I liked seeing all my online friends in the flesh. Just wish there had been more time and opportunity to really sit down and talk. That there wasn’t, I think, is a function of the size and intensity of the conference. Not only is the BlogHer schedule jam-packed, but the number of outside parties and such seemed endless.- The sessions—so many choices, so little time. Just wish they had been less general. I know that BlogHer prides itself on the conversational tone of their conference sessions. The emphasis for speakers is less on presentation and more on dialogue with the audience. That works very well when it’s a small group. But when it’s a lecture size audience, allowing the audience members to determine the flow of the topic ends up being a crapshoot. Will the probing questioners get to the mike? And if a question sparks a dialogue, will the dialogue be allowed to continue—or will it be truncated in the interest of others getting a chance to speak? The answers to those questions at the sessions I attended was “probably not.” Consequently, there’s no real depth to the sessions.
- Swag. This is good, bad and meh all together. I know there’s a debate going on on Twitter about Too Much Swag. To me the amount of swag wasn’t the issue. The focus on the commercial aspects of Blogher was. Lisa said at one session that she, Elisa and Jory founded BlogHer with four purposes in mind: exposure, community, education, and economic empowerment for women bloggers. I think the economic empowerment head is now leading the beast.
- When my panel was announced, I couldn’t figure out what we—one shopping blog, one lesbian blog, one the-personal-is-political blog and me, the midlifeblogger—had in common. What was our reason for being? Then during the preconference phone call, Elisa stressed that we were the panel to give voice to those not often heard. That confused me further because I don’t feel particularly marginalized in the blogosphere. But then I got to the conference and looked around, and I understood—within BlogHer itself, we are marginalized. The emphasis of the Conference is on sponsorship and the sponsors are focusing on one particular demographic; that leaves the rest of us out in the cold. I can’t tell you how many times during BlogHer’09, midlife bloggers came up to me and asked, “Where are we in all this?” I could only shrug. I dunno.
- Two years ago in Chicago, Butterball was a sponsor and handed out oven mitts as their swag. There was a lot of flack from bloggers about that—“what? You think all we do is cook?” This year it is obvious that the sponsors think we have a shitload of laundry to do. And meals to prepare. And we’re pinching our pennies so we’re willing to ignore Walmart’s business practices to save a cent or two in their stores. (I’m building up a head of steam here, so if you’re delicate, you might want to leave now). Talk about allowing the marketplace to define us! I have no use for Ragu’s nifty wheel that allows me to plan meals for my non-existent family. Nor am I cherishing the gift bag left in my room by Tide|Bounce which contained stick on dryer sheets, all wrapped up in pretty orange paper. The one sponsor that did speak to me was Microsoft Office|Bing, and I spent more time in their suite than anywhere else. They had fantastic pastries, coffee, and their swag seemed for grownup women, rather than Mommy’s.
- I just read Lisa Stone’s post about Valerie Jarrett being at Blogher’09. She was? Where was I at the time? Why didn’t I even know about it?
- For me, what is missing from the conference is substance. Did I say that before? It bears repeating I went to BlogCon Blog World Expo last year and found the sessions there jam-packed with information. It was very obvious to me that people were there for information, to learn from the experts. The sessions that I attended at BlogHer’09 were much more general, the questions more abstract, the responses much less satisfying. This may be a function of the fact that I’ve been blogging for four years and this was my fourth BlogHer Conference. Perhaps there’s a shelf-life for bloggers attending the conference, and I’ve passed it.
- I’m on the fence about BlogHer’10. If it’s going to be another hoo-hah Mommy-PR extravaganza, I’m not particularly enthusiastic. There has to be something more there for me to make it worth the cost of going.
22 thoughts on “BlogHer’09: The Good, the Bad, and the Meh”
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I’m fascinated by all the insight into what the conference was like,I was really upset I couldn’t go due to a family obligation and I whined about it all week.
Sounds like if I’d gone I may still have done some whining about the sponsors, the mommy emphasis and the evil laundry swag.
