That time I was fancy
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Where to even start with the weekend that was BlogHer 2012? With the feeling of celebration and connection at our celebrate your small blog panel? With a shout out to all the incredibly friendly and interesting women I met? With a recap of the interviews with Martha Stewart and Katie Couric? Or with some descriptions of the panels I attended? Hearing other people's blogs?
Because there's no doubt that being a panelist on the celebrate your small blog panel was, for me, the absolute highlight of the trip, I'm going to start there.
It wasn't just because I got to sit up there and pretend I was fancy, though I'm not going to lie and say that wasn't part of it. But the real joy was the energy of community in the room.
I had told someone earlier that I wasn't really sure what questions people would have for us panelists because we weren't experts in anything. We weren't teaching them how to work on a particular platform or market their book proposal. We were just telling them about our own experiences. But as it turned out, we were both facilitators of the discussion and experts. Because we had spent time thinking about and talking to each other about what it meant to us to have small blogs, we'd developed some expertise at least in what it means to be a small blogger.
My co-panelists were fabulous - Nicci with her relaxed and conversational style moderating the panel an keeping us on track and Olivia wowing me with her thoughtful meditations not only on being a small blogger but on the world of digital media and our place in it.
And then there were the attendees. I was worried that folks might be shy about speaking up, that we might have to pull it out of them. I needn't have. We're bloggers. We love to share. Women told us about the hard parts of blogging, but mostly we talked about why we do it and why we love it - about the ability to talk about the things we need to - difficult subjects like mental illness and abuse as well as fun things like entertainment and children and the everyday delights of our lives.
We talked about everything from privacy and censorship to inspiration and community-building (hint: twitter is key).
I have a whole new reading roster.
Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the panel.
Here's a list of those of you who I know were there. And those of you who kept quiet, share you info if you're so inclined.
Bacon Seed
The Life Muse
Reading and Chickens
Mama One to Three
Do Not Faint
Classic NYC Story
Sassy Monkey
Cubbies and Nooks
Miss Kris Kringle
Lady M
Tales from Clark Street
Conscientious Confusion
The Decorating Dork
Life with Roozle
Powersfullife
Magpie Musing
Mia Bella Vida
The Variegated Life
Let the community-building begin!
If you'd like to check out the tweets for the event, look here.
You can find a live-blog that's somewhat accurate here!
Katie
