I Went To BlogHer 08 and All I Got Was This Lousy Cold
Kidding! It’s a week later, and I’m still recovering from my first experience as are many others (I’ve noticed many post BlogHer attendess/cold sufferers on Twitter this week which has turned me into an amateur epidemiologist.
I spent 3 1/2 days in San Francisco at BlogHer 08 and 3 1/2 days working in my California office in San Mateo, California–in other words–a long week from home. and my geriatric cat were very happy when I returned on Wednesday night. In fact, I walked into a room full of people and a surprise birthday party. Surprised!
I’ve been thinking about what I want to say about BlogHer since it started because it was beyond an interesting experience. For instance, there was tons of women-targeted marketing; MicroSoft, GM, HP, Macy’s, Bertolli, K-Y Jelly (!), iRobot (because apparently men don’t vacuum)–the list goes on and on. Of course, most of them were not marketing to me because I don’t have any children. So while it’s nice to see women, who spend most of the money in this country, marketed to properly, it was a little alienating to realize that I was not their target. Nonetheless, I did walk away with a couple of flash drives, some K-Y Jelly, and four boxes of Merci Chocolates.
Here is what I came away with. Women who identify themselves as political bloggers often approach blogging differently. We tend to blog less about our personal lives and blog about political issues. Although we often end up blogging about the same things, it’s the approach and often the motivation that separates us. I find it ironic, but not surprising that in the thatthey somehow missed the one session that approached that very topic head on–. And they published the article in the fucking Fashion & Style section. Honestly, that’s more than ironic, it’s kind of stupid.
What was most important to me at BlogHer was networking and I was finally able to meet a bunch of inspiring activist women who attended including:
- Robin Marty from the
- Julie Pippert from and
- Leslie Bradshaw from
- Deanne Cuellar from the
- Malena Amusa from
- from Cobblestone Associates
- Christine McConville from
- from the Obama campaign
- Joy Engle from
- Lisa Witter from and Fenton Communications.
- Heather Fields and Sara Parker from
- from Essence
- Jennifer Pozner from
- Catherine Orenstein from the
- Jill Miller Zimon from
- from
- Joanne Cronrath Bamberger from
I will be asking them for jobs soon! Kidding! Maybe.
I also met a lot of less politically centric bloggers:
- of
- Debba Haupert of
- of Ligit
- Tiffany von Emmel of
- Ingrid Alongi Manriquez of
- A.L. Venable of
- Laura “Pistachio” Fitton of
Sorry, I definitely left people I met off this list because I lost their mini-cards, which leads me to:
Important observations about business cards:
- The plainer the business card, the bigger the company.
- Mini-cards are cute but easier to lose.
Complaints (because you know I’ve got them):
- BlogHer needs to open up to more contributors. Most sessions seemed to involve contributing editors and want to see more outsiders informing BlogHers.
- Personally, I would like to see less, well, sort of condescending marketing. The handbag, shoe, and lingerie cattle call at Macy’s? Ugh.
- I’m not sure BlogHer can do more to integrate non-political bloggers and bloggers in general, but I guess, selfishly, I felt like this year’s conference should have been much more political considering the timing. To go back to that famous 70′s feminist phrase, the personal is political and I think it’s important to teach women how important it is for them to be political. Women in this country do not contribute money to candidates at the same rate as men for instance. Oh, and . What issue is more important to women these days?
- I left my damn swag bag at the hotel and just had it shipped to myself. Duh.
Similar Posts:
- Blogging The Next Revolution
- 10 Alternative Ways To Follow Democratic Convention News
- BlogHer, Women, Media, and Jennifer L. Pozner
Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or . You also can sign up for email delivery by .
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[...] attendess/cold sufferers on Twitter this week which has turned me into an amateur epidemiologist. Ihttp://www.renodiscontent.com/2008/07/26/i-went-to-blogher-08-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-cold/Anderson Independent-Mail Jobs: Printing & Publishing careers …Find anderson independent Mail [...]
[...] this phenomenon. Two different takes on the experience: Myrna the Minx at Reno and its Discontents shares her observations, and our own local whymommy from Toddler Planet who clearly had a fabulous time and met tons of [...]
Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
These gatherings are a treasure. FORGET ABOUT FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, etc. Those alleged “social networking” sites are like making it only half way to first base.
Real life gatherings are still where it’s at, and will always be where it’s at.
I think I see a factor which inhibits a personal infusion of interest in political efforts (and the attention on the related blogging). And, that is there seems to me to be a too narrow straightjacket approach in politics and blogging which many people (women and men) just can’t identify with at all. Truth be told, we all are a complex mix of perspectives and “ideologies”. But, too often, the politics people and the political bloggers stand in our midst more as missionairies for a limited, one dimensional and predictably delivered message. And, that’s compounded by how they filter actual facts and events and then present those events and facts via their publishings (after going through this filtering process).
Maybe the personal interest in all of that (which you report encountering) comes from the inability to resonate, and identify with, what is put out??
Dirty Penny DOES have a Facebook account, but finds he is always talking to a wall!!!!
Great rundown. I definitely share a number of your observations – as well as that – ah – where do I start!? I’ll be starting by linking to others.
I’m particularly loving this:
“The plainer the business card, the bigger the company.”
because mine was so plain!!! Yeah for plain.
If I thought I could get you a job, I would – just let me know.
It was great to meet you, too! Boy, I’m so lucky that I didn’t catch that cold everyone got! And I agree… more substantive political stuff would have been great in this political year!
It was great to meet you—such an amazing array of women. I also would have liked more substantive political discussion but I really enjoyed what we did have.
Lisa Stone said she’d pass along our questions that we pre-submitted and the representatives said they’d answer them so hopefully we will get those answers.
I think we had at least two about contraception and choice!
When is BlogHim?
Zeke feels left out.
Like usual.
Egads, every tech conference in the world is a bloghim–that’s why BlogHer exists.
I agree with your comments. It would be nice to see a wider range of bloggers who work with different topics.
I spoke to so many new bloggers that I think a few “how to ” from a technical side would have been great.
Your post is a great idea. I will have to write up my observations in my blog. I was told I could expect to receive a feedback form by email, although not a one has yet to grace my inbox
Karrine – GreatAupair
It was wonderful meeting you at the Unconference on Sunday. I enjoyed reading your BlogHer wrap-up post because as someone who is not a mother (like you), the marketing aspect to the conference is always interesting to me. I was glad to see Zwaggle there, recycling the swag that I was going to leave behind anyway.
I also love Moo cards, but agree with you that they are very easy to lose. That’s why I’m sticking with my company cards…
This post is great! I think you are putting a lot of hard work on your blog. I’m sure I’d come back here more often. You can also visit my site where you can find or you could also post if you want for free. Thanks!