Blogher 2012: A (Attending) Man’s Perspective

My husband decided he wanted to write a post about BlogHer and his perspective on the conference.  I hope you enjoy his humor and if you see him at BlogHer, say Hi!

Disclaimer: This is only my take on the Blogher experience and this is not intended to offend anyone…unless you just take that way.

As we approach the eve of our trip to New York for Blogher ’12, which is my second trip and Calley’s 3^rd , I wanted to share my views on this venture.  I went along for the ride last year in San Diego and came away with a different perspective than I will enter with this year.  I heard all about the last conference held in New York in 2010 and immediately it sounded like a Swag Fest with thousands of women out seeking free merchandise. Let me reemphasize this was only my perception.

After making the trip to San Diego in 2011 I came away with a better understanding of what actually goes on and how serious this is in the eyes of most attendees.  There is of course the occasion “swag grabber” that has no interest in the company or connecting with people and that’s fine because these people laid down their money to attend and they have the right to seek fun in any shape they see fit. What was interesting to me as a newbie was the magnitude of the people there to seek opportunity for growing their blogs, making connections with companies, and most importantly, building relationships with each other.  I did not have a conference ticket but I attended a few functions (he borrowed a friends badge) and as I felt I stood out being a man, no one seemed to care.  I had a blast meeting several of Calley’s friends she has met throughout the years and to this day I still chat on Twitter with several of them.  I can’t wait to see these people again this year knowing them more, and look forward to attending events as an invited guest this year.

As far as the trip as a whole, I am a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work people do to get invited to parties and with our schedule for the next 5 days.  I have personally received invitations to about 7 events (both official and private), some through Calley’s connections, and some through the time I spent online seeking the opportunity to attend.  I have signed up for several functions and attended twitter parties to try to get invites which was successful.  In some way I feel there are many more bloggers out there who really take this serious that would have benefited enormously to get an invite to some of these parties, but by attending myself, I may get a better understanding of the blogger world and maybe someday actually contribute to the blog I set up a year ago.

In the interest of honesty, the real reasons I am looking forward to Blogher, other than reconnecting with friends, is to get back to this great city, attend some great parties, and just have a lot of fun with people I have been connecting with on Twitter for the past year.  It is an added bonus to think of the opportunity to win or receive some great merchandise from the sponsors as well (I promise to attempt to write about these companies products in an honest manner on backtocalley.com or a blog to be named later).

If you see me mingling around at the conference, please stop by to say hello or “connect” as I will attempt to do the same.  I hope this year is better than last year and this will become a @theecochicman tradition with @theecochic and friends!