So I'm back. After almost 5 months of like OMG, what should I wear, I'm finally back from BlogHer '09 and if nothing else, I met some very cool people, some moderately cool people, and some people that I'm sort of embarrassed to share oxygen with. But whatever. Here goes.
I have to say that my experience was mostly good. I really liked the opening remarks and the stats on bloggers and women made me feel proud to be part of this community. The sessions I attended were engaging, if not all a variation of each other. Some highlights included Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks encouraging bloggers to know their passion, and Jessica Bern's hilarious story about calling her dentist to complain of vaginal itch (ya, it related to blogging. At the time.). Oh, and I laughed like crazy at Danielle Henderson's rendition of her blog post entitled stuck in the middle with you. Read it. You won't be sorry. It's about her vagina and it's funny.
I met some awesome people. But perhaps my favorite meeting was that of Jozet of Halushki fame. Why? Because on Friday night she was the strict scary "bouncer" who wouldn't let me in to the MamaPop party because my name was mysteriously omitted from "the list." Then on Saturday night she became one of my new favorite people as she inadvertently took the seat beside me (sucks for her!) at an intimate dinner for 6 people. Seriously, this girl started on my shit list and ended up my new bff. There goes my bitch sessions about her. (Don't worry, many others to take that spot.)
But almost as shocking as the total turn-around made by @Halushki was the fact that I actually was totally unimpressed with many of the people I was looking forward to meeting. Girls who are typically fun to tweet with, others who I've worked with on Alex Casey Baby who I thought might be interested in meeting me were tripping over their own egos as they headed in the other direction. WTF!! Ladies (and you know who you are), GET OVER YOURSELVES, K? Seriously girls, you're running blogs, not the world, so take it down a notch. And you're not that skinny.
Speaking of taking it down a notch, I'm so not into all this debbie-downer drama about the swag. My opinion is this - these companies rely on swag to promote their products. They are at these events because we are their target market. It actually matters to these companies that we try and hopefully talk about their stuff. Now, I'm not talking about those ridiculous bitches who stood in line at the fab TypeAMom party, walked in, grabbed a swag bag and left. No, those are really icky women who do deserve to be banned from the free shit. And I'm also not talking about those classy ladies who knocked over pregnant women and children in search of a free pen or laundry detergent sample. I mean people like myself, who walked the expo floor and was happy to pick up free shit that I thought I or my family might enjoy. ALSO(hold on, I need to climb higher on that soapbox o' mine), these sponsors who are handing out evil swag are also helping relieve some of the financial strain of getting us to the conference. I mean $200 for a ticket is not a huge deal (I got earlybird ;) and $199 for a room that can be shared is also do-able so you know, think before you tweet, people.
Stuff that sucked. There's not too much to moan about but since you're here... The food was god-awful. While I'm typically a fan of Ragu and did enjoy the upbeat decor in the buffet area, I don't know if I'm alone in the fact that I would've loooved a vegetable or two to go with my heavily sauced chicken and my hearty meat upside-down pie thing. However, I'm grateful for their support, yada yada, and actually do buy their products (seriously, I do). Once I glimpsed the Mexican fiesta going on on Saturday I hit the door for some actual protein (which I got but not before almost having it out with a restaurant manager, the waiter, and due to a monstrously hungry stomach, my lunch-mates). But hey, a little scurvy never killed anyone. ;)
The parties were fun. The free crap was a treat. I even didn't mind seeing cute little babies here and there (as long as I'm not the one getting up to feed 'em, we're all good). The down-side to any event featuring 1400 women? DRAMA. A drama-free zone it was not. Obv.
I wasn't on the guest list for most of the little corporate soirees but I'm totally fine with that. I don't need a list of names above and below mine to feel part of something and I don't need brands to covet me in order to feel good about myself. While I felt that these private parties interfered with the general feeling of community surrounding the weekend (like, if you bother to travel to a networking conference, why spend so much time with peeps you already know?), I really have no strong opinion on this.
But the real event after my own heart? CheeseburgHers and fries at 10pm. I mean really, as a girl with a weakness for junk food and fast food, McD's sure don't have to buy my love with a sponsored event. But I'm sure glad they did. :)
NOTE: I reserve the right to update, add to, or even publish additional posts about BlogHer as my memory allows...












