My BlogHer Experience - Kelby, Katherine & Catherine from About.com

Despite my some basic anxiety over attending such a large conference and a slightly rocky start (standing in a massive lobby by myself while trying to find just one familiar face!), I had a fantastic time at BlogHer. I was exhausted, people’d out and drowning in swag and was still on an incredible high. I had such an amazing experience that I was downright shocked upon my return to see so many negative posts. I can’t quite reconcile the experience I had with those of the bloggers who felt compelled to write something negative as their first BlogHer recaps.

To clarify, I saw a lot of the things other people complained about, but I just choose not to make those a part of my own personal experience. I firmly believe that events like this are what you make of them and my goals were to connect with other blogging friends and leaders in the field. I more than met any expectations I had in that area.

A Few Highlights

1. Working with an awesome sponsor who I also consider to be a friend. (Thanks to Honey Hamilton at Pogo.com!)

2. Meeting the most fantastic, intelligent and kind women from all over the world. After reading past reports from people who felt left out by other bloggers, I can honestly say that I didn’t experience that. There was only one blogger who blew me off (on several occasions), but she was a definite exception.

3. Hosting/Co-hosting not one, but two fun parties and meeting even more great ladies. (Thanks to the folks at RIDEMAKERZ, 360 Public Relations, and Eli’s Cheesecake!)

4. Meeting my hilarious, high-maintenance, but incredibly thoughtful roommate, Kathrin (@kathrinoutloud)

5. The Marketing to Moms of Color session. Wowza, ladies, you are all amazing!

6. The super-kind people at O’Hare airport who helped me through a really trying morning.

7.  Hanging out with fellow About.com Guides.

8. Winning two different giveaways from the vendor expo.

9. Making out with blow-up Scott Monty in the CheeseburgHer Suite shower.

Blow-Up Scott Monty and I at CheeseburgHer

10. Hugs.

Weird, but Cool

1. Becoming a “Twitter celebrity” because people could recognize me from my Twitter avatar! All weekend long, people kept pointing at me and saying, “I KNOW YOU!” and then not introducing themselves.

2. Being the only person in a room of about 1000 people to give a shout out to the new Air Protect car seats during opening session on Friday.

Water Off My Back

1. Greedy, grabby swagsters. And my apologies to @AnissaMayhew for being weirdly obnoxious on Thursday evening. I blame the strong drinks from the open bar at the reception!

2. Missing out on one private party in particular for a brand which I would be a huge advocate for, and whose PR people know I’ve shown a lot of interest in. Boo to you.

3. Being charged $10 to receive a package at the Sheraton. Seriously?

4. Weak Internet access at the Sheraton.

Take Away

Trying to describe the essence of Quirky Fusion and realizing that the site hasn’t yet moved in the direction I want it to go… I’m going to really take some time to think and get back on track, so that was really useful.

If you haven’t already, you can read about The Danger of Too Much Swag and BlogHer and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day.

Yeah, we're dorky. So what?

Isn't she fabulous?

Related posts:

1. Life Lessons from BlogHer
2. The Danger of Too Much Swag: A BlogHer Tale of Caution
3. BlogHer 10 Recap – The Good, the Bad and the Swagly

It started before I even left for BlogHer. I felt like I was catching a cold and then went to bed far too late to get enough sleep. I never managed to catch up. In fact, if you met me during BlogHer and asked how I was doing, I probably told you I was tired. Damn, was I tired. And when you factor in the sheer number of people time for someone who’s as introverted as I am, it’s amazing I could form a coherent sentence.

I planned to call and change the time for my shuttle. It was supposed to pick me up at 8am, but my flight didn’t leave until 11am. But, by the time I got back from my weepy farewells in the lobby, it was far too late to talk to an operator. I decided to suck it up and try to get some sleep on the plane.

