I woke up on Sunday, both sad and relieved that I had made it through the BlogHer ’10 Conference with bulging elevators, lobbies, hallways and conference rooms filled with the other 2,400 bloggers attending the conference. Women and men connecting, networking and processing information while they “Networked Offline.”
It took me a while to rid myself of the stunned deer persona but there was no time to let my insecurities prohibit me from meeting these intellectual and talented individuals, all blogging for a cause, a passion or a skill, some sharing their knowledge and other’s, like me, attempting to spread optimism and humor in a suffering world. It felt really good to be surrounded by like minded people who didn’t look at me with three heads because I am a “Mommy Blogger” and so I fought the urge to run upstairs to my hotel room and hide.
It was frustrating to not have my finger on the pulse of the conference but I made myself let go of all things intangible and opened myself to every person who crossed my path by initiating conversation, regardless of how exhausted or reclusive I felt. In my past year and a half of blogging I have become quite accustomed to the feeling of being backed up against a wall but learning how to plow through the humps with my writing helped me at the conference for if I have learned nothing else, I have learned that humps are just speed bumps in the flow of life that, if given any validation, could turn into treacherous cyclones of self doubt and sink me into wet cement quickly hardening, suffocating my passion. That bad huh, you ask and I say, most definitely, but only if you let it be.
As I listened to the panel of female activist bloggers speaking, women who cannot be filmed for fear of their lives, I began to see the whole picture. By blogging on the internet these women are able to let the world know about the injustices that are taking place throughout the world and they are not at the mercy of the media to distort their stories. Now, with access to the internet we can get first hand stories of the struggles from amazing women like Esra’a (Bahrain) who founded the website Mideast Youth and Humanity Ashore by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai. I encourage all of you to please visit these websites and support these incredibly courageous women. The internet now makes it easier for us to choose our cause by reading these stories first hand and not only that, it allows us to follow these blogs and see the results of our contributions, and this is fantastic.
What became clearer and clearer with each new conversation was that as bloggers the internet is our highway and our blogs our the vehicle to bring truths globally. Truths, humor, fiction and non-fiction stories and so much more that may otherwise never reach an audience and that social networks such as She Writes, The Blog Frog, MomActive and Today’s Mama are becoming our tools to help us decide what is veritable and what is not, eaking out the talent and connecting us to our niche.
After an action packed weekend I was ready for a day to myself and so I slept in, checked Twitter to see if other bloggers had put out the word on a good breakfast café, which of course they had, and walked over to sit at the counter to enjoy the eggs I had been craving all weekend.
I ordered a coffee with steamed milk and as the warm delicious liquid flowed down my throat, promising a renewed energy to help get me back home, I eavesdropped on a conversation that a man and his father were having at the dining table by the window behind me. I imagined that they had been meeting at this table every Sunday for years to have breakfast and philosophize together. The son was talking to his father about Global Warming and was asking his father what he thought was going to happen to all of those people around the world who lived in warmer climates. He said to his father, “Those people are going to need help, but one of the most cantankerous diseases in the Corporate world is Narcissim. You see dad, we’re all in this Universe together. We’re all sharing the same airwaves. But you don’t believe in it and that is why you don’t understand me. If people can’t let go of their narcissism than they will never care enough about those who are suffering or dying enough to make a difference,” and it hit me, the magnitude of how social networking is changing the world and how imperative it is that people realize the power and the necessity of it.
In closing I’d like to say thank you to all of the BlogHer Conference sponsors for allowing this amazing conference to transpire and thank you to the BlogHer staff for successfully running such an organized and tremendous event. Throughout the next few weeks, as I sift through my notes and research all of the information I took in at the Conference, I will continue to share with you what I have learned and introduce you to all of my new BFF’s and in the meantime stay connected!
Photographers: Amy from the Bitchin’ Wives Club, Pauline/OhMommy from Classy Chaos & Ryan Marshall from Pacing the Panic Room
Token Daddy Blogger, Jason Mayo, from Out Numbered
My partner in crime, Heija Nunn from The Worst Mother in the World.
Thank you for bringing on the sweetness with your little one! Baby Making Machine.
Tutus for Tanner participant
Bulging elevators

Message Board at BlogHer