Other Assorted Thoughts on BlogHer

Yes, this is the giant BlogHer wrapup post you've all been waiting for. You haven't been able to do a thing because you're so busy thinking "Princess, you told us all about the advertising, but what was BlogHer really like this year?"

Well, from my perspective, it was quite lovely.

Some folks didn't enjoy it as much as I did. We need to do things differently next year. However, I wish more people would give the organizers some credit for not being evil. They thought about issues of inclusion ahead of time and asked for input from a variety of people. But the vibe of the criticism has a tone of "obviously they don't give a damn / never thought about it / didn't try."

Part of it was about the highly visible presence of the MommyBloggers. I appreciate the gentle way A Mama's Rant provided her feedback:

I don't understand the hate, but I agree that BlogHer was mom-centric. If the founders of BlogHer are as smart as I think they are, BlogHer will evolve, and highlight other female voices in the future.

I want the mamas to enjoy getting to see each other and celebrate without making new folks feel like BlogHer is a giant mom clique. I am so used to not being interested in what everyone else is doing that I just looked at them, thought "they're having a great time, good for them," then went about my business. It didn't occur to me that some people looked at them and didn't see anything else. I talked to so many interesting women who may or may not have been moms while I was there, and I wish the people who only saw moms had gotten to do that as well. But I don't think that's because the organizers did anything wrong on purpose.

As for the issues around race and sexual orientation, I am struggling to shut up and really hear some of the criticism.

I do agree that we shouldn't demand that people from marginalized communities produce 12-point, clearly articulated and logical statements of what went wrong before we take them seriously. I don't believe that we can dismiss their concerns on the basis that they didn't do something about it themselves - especially since not everyone is an extrovert activist, thankyouverymuch. I have to take into account my extremely high power of ignore, which makes things like cocktail parties and free wine and a free wine bottle opener not such a big deal even though HELLO there are adults in this world who don't fucking drink and my god it gets tiresome to have everything be about drinking. I just sigh and move on. Not everyone can do that.

But my not drinking is not at all like being a lesbian, because no one will ever try to kill me or burn down my house just because I don't drink. And though Lynne D. Johnson said at SXSW that it would be nice for once to be on a panel that wasn't about being African-American, that doesn't mean that people of color should just hush up if they felt ignored because there wasn't a BlogHer panel specifically on race. We probably need to do both formal recognition and integrated inclusion instead of relying on one strategy or the other to make people feel welcome.

While I think about all that, I am waiting for the panel podcasts to be released. Some of the sessions I attended were so enjoyable that I'd like to listen to them again and share them with people who didn't go to the conference. My favorite panel was called "Is the Next Martha Stewart A Blogger?" It featured Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim (food blog), Gayla Trail of YouGrowGirl (gardening), Marnie MacLean (knitting and crochet) , Andrea Scher of Superhero Designs (jewelry), and Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl and Mighty Goods (shopping blog) as moderator. If I start talking about how much I loved it, I may never stop. I arrived in the room tired, cranky, and annoyed that I had made a bunch of random, bizarre sleep-deprivation-inspired comments while introducing myself in the feminism small group. I left recharged and happy, even though I have no interest in doing a craft business online. The energy on the panel was so positive, and the panelists had such thoughtful perspectives and fun stories, it couldn't help but improve my mood.

When the podcasts surface, I'll let you know!

I also saw a bunch of great folks whom I'd met or at least seen last year and/or at SXSW:

• The organizers Elisa, Jory, and Lisa
• ae of Arse Poetica, and hurray that db came with her again!
• Melinda of Sour Duck, whom I suspected would dislike the conference, but I'm glad she was there.
• Samantha, who must start blogging somewhere new.
• Liz Henry, of Badgermama and Feminist SF. I had not previously had enough time around Liz to know how much I like her. Thank goodness that's fixed!

New folks:

• Brittany of HollaBackBoston, who let me know that there is a HollaBackTexas. How did I not know this? Brittany also let me use her sunscreen, so I am forever in her debt.
• Debra of A Stitch in Time was very kind to me after my presentation, and then it turned out she's a quilter. Yay!
• Sheri (and I think Amy as well) of Mamazine, a feminist publication for mamas. Another reassurance that I can have kids without becoming a suburban zombie. Also, you must mouse over (if you use a mouse) the nav tabs at the top of their site. I almost swooned.
• J. Craig Williams of May It Please The Court. Good guy, very interested in accessibility and pretty far ahead of most bloggers in making his blog accessible to people with disabilities. I hope I didn't offend him when I answered his email about skip nav.
• Lauren of Oodleday and Metroblogging Austin. Shout out to the Austin girls!
• Bill of History of the Button. You heard me. Don't be all "History of the what?" because I know as soon as you saw it you were dying to click on it.
• Kathryn of Daring Young Mom, who I met in the van on the way back to the airport. Poor Kathryn had never missed a flight in her life, but overslept this one!
• Adrianna, Media Relations Specialist for the American Foundation for the Blind. I must practice the name of her organization so I get it right. I've already had to correct four blog posts due to my inattention to detail.
• Suzanne of CUSS and other rants, to whom I have promised a review of Long Kiss Goodnight on Heroine Content.
• Candace of muse and fury (femilicious.com) and 16punches. Canadians rock.
• Last but far from least, the inimitable Suebob of Red Stapler and Linkateria. Her Red Stapler Portraits series is my favorite chronicle of the conference.

I also found a bookmark, appropriately, for Jen Robinson's Book Page. Its tagline is "Promoting the love of books by children, and the continued reading of children's books by adults." Love it.

My suggestions for next year, which will be in Chicago:

More stickers. There was a sad lack of stickers at this conference. Barking Dog Studios, a web design shop focused on accessibility and usability, left stickers lying around. Somehow a bunch of Six Apart and Vox stickers ended up on a table, but it looked like they had been forgotten there. So I took some.

Swag recycling, as suggested by (at least) Jory Des Jardins and a mamablogger whose name I've forgotten after reading so many posts. I felt like I was stealing when I rescued tiny potted plant kits (courtesy of the lovely folks of ThisNext) off the tables while the hotel staff were cleaning up after lunch, but I thought they would get thrown away. I would have been glad to take them somewhere to make them available for everyone throughout the rest of the conference. And I brought some of the swag back to the big room and left it on a table for people to take, but did that work? Especially with extra bags and branded stuff, I doubt the sponsors would mind at all if we took home extras for friends and family. Free marketing for them. I would have brought G. an extra set of the good swag since she couldn't attend.

I also can't remember who suggested space for attendees to exchange information with each other, such as cards (and oh, I don't know, perhaps stickers?). My card collection was quite lovely, but I would have loved to collect more. So many interesting people in the world.

Make sure speakers and panelists are reminded strongly that their audience will most likely be a mix of newbies and techies OR make the session descriptions explicit about the level they're targeting. It's really, really hard to please everyone, but if you don't consider your audience when preparing you will miss everyone.

A panel of bloggers who review film, music, books, video games, comics, etc. How do they decide what to write about? How do they keep up with what others are saying? Why do they do it? What have they learned about how to write a good review? I think a lot of bloggers write reviews even if their blog isn't dedicated to that on a full-time basis, so perhaps there would be sufficient interest for a panel.

Perhaps in addition to the Birds of a Feather groups, we might try something like (brainstorming here) a system of "new people welcomers" who have been to BlogHer before. They could set up at tables for breakfast each day and new folks could congregate if they so choose? I'm trying to think of ways to break that ice for people who are nervous about attending the conference when everyone seems to know everyone already.

How far in advance do they sell plane tickets?

Tags: BlogHer | BlogHer06