*Overheard while waiting in line for the ladies' room at BlogHer 2007
The third annual BlogHer conference kicked off on Friday at Chicago's Navy Pier. As BlogHer founders Jory Des Jardins, Lisa Stone and Elisa Camahort told a packed auditorium during the opening session, this year's conference drew 800 particpants, making it the largest gathering of bloggers ever (regardless of gender). Wow. And what a gathering it was. Bloggers from all over the country and around the world came together to discuss the latest trends in technology, the art of self-promotion, effective strategies for building community online, and how blogs help all of us express ourselves and explore our personal and professional identities.
Personally, I was amazed at how many nametages belonged to people whose blogs I'd read before. In fact, the first breakout session I attended, called "The Life Stages of Online Communities," was moderated by Betsy Aoki, one of my former freelancers from my days as an editor at Amazon.com. Betsy founded the Seattle chapter of Webgrrls back when there weren't too many of us in this space. It was so inspiring to hear her and Webgrrls founder Aliza Sherman speak to a packed room of women (and a few men) about how to grow and nuture a successful online community.
Other BlogHer highlights included a session where participants worked together to create a voter manifesto for the upcoming presidential election, moderated by Morra Aarons, a track devoted to helping bloggers hone their public speaking skills and gain recognition as experts in their chosen fields, and a parralel conference in Second Life. Personally, I really enjoyed strolling through the exhibition hall, where I picked up a Butterball potholder and a t shirt from scrapblog, a very cool new company that brings the fun of scrapbooking to the Web. Oh, and I would be lying if I said I didn't eat four tins of free jelly beans at the Yahoo-sponsored Internet Cafe.
All-in-all, BlogHer 2007 was a rousing success, and totally worth spending twelve hours stuck at JFK and O'Hare airports, waiting for the weather to clear up and planes to depart. For those of you who couldn't make it to the conference, check out blogher.org, which is filled with posts from partipants detailing the events of the weekend.
