Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Randomness from BlogHer'07

I should have live-blogged myself throughout the entire conference, because I was so full of wit and pith, little of which I can now remember.

If you read my post from the airport, you can imagine what a woeful camper I was on arriving in Chicago. There were two beautiful beds in my room at The W and just one beautiful me to sleep in them. But I hooked up for dinner with my old friends, Sueb0b of RedStapler, Karl of SecondhandKarl and Celeste of AverageJane. Drinks were had and food was eaten, and soon I started to feel a whole lot better about life in general and me in particular.

Still, when Elisa, Lisa, and Jory welcomed us at the General Session after breakfast, I got all teary. And at different times during the sessions. And then at the conclusion of the conference, when Cooper & Emily made their pitch for the power of us in BlogHer's community activism initiative. Here's why (aside from my admittedly 'iffy' state of mind): I felt bathed in a huge tub of support, caring, hey-I-like-you, what-do-you-think, all from hundreds of women who valued the things I think are important and who "get" what I do, immediately, organically, thoroughly. That kind of support for each other, particularly from such a wide range of women, is not merely feminism as usual. In fact, I'm from the Second Wave, so I go back to the early days of the women's movement, and I can tell you we have not always played so well together in the sandbox. Even last year, there was a pervasive feeling that many of us left with; Leahpeah calls it oogy. There was no oogy at BlogHer07. I don't know why. I don't think it much matters. I do think that Elisa, Lisa, and Jory have managed to created a huge (11,000 plus) grand group of women who are now a force to be reckoned with, both on the micro and the macro level. This is what we wanted back in the 60s and 70s. It took this long, and these particular women, and this communication tool for it to happen.

The sessions I went to gave me exactly what I wanted, generally speaking. I came. I saw. I laughed. I learned a bunch of technical stuff. Even the session on branding when I was told in no uncertain terms that I could not blog about politics and knitting did not dim my lights.

I met tons and tons of women. And got tons and tons of cards. And I'm not going to even start now naming them or linking them. I'm going to save that for tomorrow.

To Be Continued....

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:15 PM

    I say you blog on politics and knitting. Then we leverage the contacts from the conference into getting you a book deal. Then we send it to Penelope Trunk and tell he she can't speak on building a brand anymore. :)

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  2. Anonymous4:35 PM

    Yeah, what Wendy said. :)

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  3. I really enjoyed talking with you on the bus and throughout the conference. I hope your contact didn't cause you too much distress!

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  4. So, Wendy: I thought of making a crack about beach volleyball in my post, but controlled myself. I am so above that........!

    Marilyn: Thanks for the vote of confidence. As I think over her response to me, she gets shriller and shriller in my mind.

    lizarita: you were a favorite New Meet of mine--and judging by the photos, of a lot of other bloghers as well!

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  5. Jane, fabulous hanging out with you again this year. Love the fuzzy pic of me on Flickr.

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  6. Anonymous12:11 PM

    Sounds awesome. Particularly the part about no "oogy" feeling this year, and the advances from the Second Wave. Hooray!

    Thanks for sharing with those of us who couldn't go!

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So--whaddaya think?