Remember when I said I didn’t really attend many sessions while at BlogHer Con 07? You’re probably wondering what I did instead. I didn’t sightsee and I didn’t go back to the hotel for a nap. I also didn’t skip out and shop or bar hop. I talked and talked and talked to all sorts of people, and that was cool.
In no particular order…
I had a great chat with Virginia about how we got to where we are not. I loved her story, it was a lot more interesting than mine. Heh.
Pam Sellers of CNN was fabulous to meet in person and talk to about CNN and blogging and community and life in general.
The Yahoo sponsored Cafe lured me in, as you might expect, and I found myself sitting there with Michelle. She struggled with a new blog template that wouldn’t behave, I worked on a spam issue at BlogHer and chatted with anyone who happened to wander in. It was a really fantastic space to just sit in a relatively quiet room and work or talk or just relax together. (And I did buy two books and have them signed – one for The Heir to the Throne, y’all know I love Woolgathering! and I hope Riley will love her children’s book, Think Cool Thoughts as much as I do. One for Michelle, Wreck this Journal and I’d have bought a second one for RJ but she sold out, which is fabulous.)
I talked to one of my co-editors in crime err health, Catherine Morgan, for quite a long while leading up to a chat with Gloria Pan and Kim Gandy (President of NOW) and the always fabulous Liza Sabater (at Culture Kitchen) joined us mid-way through our chat. We probably could have sat there for hours on end, talking about women and feminism and online community and NOW. Brilliant women, each and every one of them. (And my mother was pretty impressed that I got to hang out with Kim Gandy – she was also annoyed that I didn’t get her autograph. Heh.)
I found myself standing in the hallway, out on the roof, or in the beer garden chatting with whoever happened to be wandering by. I didn’t attend as many sessions as I would have liked but I gained a lot from those conversations and there were dozens upon dozens more that I would like to have had. Next year!
I saw you sitting in Internet cafe when I was in there, but that was right in the midst of my “decompressing.” I loved being at BlogHer and I’m definitely going back, but there were moments when it was all so overwhelming. I was very glad the cafe was there!
BTW, you said you were curious about how many feeds I’d have AFTER BlogHer? I’ve added 17 so far, but I’m not even close to being through my business cards yet. 🙂 And that’s not counting the ones I’ve added that I’ve found through Technorati (that reference BlogHer). Still not even close to what your number is, but definitely on the increase!
I find the thought of you in the beer garden amusing. I really am sad that I didn’t get to go this year. Probably a good thing considering everything that I had going on at that exact time. I really hope I can make it next year.
You definitely continue to make me jealoous that I didn’t get to go. I’m hoping one of these years I’ll figure out a way to go, there’s a lot of logistics involved but I’d love to go and meet up.