I’d love to one day meet fellow bloggers face to face, have some fun and learn to improve my skills. That would be my goal.
I’ve never been a ‘joiner’. I’m not even particularly social. I go to the beat of my own drummer and always have. The appeal of a big gathering is something I don’t feel comfortable with. I am also not one to follow any particular format. I just sit down and let my fingers lead me along. BlogHer was probably better off without me.
GeekMommy: Exactly…there is no Essential Blogger just as there is no Essential Woman. But damned if They won’t try to reduce us to such.
Great post…
I keep trying to convince people that there’s no such thing as a “blogger conference” — because just like bloggers have so much diversity and individual personality, so do conferences. Each conference has its own unique feel – just because you’ve been to one, doesn’t mean you have any idea what the other ones are like.
After BlogHer this year, I realized that my analogy spreads even further: just like people (bloggers) can change – so can the nature of a conference.
For awhile now, there has been this bizarre focus on “mommy bloggers” – fueled by mainstream media latching on to the term, and marketers telling each other that “mommy bloggers are the sweet spot”, the term get amplified and echoed. Those looking in from the outside actually believe that you can put bloggers in a labeled box and predict their behavior.
As Rick mentioned above, there are so many different “types” of bloggers — and it’s nice to be at an event that recognizes that and programs sessions that have more general appeal.
I think BlogHer is looking for a balance – they’ll find it. Lisa, Jory, and Elisa are sharp, savvy women – next year’s event will adjust and address concerns just like this year’s did.
Either way, I look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas at BWE. Yes, there will be programming that appeals to moms — but there will also be programming that appeals to every other sort of woman and man — be they ‘monetizing’ or ‘hobbyist’ bloggers. (I hate those terms, but they’re efficient at describing the difference.)
Best,
GeekMommy
I was so tired of being treated like a Better Homes reader from 1953. I hate laundry and detested being talked to about Clorox and Tide before having a cup of coffee. I am really looking forward to actually learning something at BlogWorld.
Sugar Jones: I just love the image that your first sentence threw full blown into my mind. I continue to work through my thoughts and feelings about BlogHer. From your comment, I got this: Blog + Her…I think too many of the sponsors forgot/ignored our raison etre–blogging.
What a statement indeed. I’ve spent the past 30 years managing a home with a lot of people, and I even blog about it sometimes. If I took the effort to go to a blogging conference I’d be very put out by all laundry talk.
I want to be bombarded with ammo that helps me be a better blogger and a more interesting person.
Hi Jane,
Thank you for the kind words about our event (and for getting the name right =p). You certainly nailed it right on the head. Our event is about learning and networking in the conference sessions, on the trade show floor and at our parties. You asked a question in your post about how you didn’t see what you and the other bloggers on your panel had in common.
I am sure you know this but I do have an answer for you. You are all new media content creators. You may create for passion, for profit or for both but at the end of the day you do have much in common regardless of your subject matter.
We all want to build readership, create strong communities, become better at our craft, understand the technology and tools we use better, and many of us want to at least make enough to pay for our hosting and other things we shell out money for to be a blogger / podcaster etc so our significant others cant give us too much grief for spending so much time on the damn computer 8).
When I first had the idea for BlogWorld, I thought it was going to be all political bloggers (both left and right) because that was my world. I had never heard of Robert Scoble or Mike Arrington or a MommyBlogger. I knew politics and Milblogs but I still had those same common goals I mentioned above. So I searched the internet in vane for an event like BlogWorld. Along the way I realized how isolated I was in my political blogging community and found all of these other amazing communities like mommy bloggers, sports bloggers, tech bloggers, all the PR and Marketing bloggers, Real Estate bloggers and Medbloggers.
So from day one we set out to attract all of those communities. In part because we knew that was the hook to get them there; the community, but the larger goal was to help them all learn about the subjects we all had in common and to introduce all of these isolated vertical communities to each other. Simply because we are all strong when we can learn from bloggers outside our normal space and it helps us realize just how big this media revolution is.