I was up very late sorting and packing swag. I had brought an extra bag, but I ended up needing two. I managed to finish most of the packing by about 2am and tried to fall asleep. Let’s just say that 6:45am came too early! I threw my last minute things into my bags and looked around to make sure there wasn’t anything I had missed. My roommate was just waking up, so I managed to pull this all off with very little lighting. Of course, that’s with one very heavy main bag, a duffle and very-full carry-ons. And, as I went to close the duffle that I had decided to pack, the zipper broke. I had no duct tape (I will have to add that to my always-pack list) and no other bags big enough to hold the stuff, so I decided to head off to the airport and hope that I could find a solution there.

I had a lovely trip to the airport, but I have misplaced the card for the blogger I chatted with (if you read this, please leave a comment!). When we pulled up to terminal, I realized that my ID wasn’t in my purse. No big deal… I had pulled it out for a party the previous night and had left it out on the desk with my primary credit card. I was fairly certain I had grabbed it on my way out of the door. I checked my pockets… nope. I checked my laptop bag… nope. So I settled in on a bench at the airport and started digging through all of my bags. Nothing. I called my roommate about a hundred times before she answered her phone (Kathrin, what’s up with your always-full voicemail?!). She had already checked out, so I called hotel security. In the meantime, I put out a call on Twitter for a blogger who was leaving the hotel shortly to head to OHare. I found someone (Thanks, MomNoir) but the hotel called back to say that they couldn’t find my ID.

When I approached the Northwest desk at the airport, I was pretty close to tears. I explained the situation to the attendant who kindly assured me that it would all be fine. She checked me in and found tape and plastic to help tape up the bag. But, since it had to go through the X-ray machine first, I couldn’t tape it up. The woman at security was a bit reluctant at first, but after my desperate plea, she taped my bag up for me. I can’t say enough good things about the people at that terminal. The thing that really saved me here was that I had booked a first-class ticket (using frequent flier miles). I got two bags (including one that was overweight) for free. So, just when things were looking bad, I had that to hold on to.

For those who are curious, you can get through security with no ID. If you have anything with a photo, that helps. They also asked for things with my name/address and, in particular, a prescription bottle. In the end, they had to call their database and ask me a number of questions to confirm my identity. I passed with flying colors, although I will say that I could certainly have had some trouble. They asked what county I live in and Massachusetts isn’t a place where we identify very closely around county lines. It’s a small state… we don’t need to divide it up too much more.

Right as security was clearing me, Jenn Fowler walked by. She’s lucky I didn’t smother her in kisses, I was so happy to see her. We grabbed drinks (where the Starbucks barista gave me the wrong food item – sigh) and had a nice chat at the gate. My flight to Minnesota was nice. I swapped places with one member in an older couple so they could sit together, which made them happy, and was happy to sit by the window in first class. Getting to the next flight was a bit confusing, but I made it all without too much trouble.

The next flight wasn’t quite as nice. It was another tiny plane (3 seats across) and first class isn’t nearly so cushy in a plane that size. Honestly, it’s almost exactly like coach, but with a flight attendant. Unlike larger planes, there is no wall between first class and coach either, so I was less than overjoyed to be sitting immediately in front of a family of 5 with a nearly newborn, older baby (he looked like 10 or 11 months) and a little girl who seemed to be about 4 and who NEVER STOPPED TALKING. The kids were reasonably well-behaved, but they generated a good share of noise nonetheless. I didn’t get the much-needed nap I had hoped for, but at least we got some food. The one real perk of first-class on that plane was a lunch service.

