Most of the bloghers have left the building, except for a few mommies who missed their flights and have headed off to find fun and excitement for one more day. It’s odd to sit in the courtyard and not hear all of those woman voices laughing and talking earnestly, giggling and sometimes crying together. Instead, there are just regular non blogher people out there and it’s a little depressing. There was so much energy and excitement. That’s what made Blogher Con 2006 amazing.
In the chatroom, during the event, Pam from Nerds Eye View asked whether it was really worth it to attend the event. She was seeing a lot of pictures of shoes and bags and tshirts and hair and breasts – is that what going to Blogher is about? It seemed like an awful lot of "fluff" (her words, not mine).
Last year I loved all of those fluff pictures that were coming through the blogosphere. Those fluff pictures are an example of what makes Blogher different from all of those stuffy men’s conferences. That fluff is an example of what makes male bloggers and women bloggers different. That fluff is good stuff, don’t sell it short. Don’t be fooled into thinking Bloghers are just a bunch of foofoo women who aren’t getting things done, who aren’t networking, who aren’t learning from each other, who aren’t sharing hugely important topics and stories.
Women can address topics of importance and not lose sight of the fun, the fluff. A woman can be talking microformats one minute and then coo appreciatively over a great pair of shoes the next minute. A woman can be talking about politics in one breath and squeal in delight as she sees her favorite blogher from across the room.
Yes, lots of fun and fluff happened here. Would you really want it any other way? Would you really want Blogher Con to be stuffy and businesslike and structured all weekend long? I wouldn’t. We have enough of that everyday. Women often feel like they have to be reserved, they have to put on their business-face all day long, they have to work harder and longer hours in order to be respected and recognized, they have to stifle a part of themselves in order to be taken seriously. At Blogher Con, no stifling of personality is necessary. Women can be who they are, expose every aspect of their personalities, and nobody is going to consider them unworthy of respect.
That’s what makes Blogher Con, fluff photos and all, important. That’s what makes the conference worth attending. The swag, that’s good too.
Technorati Tags: blogher, bloghercon, blogher06
Hey, I get to have the first comment! How handy!
I’d like to add that due to what I hear were technical difficulties for the folks blogging live, I was seeing ONLY fluff on the web and not much else. I would NEVER mistake y’all for only foofoo, but it was troubling me that the fluff was outweighing the giant brains on my tiny radar screen. I was seeing boobs and shoes and reading glee over swag before I was seeing thoughtful commentary about technical and social issues. Were my browsing habits to blame? Maybe. YMMV, and no, I wasn’t there, though my first impressions via the web were, well, boobs, shoes, swag.
My picture of BlogHer is changing as I read through the after conference posts, but my first impression was, well, I’m mostly shutting up now. I’m not anti-fluff, and hey, I like swag as well as anyone, but when it’s all you see…
Thanks for your thoughts, Denise, and for being the goddess of the keyboard during the Naked Blogging chat. Just being able to be part of a small chat group with other BlogHer participants changed my impressions of what BlogHer must be like.
No to be a suckup, but I think Denise is right. This con isn’t about the corporate mentality, so if you are going in feeling you’re there to take notes and no-nonsense, then you’re going to be uncomfortable. It’s more emotionally based than that because the majority of people who attend are women building communities of like-minded women.
Well stated, Denise (not surprising — as DnW says, you are always right).
I truly enjoyed meeting you and TW at BlogHer — thanks for being around when I needed someone to talk to.
I think it is great that all that “fluff” is part of BlogHer. Like you mentioned, I wish there was more of that at male-dominated meetings. If anything, I think all the corporate sponsorship and seriousness is what is the deceiving part of BlogHer. I don’t think bloggers should fool ourselves. A few of us might make some money through blogging, but for the vast majority, blogging is a fun way to express ourselves and connect with others. Panelists may talk about moneymaking ideas through blogging because they are already on panels getting paid. I would think that at a blogging conference, meeting online friends and peers is probably more important that anything that could possibly be “taught” or discussed about blogging.