Anyway I have rambled long enough. If you enjoyed the conference last year I promise you this year you will not be disappointed. We will be announcing more sessions over the next several days. Please send me an email or a tweet and let me know if you think we are still on track.
Blog on!
Rick Calvert
CEO & Co-founder
BlogWorld & New Media Expo
Rick: When I signed on to attend BlogWorldExpo last year, I had no idea what it was. Even after being there–and getting a lot out of it–I still didn’t ‘get’ what it was. Until your comment–and I thank you for taking the time to go into the genesis of the conference.
I like the image of all the “vertical communities” of bloggers. Because my experience was only with BlogHer, I had no idea there were so many genres of bloggers. Yes, I knew about the prominent political blogs and the entertainment blogs, but milblogs? and godblogs? WTF! It seems to me, then, that what you’re doing has a lot of significance for the NMSM–we, the bloggers, who are not some nutcases sitting in our garrets (well, maybe some of us are), but are thinking individuals with valid points of view.
What I think is different for all of us is our purpose in blogging. Is it to be heard, to persuade, to shine, to sell, to inform, etc? Maybe those are vertical communities within the communities. Whatever–it’s all too easy to let Madison Avenue co-opt us if we don’t keep front and center for ourselves what that purpose is. At MidLifeBloggers, I have to remind myself over and over that my purpose is the community, giving midlifers a voice and a venue–and if I can pay a bill or two along the way, that’s good too.
Can’t wait to see what you have in store at the Conference. I’ll definitely keep in touch.
Jane
Jim “Genuine” Turner (does one call you Jim, or Genuine for short?):
Thanks for the kind words about the post and, I’m assuming, the comments following it. Just the other day I signed up for the BlogWorldExpo newsletter, so I’m definitely thinking about absolutely maybe going….. What it will depend on for me is what the sessions are. So when you know, shout out and I’ll make my plans.
Wow such a great post and a great learning tool for the organizers and especially those of us with upcoming conferences. I have been following BlogHer since its inception and was in fact actually a sponsor in 2006 in San Jose so I too have seen it go from its infancy to what it has grown into today. I think Lisa, Jory and Elisa have done a great job growing their conference into one of the most powerful forums in the blogging world. With that said I want to also make Blog World Expo an event that is a must attend each year event. I am the Social Media Director and Conference Chairman in charge of the sessions at Blog World Expo and I will certainly forward this to the organizers to learn from the Good, avoid the bad and perhaps try to spice up the Meh. I have been working 20 hour days on this for the last month it seems and it can be a difficult and daunting task to try to make the best conference possible and I only hope I can do it as well as the organizers like Elisa at BlogHer. I hope you can make it to Vegas again in October Jane and let me know how I did.
Hello Jane,
I’m sorry I missed you at BlogHer ’09. I’m just reading your site for the first time and wish I’d known about you before the conference.
I’m a newbie blogger, 50-something, kids grown and gone. I don’t have an iPhone or Twitter account-yet-and I really felt “left out” at the conference, for more than just those reasons. (I only signed up for Friday; I should have given myself both days.) My feelings about the conference are exactly what you, Joanna, Kathy, and Romi expressed.
I felt surrounded by a lot of corporate people there looking for bloggers of a certain demographic for commercial purposes. Yes, I’m interested in monetizing my blog, maybe, but I thought BlogHer was for bonding and sharing and learning. I was taken aback when sitting at a table where someone expressed an interest in meeting only those who could contribute a certain skillset to said person’s commercial blog, leaving the rest of us at the table feeling awkward.
I am debating whether I want to attend BlogHer ’10. I’ve commented on the BlogHer site, and I’m waiting for the official feed-back form from BlogHer to express my doubts.
I’m not familiar with BlogCon, but I will look into it. I’ve been searching the internet for everything I can find on blogging “how-to” and I feel that I’ve already obtained far more information than I did at BlogHer. Just my humble opinion, but I’m wondering if the BlogHer conferences have just gotten too big and have lost substance for show? I’d appreciate more thoughts from veteran bloggers.