I landed in Manchester airport exhausted, over stimulated and extremely happy to have a car service waiting for me. Only I didn’t see a guy standing around with a sign with my name on it. So, I claimed my ridiculously heavy luggage and wandered over to the front door. Now, Manchester is a relatively small airport, so it wasn’t like there were thousands of people milling around this area. No car. I called the dispatcher who told me to head down the escalator. Uhm. I’m on ground level! And just as she’s telling me to go outside and walk and walk, the sky opened up and dumped buckets of water to go with some thunder and lightening. I started to cry. I seriously considered calling my husband to come and pick me up at the terminal (apparently the car service wasn’t allowed to meet me at the door). Instead, I hauled my luggage through the airport and out the door where my adorable car driver was waiting. He was so sweet and worried about me that I instantly felt better.  After a few miles of silence where I tried to recover from the day, he told me about his college graduation and his trip with friends. We talked about twitter and blogging conferences and I had a really nice ride home.

During the ride, my driver pointed up at the sky and said, “Look! It’s a rainbow!” And it reminded me that with all of the bad things that had gone on during the day, I had been given just as many good things. I’m going to choose to remember those instead.

If you’re curious about my family’s reception for me when I got home, here goes. LadyBug just sort of stood there and stared at me. Bug, said, “Mama! Did you bring home something fun for me?” And Big Guy flopped on the floor in exhaustion. Yeah, it’s nice to be home.

P.S. If you want to know what happened to my ID/credit card, you can find out here.

P.S.P.S. And I do realize that, in the general scheme of things, it wasn’t so bad of a day. That was kind of the point.

Related posts:

1. BlogHer 10 Recap – The Good, the Bad and the Swagly
2. The Danger of Too Much Swag: A BlogHer Tale of Caution
3. BlogHer 09: Looking Back

Attack of the Swag Bags

I was warned to expect lots of swag at BlogHer. I just underestimated what “lots” meant. Someone should have said absurdly, obscenely, over-the-top amounts of swag. Now, I wasn’t out elbowing children or robbing other BlogHers. I mean, I like stuff, but I don’t like it more than I like other people. Still, I had ridiculous, overwhelming bags of this and that. I wouldn’t have minded less. It’s sort of like wedding favors… if it’s isn’t edible or day-to-day useful, save your money. On the other hand, once I had it, I certainly wasn’t going to throw away anything of use.

I spent forever sorting through the swag, “recycling” some and trying to figure out how to get the rest home. I ended up checking a second bag and bringing an additional carry-on. And I still barely got it all home. My carry-on had a big bag that consisted entirely of edible items (chips, candy, gum, cookies, etc. – I have a hard time throwing food away) as well as sponges (yeah, we use sponges – not going to throw them out and have to buy more at home) and various other things. All of the things I needed to access throughout the day were in my other bag… my laptop, book, receipts, and so on were easily accessible.

I blogged about the whole drama that took place in another post, but basically, I got up far too early (for me), quickly finished packing and ran out the door. I had a lovely chat on the shuttle to the airport, but when we pulled up to my terminal, I couldn’t find my ID or credit card. They weren’t in their usual spot in my purse because I had pulled them out to go to a party the night before.  I knew they were sitting on the desk the night before, but was almost positive that I packed them. I went through my carry-ons over and over again trying to find them, but they were nowhere to be found.

After a full day of drama trying to get through security with no ID, I was finally home. Once the kids were in bed, I was sorting through the swag and showing some things to my husband. He got hungry and I said, “Don’t bother to get up. Check this out.” And I dumped my food swag bag in front of him. Guess what was at the bottom of that bag? Yep. My ID and credit card.

Foiled by the swag!

Related posts:

1. BlogHer and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Day
2. BlogHer 09: Looking Back
3. BlogHer 10 Recap – The Good, the Bad and the Swagly

In addition to the Summer in the City party I’m co-hosting on Friday with EA Sports, Pogo.com and the Wii Mommies, I’ve got another little shindig on my radar.

Tonight I’m hosting an early bird reception for roughly 35 bloggers and friends. It all began when some of the Ford attendees started to talk about getting together for dinner or drinks the night before. I took that and ran with it and now we’re having a small reception at Quartino’s Ristorante in Chicago. It’ll be low-key, but it will also be a nice chance to get to know each other in a small group before the main conference kicks off.

