Every year I have a moment of decompression after a week spent pent up in a hotel--you see, BlogHer for me starts days before the actual event. There's going to be much more to process over the coming weeks from sponsors and attendees, but today, here's what I noticed as an attendee of BlogHer.
- If there's any place to be pregnant, it's BlogHer, (if you can make the trip to the event). People appreciate your plight: They direct you toward chairs, hand you things to eat, insist that you put your feet up. It's like having a thousand mothers checking in on you. I've never been a mom at BlogHer until now--I have always been one of the many non-moms. And while I have loved the amenities we've set up for moms, such as the lactation lounge, it wasn't until this year that I found myself lapping up the discussions with sponsors about BPA-free products, smart snacking options for kids, and educational toys.
- Regardless, you exhaust yourself. I built in time to relax and put my feet up, but my down time became more like catch up time. You find that you want to catch panels and see where folks got their s'mores and makeovers. I insisted to everyone I saw Saturday night that I was just "popping in" to the parties. But then, you know, you get to talking, then dancing, and then you are groaning in your hotel room because you dragged your eight-months-pregnant butt through an hour of eighties music, eaten taffy apples and various fried delights--not to mention screamed over music to talk to people, and hugged hundreds of folks while shlepping various T-shirts, business cards, and samples.
- You can only plan so much at BlogHer: I shared with our staff that while it makes sense to map out the sessions you want to attend and connect with the people you want to meet, it can be a Sisyphean effort attempting to control every minute of the experience.
Imagine a typical scenario: You are planning on meeting someone in front of the exhibitor hall. You've set the time and the place, but then, on your way, you run into someone you see every year at BlogHer. You insist on catching up for a few minutes, then try to compare schedules for when to meet later for more substantive conversation. Then, you realize that it makes sense to capture a bathroom break before a session lets out, and you are in a longer line than the one you've encountered. You check the former men's bathroom that has been converted, which has fewer people, and realize that you are washing hands next to someone you have been wanting to meet since you stumbled on her blog a year ago. You two chat. You navigate your way to the exhibitor hall and don't hear your cell phone or think to check your email or Twitter feed enroute because you bump into more blog buddies, missing your friend's message that she's running late, and would you be able to meet her in the Volt Recharge Lounge instead? Imagine this happening many, many more times.
- I continue to be amazed at the work women are doing with their blogs. Saturday morning's international panel got me thinking that blogging has not only allowed us to build businesses and connect with each other, it has enabled women with a line of access in raising awareness of their country's civic unrest. This is a big "no duh" when you see all that we've covered on BlogHer.com, and the many many activist blogs out there, but having some of these women sitting in front of me in a live setting, sharing stories of poverty, danger, and death, drove this home.
It certainly put into perspective the concept of "risk" we often talk about when referring to how much of ourselves we put out there on social media. Some of us fear losing face, some of us fear losing our jobs, and some of us fear losing our lives.
- We all publish for different reasons, just as we attend BlogHer for different reasons. Some may be more commercial than others, or more activist, or more personal. Some of us come for the parties, some for the sessions only, some to promote ourselves. But we all still have the squealing reflex when we see the people we read.