Red Hamster:
A friend of mine who also went to BlogHer09 gave as her definitive summation of the various reviews of the conference: “The conference was what you made it” Yes, true–and as she herself said, very Zen. I’m thinking, then, why so many of us couldn’t make it what we wanted it to be. Perhaps we’re not so far along the road to Enlightenment. I, for one, get overwhelmed by the visual and aural noise of the thing, and it becomes almost impossible for me to do anything but go along for the ride.
I don’t know why I found Blog World Expo (http://www.blogworldexpo.com) not so overwhelming. Thinking about the difference between the two Exhibitors Halls: Blog World Expo’s were mostly blog-related companies who were interested in selling their services to us. BlogHer09’s were not blog-related companies who wanted to sell their products to us.
Romi: I think your comment about “the growing tension between bloggers who’ve created blogs as a platform for self expression and those who are doing it as a business” is absolutely spot on. After this BlogHer, my feeling is that the latter are now in the forefront. I’m curious though, since you put yourself into the doing it as a business group, why BlogHer wouldn’t be useful for you to attend.
Hi Jane,
I’ve been to Blogher three times but chose not to attend this year for most of the reasons you stated. It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the women/moms in the blogosphere alongside the growth and popularity of the Blogher conference itself. The first year I attended it was in San Jose, it was very small and for me, it was a great way for me — who had only jumped into new media months before – to get to know a group of really interesting, smart women I never would have had the chance to meet in the flesh. (and it is sooo nice to meet people in person – nothing can replace that!).
Unfortunately, I found the general nature of the panels, the high school like atmosphere of the social events that followed and the unwieldy size just too much. I think age might have something to do with it (I’m 45) but I also think there’s a growing tension between between bloggers who’ve created blogs as a platform for self expression and those who are doing it as a business. I’ve always intended my site to be a business so I’ve been on the same path since I started — the path to monetizing and building a brand. Yes, I get to write and express myself on my site, but I don’t expect that to generate revenue.
I’m looking forward to Blogher business next year but don’t think the general Blogher will be for me!
Thanks for your post!
Romi
truuconfessions.com
Of course this was my first time, so I can’t compare this BlogHer to past years, or even to my own expectations. But I truly loved the chance to meet so many people—most of all YOU.
Darryle: The feeling is mutual.
Thank you for writing this. I was at this year’s conference and didn’t find the panel discussions as enriching as I’d hoped. The “Blog to Book” session was probably most useful to me. The humor panel session was entertaining. The rest? Meh.
I’m a childless 40-something married woman who definitely noticed the mommy blogger feel. I think they could use more neutral sessions.
Perhaps part of my problem was that I didn’t know what to expect, and so perhaps I held back a little, remaining mostly an observer. Yes, I did engage other bloggers, but I also felt like I missed out on all the parties and stuff. Made me wonder if I did it wrong. Then again, I’m not a party-goer by nature and that’s not what I went for.
I ought to head over to BlogHer.com and voice my opinion. I know they’re asking for feedback.
Kathy: I wrote a lllooonnnnggg reply to your comment last Friday and the internets ate it. I was so disheartened that I didn’t have the energy to recompose it. I hope you did go to BlogHer.com to voice your opinion. That’s the only way change will come about.
Joanna: I’m hoping the organizers will change the direction of the conference somewhat for next year.
Thanks Jane. I’ve read lots of BlogHer posts about meeting great friends and all the swag and parties and dinners but none on the actual content of the conference. Your post helped me make up my mind about traveling to New York next year. Although I’d love to meet my blog friends in person, I think I’ll skip it and perhaps focus my sights on BlogCon.
I am clearly not the target audience– no kids, over 50.
I’ve attended more business conferences than I can count in my career so if I’m going to schlepp to another one, I need more substance on the matter at hand. If I’m going to meet my gal pals for a weekend getaway, it will be at a spa 🙂
Thanks!