We are fortunate to have a few really great sponsors. Our first sponsor is RIDEMAKERZ. For those of you who don’t have one nearby, it’s sort of like Build-a-Bear, but you’re designing  model cars instead. We had the chance to play around with one of the remote control versions and it’s a big hit in our house. The RIDEMAKERZ folks are not only sponsoring the event, but they’re sending some nice giveaways as well. Plus, we’ll have some RIDEZ on hand to assemble and play with. Fun!

Our other primary sponsor is 360 Public Relations. I’ve had a chance to work them quite a bit and am always impressed by their professionalism when it comes to working with bloggers. They work with some high profile family-friendly brands, including PBS Kids, Stop and Shop and Safety 1st and maintain the 360PR MomSquad (of which I am a member) to provide frontline feedback to their clients. They’re heading to BlogHer Business and will also be representing Safety 1st  in the Expo area. They’ve given us some great giveaway items, too, including a new carseat which utilizes the new Air Protect technology for added protection in side-impact collisions. If you see them around BlogHer, please give them a warm hello and tell them I sent you!

Lastly, not so much a sponsor as a generous donor, we’ve got Eli’s Cheesecake. Andie, from the mail order division saw a plea from one of our attendees for some cheesecake. She kindly offered to send us a cheesecake tower. Yeah, pretty fabulous!

So, that’s the “Enjoy the RIDEZ” reception. It’s fitting to kick off our time with Ford by playing with toy cars and giving away an amazing new car seat.

Related posts:

1. Party With Me at BlogHer ’09! (and try Word Whomp, too)
2. Stop & Shop Invites Boston Bloggers to Enjoy a Little Sibling Rivalry
3. Measuring My Influence

This morning I’m on the road. I was up til 2am packing and wrapping things up, and then had to get up just before 7am. Luckily, I just needed to take a shower and get dressed. The car (thanks, Pogo.com!) was waiting for me when I got out of the shower, so I quickly got dressed to head out. I was pretty sad that the kids chose today to sleep in, so they weren’t awake to say good-bye.

My car diver was very nice (Hi, Bill Marsh!) and I told him I’d say something nice about him on my blog. We had a good chat about kids, families and Internet safety.

I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, but thankfully there is WiFi to keep me occupied. Now I have a few minutes to comment on some of the characters I’ve already encountered.

1. Thanks to the woman at the check-in counter who took a moment to help me out with the new baggage kiosks. They’re different than the ones I’m used to and I was having trouble getting it together on so little sleep. I was hoping she was heading to BlogHer (she looked like a blogger to me!), but she was on her way to Milwaukee.

2. A slap in the back of the head to the family in front of me in the security line. They had a fairly large carry-on bag and the security team pulled it out to inspect. The inspector said, “Do you have anything sharp or dangerous in here that you want to tell me about?” The woman replied that they had plates and some silver candlesticks. Now, obviously if the security guy is asking you, they’ve seen something. Dig a little deeper. After he dug through the bag for awhile, she remembered that she had packed a set of dessert forks and knives. Really? Sure, you may forget your pocketknife or random other item that you carry everywhere, but an entire set of cutlery? I’m not sure what they did there… presumably they worked it all out because I see them in the waiting area with me.

3. To all of the many people having extremely personal conversations on their cell phones: either lower your voice or wait until you have privacy. Geez.

4. And lastly, to the woman who sat down next to me as I’m clearly wrting on my laptop and took a moment to say, “Hi.” I appreciate your friendliness, but  DON’T appreciate you immediately hopping on your phone for a loud conversation. You don’t have to sit nearly on top of someone if you’re going to get on the phone.

Looking forward to getting to Chicago already, but pretty freaked out by the relatively small plane I’m taking. They switched planes after I booked my flight and stuck me in the way back of a plane with just three seats across. It’s very likely I’m going to develop motion-sickness. Blah.

Related posts:

1. Eyes on the Prize (and the Road)