Average Jane: Average Jane Learns Things

This year, the BlogHer conference agenda was absolutely chock-full of interesting topics. At any given time I had difficulty deciding which session to attend. I generally take into account who is speaking so I can support my friends, but this year I had so many friends on the panels that I couldn't even attempt to see them all.

Here are the sessions I attended (titles are linked to the liveblog transcripts):

Writing Lab: Writing Inspiration: Stoke Your Creativity with Rita Arens, Jan Sokoloff Harness and Carleen Brice.

I enjoyed this one because it was loaded with practical take-aways for focusing your writing, coming up with ideas and finding the time to write (hint: turn off Twitter!).

After lunch (and all the meals at the Hilton were wonderful, by the way), I attended the Change Agents: Creating Tangible Social Change: How to Move People to Action panel with Beth Terry, Gina McCauley, Stephanie Himel-Nelson and Melissa Silverstein.

It was very interesting to hear how all of the panelists were using their blogs to mobilize people to change their opinions as well as corporate and governmental policy.

My final session of Day One was Social Media is Bringing Sexy Back to Branding -- Do You Have the Social Media Strategy and Tools for Success? with Susan Getgood, Beth Blecherman and Kimberley Blaine. Apparently I forgot I had my camera with me, so no photo of this panel.

I recall that this session introduced me to some new sites that might be of interest. When I track down my notes, I'll come back and be more specific.

On the second day, I started out with Get Hired: Networking With a Purpose Via Social Media with Laurie Ruettimann, Ana Roca-Castro, Carmen Hudson and Heather McGough (NOT because I am job hunting, I'll have you know, but because I correctly predicted that it would be my only chance to see my pal Laurie).

My main personal takeaway from this session was that my LinkedIn profile needs a lot of work, considering that it's my only truly professional outpost online. I'm sure I'll get right on that.

During the break, I bought a copy of Professional Blogging for Dummies and had Susan Getgood autograph it for me. I can't wait to read it.

After lunch, I (gasp!) skipped out on the next session so I could relax a bit before my own panel. I used some of that time to briefly check out the official sponsored suites, then hung out in the Serenity Suite and met new people until it was time to head down to speak.

And yes, I should have written this post sooner because I know I didn't provide a lot of interesting detail. However, I will say that I enjoyed every one of the sessions I attended (except for the uncomfortable chairs).

Do you wanna hear about some fun parties? That's tomorrow's post.