BlogHer12: The Conference

This was my second time attending a BlogHer conference and if there’s one thing I’ve learned after going two years in a row, it’s how impossible it is to sum it all up in one tidy little blog post!

My new bloggy friend Sarah (from A Random Sampling) had the brilliant idea to do a series of recaps, and I’ve decided to follow suit to make it all more manageable.  The next five posts will be broken down like so:

The Conference
The Parties
The Food
The Favorites

I apologize in advance if you hate the idea of a week-long series about BlogHer, but I’m looking forward to having it all captured so I can come back to read it in March when I’m completely uninspired by the cold, grey wasteland that is Michigan that time of year.

THE CONFERENCE!

A bunch of people I talked to before I left were asking questions…

1. What is BlogHer?

BlogHer is the leading cross-platform media network created by, for and with women social media leaders.  It reaches about 40 million women each month.  Dang.

2. What is the BlogHer12 Conference?

The conference itself is a gathering hosted by BlogHer and a bunch of great sponsors.  It allows a few thousand of us Bloggers to get together face to face, connect with brands and learn more about blogging and social media.

3. What will you do there?

See #2 but also I’ll be hugging other bloggers, checking out the expo which is full of companies promoting their products and looking to make connections with bloggers, learning how to be a bigger/better blogger, attending parties hosted by companies not directly affiliated with the conference and of course checking out NYC.

I was super excited to show off my new blog design, so I had fresh cards printed and attached them to a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies.  They were a big hit and I was able to give them out to a bunch of new people I met as well as bloggers that I read regularly and love.  I’m so glad I made time to bake them the night before I left!

The trip was smooth sailing on the way there except for a crazy traffic jam that my friend Bonnie had to navigate to get Grace and me to the airport.  Thanks Bon!

I roomed with Diana and fell more in love with her than I already was.  She’s seriously so sweet, genuine and FUNNY.

The conference itself was great.  Because this was my second time going, I felt much less pressure to do ALL THE THINGS.  I was excited to attend sessions that resonated with me, but I was totally OK leaving certain time slots open instead of just going to other sessions as filler.  I remember wishing I’d connected more with people last year, but I was too busy running around to all the sessions I could squeeze into my day.

The expo halls were lots of fun too!  I love love love Eggland’s Best eggs, so stopping at their booth was great.  I scored a stuffed egg toy for Grace, a coupon for me, and a chance to win free eggs for a year!  I learned about Love with Food which is a monthly gourmet food subscription similar to Birch Box (cosmetics).  I realized that I should most definitely purchase a LifeProof iPhone case, especially considering the fact that I’m on my 2nd iPhone and this one already has liquid damage (first one took a swim in the toilet thanks to Grace).  Then there was the iBaby Monitor which I’m drooling over.  It’s a video monitor that feeds to your iPhone or iPad!  This means I can check in on Baby Gould wherever I am as long as I have my phone and Andy can even peek in on nap time from his iPad at school!  Amazing.

There were bunches of other great companies that I scoped out, but these are the few I happened to capture with my camera.  Bailey’s Creamers, Energizer Flameless Candles, CVS (BEST swag!), Jamba Juice, and Kikkoman all made quite an impression too!

We heard from Martha Stewart during lunch on day one and Katie Couric during lunch on day two.  Diana and I actually walked into the expo hall behind Katie before lunch!  You can see her arm on the elevator in the collage below.  LOL

I took good notes during the sessions and got to meet up with lots of great ladies like Jessica, Jennifer, Faith, Ann-Marie, Suzanne, Amy, Sarah and more at lunch time.  I was not good about taking pics of all the wonderful people I met.

::sadface::

Ok, I’m exhausted and bet you are too.  Let’s pick this back up again tomorrow :)

Stay tuned for more…