Average Jane's BlogHer '08 Experience, Days 2 & 3

I officially waited too long to post this and it's starting to become a blur, so I'm combining the two days of the actual conference into one post.

I know I started Friday with a carb-tacular breakfast in the main ballroom with Cagey and her daughter Anjali. At some point, I went back to the room to get a Power Bar out of my suitcase so my blood sugar wouldn't plummet during the first sessions. For those working on next year's sponsorships, might I recommend finding a yogurt company? It's the official food of women, you know!

After the opening session, I continued my efforts to find some of the people I hadn't run across the night before. Liz Rizzo found me while I was being interviewed on video by CafePress about the t-shirt I had on. It took me a while, but I finally ran across Suebob, too.

I had lunch in the iRobot room and got Suzanne to sign a copy of Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions while I was there. Remember, you can win a copy (sorry, not autographed) of your own by commenting here.

After lunch, I attended the Midlife Bloggers and Sex & Relationships breakout sessions. After that, I attended the Community Keynote, which I cannot praise too highly. It seemed to me to be the essence of the BlogHer community distilled into twenty readings. I hope it continues each year, even though I know it must have taken a lot of effort to choose the presenters.

I had an event-filled evening beginning with the reception at Ruby Skye, where I had the chance to talk to lots of different people. Liz and I left a little after 8:00 p.m., met up with Zandria, and took a cable car to the marina for a dinner cruise sponsored by Nintendo. The night views of the city were beautiful and it was cool to cruise right by Alcatraz.

After being up late yet again, I actually managed to wake up kinda sorta on time for the 7:00 a.m. yoga class on Saturday. Which is to say that I woke up around 7:10 and decided to go anyway.

At breakfast, I ran into my colleague Jeff Risley, who was at the conference on behalf of the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

After the morning keynote, I attended the Women Without Children and the Blogosphere session. I thought the lunch break that followed was excruciatingly long - an hour and 45 minutes. Once it ended, Nancy and I went to Karl's BlogHims Birds of a Feather Meetup to see what motivated various men to attend the conference.

My last session was Blog to Book Redux, where I discovered that I may be the only blogger in the world who isn't trying to write and publish a book.

I watched most of the Closing Keynote with Heather Armstrong and Stephanie Klein, but ducked out toward the end to go to the lobby and meet Fog City Mommy.

The closing reception at Macy's was...interesting. I was starving when I got there, so I alternated between meeting people, taking photos and stuffing myself with whatever food I was offered. My equilibrium was off a bit all day, presumably from the previous evening's boat ride, so I forewent alcohol in favor of sparkling water.

Even though my own roommate was heading up the book signing, I managed to forget to bring my copy of "Sleep is for the Weak" to the reception. Duh. Thus, I got no autographs at all, but I did take quite a few photos.

I capped off the evening hanging out in Cagey and Monkey's room, eating Pakistani food and drinking a Kingfisher beer. It was a great chance to decompress from the chaos of the rest of the conference.

So that was my BlogHer '08. I gave away more than 130 business cards, met a different person for every one of them, and still managed to get into work on time Monday morning. Guess it's time to start planning for 2009.

Comments

[Suebob]

It was great to see you, as always. I am looking forward to pomegranate salsa, too!

[Sugar]

Okay, so AMEN on the yogurt for next year. I actually had my blood sugar plunge so low that I snapped at a waiter on day one when I arrived too late for lunch (they eventually got me two lunches... to make up for the wait? Not sure) and then snapping at another waiter on day two who wanted me to wait 25 minutes for the break when I begged him to get me a Sierra Mist before I passed out. Thankfully, the banquet captain (Rod?) realized there was a problem and ran off to get me two SMs. I guess if you have to complain, they make it better by doubling it. Not sure...

And while I did embibe at the Macy's party, I did a lot of the appetizer snacking, too. Was that ceviche the best? YUM!

[Rachel]

I am just sorry I came off looking like an idiot when I met you! Really, when I am not chasing a three year old and looking like hell, I am a lot of fun!

and I LOVE the jacket!

-FCM

[Suzanne]

I second your call for yogurt for next year's conference. And maybe throw in some scrambled eggs. All those carbs killed my stomach. I can't imagine what it was like for a someone with celiac disease or diabetes. Still, good times!!!

[WhyMommy]

I so enjoyed meeting you at BlogHer! Your recipe cards were absolute genius.

And guilt-inducing.

But also genius.

Okay, I'm making Aunt Edith's banana bread tonight!