You know how you have this fantasy that if you could do high school over again that you would do it differently? That you would talk to the nerds or refuse to be intimidated by the popular kids?
Let me tell you something, you wouldn't do it differently. Plopped back in the middle of high school, you would react in much the same way that you did the first time. If you were outgoing and energetic, you would be the same. If you were more comfortable sitting alone with your book and twisting your hair, that's still where you would run given the chance.On the airplane trying to make sense of the emotional roller coaster, it seems silly even just a few hours after leaving. With just the slightest of distance, I can see that at the Blogher conference, I was in a estrogen firecracker experiment.
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My experience on the panel for The Responsibility Project yielded some of the best moments in NYC and that was before the Blogher conference even started. In the car, I got to know Jessica from The Mom Creative and Susan Getgood from Marketing Roadmaps, and they both shared their blogging expertise with little ole' me and I'm grateful for it. Conversations with them were worth the price of the conference ticket alone. Susan has recently published a book with her blogging advice, Professional Blogging For Dummies
I didn't know Ellie from One Crafty Mother before the panel, but we walked away from NYC friends. She is just a stellar woman and courageous in sharing her story of recovery.
Thursday at lunch I met up with Chris Ann and Kristin, my wonderful friends from LoveFeast Table and we went straight to ABC Home. I met Chris Ann at Blissdom, but hadn't met Kristin until this weekend. It's rare in adulthood, I've found, to have that moment with another woman when friendship just clicks. I've been lucky enough for this to have happened to me a handful of times over the last few years and one of them was with the LoveFeast girls.
Chris Ann and Kristin introduced me to Linda from Baby To Be TV and we shared good meals and good conversation, both about blogging and just about life. Tears were shed by more than one of us on more than one occasion.
Thursday night Ellie introduced me to Heather from Extraordinary Ordinary, a blog I have been following for a long time now. I didn't get to spend as much time with Heather as I wanted to, but I could tell, in our few conversations, that she is exactly how she comes across on her blog: honest, beautiful, and kind.
By Friday evening, I was wrecked with still a solid day to go. It is utterly exhausting to sell, sell, sell yourself all day long forcing a genuine smile over and over. I had great conversations, and embarrassing conversations, and downright awkward conversations. I felt inspired and exuberant and left out and failing all in the space of an hour. It is safe to say that I wasn't mentally prepared for professionally networking for 72 hours straight. I'm more of a jammies and magazine type of gal.
To give you a clear picture, not everyone was there in a professional capacity. For many of the Blogher attendees, this was a fun weekend getaway, with fancy parties and reunions with online friends. Just like high school, there was a difference in priorities. Maybe one day I'll fall into the "fun" category, but right now I have such big ideas and plans for HH that I can't do alone. For me, Blogher was a working weekend with moments of fun sprinkled in.
Two great moments that stand out: meeting Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project just before the conference started on Thursday. She was standing alone, and I summoned all my seize-the-day courage to approach. In Hollywood, the general MO is to leave people alone. I have never, in all my years, approached a celebrity standing alone and told them I was a fan. At Blogher, not only did I force myself to speak to Gretchen Rubin (who was beyond lovely), I also marched up to The Bloggess, one of my very favorite people to read on the internet. I had chickened out on meeting Jenny (The Bloggess) when I saw her earlier in the day, but when the opportunity presented itself again, I didn't want to make the same mistake. She was so sweet and great. I won't regret swallowing my pride and telling these women how much I respect their writing.
Three other conversations stand out in my mind from the conference: meeting, hugging, and laughing with Loralee from Looney Tunes (she is amazing). Finally meeting L.A.-based blogger Lee Vandeman from Moms Without Blogs (we will be friends, I knew right away). And accidentally lunching with Stephanie from (in)courage. These connections had a spark to them that make these conferences worth going to.
Connection, inspiration, and creativity are reasons I blog. At a large conference like this, it's easy to forget this while racing for swag bags or feeling very small when talking readership stats. But the number of warm hugs, meeting an excited reader, hearing an incredible story, all of these things make it worth the emotional return to high school.
Just make sure you have a lunch partner.
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Looking for Mommy Monday? I'm skipping it this week in favor of my Blogher wrap-up, since in the last five days I've been less a mommy and more a bleary-eyed networking blogger.
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