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(Note: I apologize for the weird line breaks in this post. I can't seem to fix them!)
I've needed a week to digest my first Blogher experience. Bottom
line: Blogher09 was a mixed bag for me.
Maybe, I had unrealistic expectations about
Blogher09. I wanted to learn something about blogging, maybe a tidbit
about making some money, and maybe some techhy stuff. I also hoped to
meet some of my favorite bloggers and find my new tribe. And go to some
parties. And get a little swag. I won some and lost some on my list.
What I didn't expect was that I would have so much fun while
simultaneously feeling disgusted and a little shy. Yes, me.
Back-in-middle-school-shy.
Here's the good and bad of Blogher09, which I hope is helpful for
any other newbies who are interested in attending in the future.
Good: Blogher offers good value for the fee. Breakfast,
lunch, cocktail parties with heavy finger foods and free booze, all
included in the price of admission, kept my cash in my wallet. I only
spent $100 outside of my hotel room, flight and conference fee, and
that includes transportation from and to the airport, checking a bag in
each direction and tips.
-
- @talesofrachel and @banteringblonde
Good: Camping in Room 2332. I
met up with my roommate, Rachel, at DIA, and we shared a shuttle with
Fiona of Banteringblonde to the Chicago Sheraton. Rachel is a sweetie,
and we had a great time hanging out on Thursday, walking through the
rain to the Embassy Suites for a party, then again for dinner. She
kindly kept me out of the bread basket, thank god, although the way she
ate her french fries seemed like a huge tease to me, since I couldn't
have any. I am so grateful that she and Julia let me share their room
... and have my own bed. It was all good. Somehow, we wrangled the
bathroom share with ease. No one's snoring kept anyone else up. We
were respectful and kind to each other. All was great in room 2332.
Bad: Blogher's conference content is subpar to what I expect for professional conferences.
Given that it was easier to find the party list than the session list
on the conference website, and that the pre-conference Twitter convos
centered on parties and fashion, I shouldn't have been surprised. Yet I
was. I expected more sophisticated content from the world's largest
blogging conference. I usually come back from a meeting with more ideas
than I could ever implement, but that wasn't the case at Blogher. I
took only six pages of notes, and I'm a prolific notes-taker. I wanted
practical ideas, how-tos, great case studies, and I didn't get any of
it from the sessions. I did learn a little from fellow attendees.
- with @tarable in a Blogher09 session
In full disclosure, I do PR for a living. My job includes
programming for several professional conferences, including sitting on
my professional organization's board which plans the annual meeting. I
may be more sophisticated in my needs than other Blogher attendees.
The breakout sessions I attended were poorly moderated with rare
exception. The panelists often turned discussion over to the audience,
which took the conversation off track and detracted from their
expertise. The sessions didn't usually match their descriptions. I've
read a few other Blogher wrapups, and perhaps panels I didn't attend
were better than the ones I did.
With heavy emphasis on mommy bloggers, non-mommy bloggers like me
were left without a home. I think the conference would be stronger if
it had clearly identified tracks. I'd love to see a defined track
which could cover how-tos of building a viable blogging business (as
opposed to using blogging in your business, as I think the Blogher
Business day is programmed), ethics, case studies and more could be
popular for bloggers of all genres. A must-have session: How to work
with marketers and PR agents, as most of the attendees had not
reference or training in this area. Another great topic: are we media
or not? And if so, how does this definition effect how we do business.
I would also love to see a whole track on the craft of writing; many
women I met write to express themselves but have no formal training,
and I'm always looking for workshops that improve me.
- Community keynote
I think the conference organizers need to take a serious look at the
programming, do some pointed surveys of attendees and deliver more
professional content. Almost everyone I
