I am probably the last person to write a post about their BlogHer experience. I had a lot of similar feelings to the other newbies who attended the BlogHer ’08 conference in relation to how overwhelming it was, how you really just had to put yourself out there and meet people and how there were cliques and private events that made you feel a little late to ‘the party’ already. Blah, blah, blah. That would have been the case for any new convention situation you would have attended for any industry. It’s not specific to BlogHer.
That all didn’t really affect me personally other than it was very humbling. I’d been a part of the music industry for so long where I would know a majority of people in the room at any given function or conference. So literally to go by myself and not really know anyone, really made me work at meeting people which was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. The conference itself was well run and panels were thoughtfully chosen. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking of attending. (The only thing that I had hoped for was some kind of attendee list so that, besides exchanging cards, I could remember who the heck I met and what blog she wrote or company she or he was from.)
Anyhoo, now that I got that general info about my BlogHer experience out of the way, I wanted to explain how, on a macro level, being there at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in mid-July, 2008, affected me personally.
