I've been trying to sum up my BlogHer experience, and am having a hard time. For the emotional wallop, you'd be better off reading Catherine's and Stefania's posts. For the funny, read Bossy's hilarious wrap-up with photos or her Readers Digest Version.
Instead, I present to you my BlogHer experience in photo.
I met up with Ann Crady, founder of Maya's Mom, at the airport on the way out. Yes, she is THE Maya's mom. Our flight was delayed by about 3 hours, so we missed cocktail parties with the Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the Maya's Mom crew. We met up with a group of them later, and here she is with the wonderful Danielle of Foodmomiac.
I can't believe I know chicks as cool as these two, Jessica from Sassafras, and Stefania from CityMama. Not only are they smart, funny, and beautiful, they're also fantastic writers. BlogHer was full of smart, funny, beautiful women writers. Jessica, please move to California so we can hang out with you more often.
I stayed at the swanky W hotel, where even the fries came with a chipotle-mango-coulis on the side, which was actually a sort of fancy ketchup. I think these cost about $150. Okay, maybe $15, but stuff was expensive. The mojitos were divine. I'm not a big drinker, so one mojito just about put me over the edge.
Everyone had a laptop. Even babies Drew and Sage had unleaded Fisher Price laptops tucked away in their diaper bags, I'm sure. Charlene of crazedparent and Maya's Mom, sat at my table in the opening session, and made sure the Wifi was working.
At the "State of the Momosphere" session, I got to hear some great
speakers, and hear Mocha Momma and CityMama issue a beat-down on
advertisers who don't bother to contact moms of color. That could have
been a session unto itself, and I'm glad they've both taken this into
the blogosphere. It occured to me then that I get approached on this
blog and Silicon Valley Moms Blog by advertisers. I have a lot more to say on that later.
Meeting Elizabeth from Table4Five and Laurie from Upside UP and Sk*rt, was like meeting some old friends. I've e-mailed them and followed their blogs for some time, and was excited to learn about Laurie's new venture.
It was wonderful to see Elizabeth Edwards again. She is such a gracious, lovely person. Even if you don't agree with her politics, or everything she said, you have to admire her grit and determination not to let cancer keep her down. She is amazing.
I got to hang out with some of the gals from Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the newly-launched Chicago Moms Blog. Here's Kim, Beth, and Nicole "working it" on Michigan Avenue.
I lived in Chicago in the '80s, and it was kind of a depressed, gray, gritty place. Navy Pier was not someplace that you'd want to visit back then, but now it's this combination shopping mall/amusement park/convention center. Kudos to the people of Chicago for revitalizing one of the great American cities.
Overall, I had a great time at BlogHer '07. Last year, I was a "fly on the wall" and didn't engage, and didn't know many people. This year, I felt like a part of a big sisterhood of women letting their voices be heard. There were women from all walks of life, women who blogged about their daily lives, about politics, about technology, about religion, about business, and about all kinds of topics I knew nothing about. What we shared was the passion to be heard and to share what we know.
I look forward to next year, and to keeping the dialogues we started going throughout the year.
