BlogHer '09

The only conferences I've been to before have involved either Spock ears or learning Dynix shortcuts, so I may have had some misconceptions about what BlogHer '09 would be like. Here are a few quick thoughts I wanted to get down before I went and read everyone else's blog entries on this last weekend.

The BlogHer conference is great for some people. I'm not one of them. I wasn't interested in growing my search engine optimization market social media network, and I don't write about my kids. That didn't leave a whole heck of a lot. If those are your interests, though, I bet you would've had a good time.

The conference was too big. I had hoped that any random woman I introduced myself to would be doing a project I wanted to hear about. Although every single person I met was friendly, a whole hell of a lot of them were doing things that were uninteresting to me. A lot of PR people. A lot. Marketing this, marketing that. I'm sure the SEO people were all charming, but that's not who I was hoping to have cocktails with.

If I go to another convention for bloggers, I'll make sure that the participants are working in fields I'd actually like to hear about.

#blogherhumor. I've asked BlogHer before to have a "humor" category for blogs. I think my blog gets filed under "entertainment," possibly "DIY," but whatever it is it really doesn't have much to do with the content of my writing. It turns out I'm not the only person to have requested this; several people mentioned it at the Humor panel. Are they afraid of offending advertisers? Shouldn't the sheer number of people who are interested in reading and writing humor blogs be an indication that it's a market?

That panel discussion, by the way, was in a teeeeny room:

That's it about ten minutes before it started, when it got even more crowded. We like humor!

...or maybe we don't. This was me at the "Birds of a Feather" lunch, waiting for other humor bloggers to show up. And waiting. And waiting.



(The sign says "HUMOR." Eventually the table filled up.)

I liked the Geek Lab sessions I went to; they were helpful and interesting. And popular; people were sitting on the floor at most of them, just like at the humor and pop culture panels.

The marketing was alienating. I understand that ticket sales don't cover the cost of the convention, and that corporate sponsors are necessary. But man, I felt condescended to.

Chicago is a beautiful city. When I realized the convention wasn't the right place for me, I went out and had a good time being a tourist.

Things I would've liked: more tech talks. Bloggers and Fair Use. Marketing that was relevant to me (e.g. the Shutter Sisters's Lensbaby walkabout, which I loved -- and look, it worked, I'm linking to their product).

This all makes it sound like I was miserable, and I wasn't. I was disappointed, though. I had hoped I would find my people. I would've been interested in more discussions that were relevant to my bloggerly interests. And that one waiter at the BoF lunch was wicked rude. But the women (and few men) I talked to were all pleasant, I saw a friend I hadn't seen for years, I met up with my sister and her wife for the first time in ages, and I got to see a teeny bit of a new (to me) city.

Finally: the memory of a Ms. Potatohead and a giant lizard dancing together to a karaoked "We Belong" is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Enough! Off to see what everyone else thought.

*** ADDENDUM ***

Some more thoughts, which I just put up at the very interesting discussion at the main BlogHer page:

My problems with the marketing

I was surprised by how much advertising there was there. Not just the swag (some of which my kids liked), but all over the place. HP outside one conference room, the orange juice booth in the main lobby, Strawberry Shortcake outside another conference room, Pepsi being praised from the main stage, Ragu all over the first lunch, someone dressed as Ronald McDonald posing for photos during the same lunch, the junk food 'n' soft drinks corner downstairs, the dryer sheets sinisterly appearing in my hotel room... there was no avoiding it.



I understand the need for corporate sponsors, I really do. But the irrelvance of their products makes me think that BlogHer conferences aren't for me. I felt like I was walking through an issue of Women's Day.



I would've like to have more emphasis on my interests as a blogger. Yes, I'm a woman; yes, I have kids. But I didn't go to Chicago because I'm a mother, I went because I have a website.