Where in the world can you find people who blog about politics, legal issues, motherhood, life, anomalies, and sandwiches all in one place? Only one place that I’ve been; the BlogHer conference in San Francisco a few weeks ago. (The above topics are all examples of answers I received to the question of “What do you blog about?”) This conference, designed specifically for blogging women to come and learn and network and have fun, was completely successful on all counts. And ended up getting more than a little media attention as well!
I went into this conference thinking it was going to be a business weekend for me. The sessions were divided into five different tracks—Who we are; What we do; What we believe; How we communicate; and Mommyblogging—and I had decided to attend the “What we do” track for the most part, because it focused on the technical issues bloggers have, including how to improve search engine rankings, promoting “stickiness” on your blog, tips for turning your blog into a book, and much more. My expectation was that I would attend business-like sessions in relative quiet and return to my hotel room at the end of the day. Boy was I wrong!
As amazing as I found the session content and speakers, the definite highlight of the trip was the other people I found there. Most of the attendees didn’t blog for a living, and therefore weren’t there for business purposes. They were there because they love blogging and believe in what they have to say. Everywhere you turned you found women laughing and carrying on excited and passionate conversations. With so much experience and enthusiasm all in one place, it was impossible not to be inspired.
I do blog for a living, but I also happen to believe in the power of one person to reach the masses and effect change, and I believe that blogging gives each individual voice far more power and potential than we’ve had since the printing press was first introduced to the world. But sometimes the business aspect of blogging takes over and pushes that inspiration into the wings. On the weekend of July 18-21 inspiration took center stage again.
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