A woman’s DAAAYYYY!!!! (Woman’s Day, Power, Day, Lovely Day…think of the Bill Withers’ song – “Lovely Day” as the theme music for this entry.)
How privileged was I to attend the BlogHer Reach Out Tour in Boston on October 11?
Incredibly privileged. I received:
- Validation/Affirmation (in abundance)
- Information (useful, practical, important)
- Conversation (stimulating)
- Connection (friends and colleagues I didn’t even know I had)
- Ideas (nearly overwhelmed by ideas that are bouncing through my brain because of this stimulating event).
- Community (we are every where!)
The community started when one of my sister bloggers Lydia Walshin, who blogs about food, graciously offered me a ride to the conference and invited me to dinner after the conference.
A STANDING OVATION to Lisa Stone, Eliza Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins (co-founders of Blogher) who put together one of the most incredible conferences I’ve ever experienced. (The ambiance, the food – best food I ever had at a conference, and the vendors were just right!)
A special shout-out to Sarah Dopp who ran the Geek Lab with grace and patience. She showed me something I wanted to know and now it is in my repertoire forever. Thank you.
My sister panelists, Christine Koh and Susan Getgood, on the Blogging Basics: I Blog, There I am…Figuring Out Your Blogging Mojo panel were wonderful, accomplished women…hey, how did I get on that panel?
Charlene Prince Birkeland helped us learn over lunch with her presentation on writing a better blog and introduction to shine.yahoo.com – a community of women recently launched by yahoo.
Beth Kanter did a wonderful job leading the panel Blogging Basics: Managing Information Overload: How to find your Blogging Community. I have to give her props because she had a cute and clever power-point to accompany her presentation which was interactive and informative and kept us participating in the late afternoon. (This is no mean feat!)
I met so many bloggers throughout the day and had substantive conversations. I especially liked the “speed dating” exercise that started off the day. It set a tone of camaraderie for the rest of the day!
Various blogging communities were there in force: mommy bloggers, food bloggers, generalists, tech bloggers, business bloggers, lesbian bloggers, relationship bloggers…
I am waiting anxiously for the announcement of the location of the national conference because I will be there! The community, the sisterhood, the knowledge is too energizing to miss.