for the conversation is more helpful than I can tell you.

What do you say? Help me (and everyone else) get to know you now -- it will help us get to know you during the conference and after we've all gone home, too.

~~Here's a little introduction to ME~~

I'm Denise and I'm BlogHer.com's Community Manager. (Don't hate me for having the best job in the world!) I currently maintain two personal blogs that I almost never blog on, Flamingo House Happenings and Going Crazy in Chicago.

Yes indeedy, I do live in Chicago or more accurately, the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. I moved here one year ago, under duress, and while I do not love it here - I've adjusted. Mostly. Sort of. Except when I haven't.

I live with my partner who is also a blogger, three of our six kids (the other three are grown up) and my partner's mother. We have a bird who I constantly complain about and is notorious around the BlogHer world for screaming with glee during phone meetings (or any time it hears Lisa Stone's voice), two dogs (one is old, blind and deaf and the other is... not my friend), and a fish.

I'm not shy but I tend to be quiet and listen more than I talk.

I carry my iPhone with me everywhere and I will be Chattering/Tweeting/Texting when we meet.

I don't love chocolate. I don't drink alcohol. I must have coffee, all day, every day, late into the night. I probably won't eat a full meal or even a partial meal during the conference because I don't love food. I might, however, take a walk over to Fox and Obel and grab a fruit tart or some other treat and you're welcome to join me.

~~Now it's your turn!~~

Blog a wee primer about yourself on your blog and cross post it on BlogHer.com. On BlogHer, use the free tag IntroBlogHer09 so we can all link together. It's nice to meet you!

~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings