BlogHer '10
I have one word to describe my experience this past week attending BlogHer in New York City - AMAZING!
It was amazing for many reasons.
- The company I kept was amazing; I had such a good time hanging out and relaxing with Brie, Anna, Barbara and Shannon. Not to mention the rest of the Ottawa crew.
- I met the three bloggers I hoped to meet:
Nora from Non Linear has twins less than two weeks in age difference than mine and I've been following her since before we had the babies. I loved meeting her in person and only wish we'd managed to chat a bit more and in a quieter environment (I'm starting to think I'm losing my hearing this past week!) She moderated my favourite session of the conference too and I think she should give herself an enormous pat on the back for coming up with the concept with two other bloggers - it was obviously a huge need!
The Bloggess - I was nervous, but I introduced myself (twice!) More on that later. :)
The Pioneer Woman - I was happy with just a sighting with her, but instead I got to meet her briefly and take a photo of her with a friend. I slightly regret not jumping in and getting one for myself at the same time. I think I didn't want to be greedy after all my Bloggess luck ;)
- Being away from my family was a well needed break. I needed to be away, to detach, to have some time to just be me without having to worry about taking care of anyone else. In fact, my friends were taking care of me a bit - it was nice.
- The conference was a ton of fun. The sessions I attended were very interesting, the parties were lots of fun, and there were moments when the spirit and community surrounding me floored me it was so incredible. I left feeling inspired to do more.
- I got to see a fabulous city on 3 different tours. Considering how little time I had to explore, this was definitely the best way to see the most as quickly as possible.
- I got some lovely things. The swag was hardly the reason to go. Was I happy to get it - sure. I will post soon on some of the things I experienced with sponsors.
Were there down points? Sure.
- my husband and kids were not in the greatest shape when I left and that caused some anxiety and guilt for me.
- I was disappointed at how difficult it was to meet new people. I felt that people were happy to stay with the people they knew. Or, the chances of randomly meeting someone of like interests weren't always very high. I think a few changes should be made to facilitate shy-er and smaller bloggers in meeting new people.
Overall, I had a wonderful time and I dream of figuring out how to make it to San Diego. :)
And now, a few photos !
Walking around before our Kodak Tour
In Times Square - you were being projected onto the screen from the street live.
A few shots from our Kodak Bus tour.
At the schick intuition party.
At the Cheeseburgher party
We all went for breakfast together before going on our separate ways to start heading home and got our photo in front of the LOVE sign
Barbara and I hired a peddy cab to take us on a tour of Central Park. Definitely worth the cost for the limited time we had left before catching our flights home!
