After a half dozen cab rides through the crazy-busy streets of New York City, a sweat-your-life-away romp through the Central Park Zoo, more parties than I typically attend in a year’s time, better food than I ever cook for myself, and general fun with my friends, I am finally back home in the land of wash-your-own-dishes and make-your-own-bed. I am uploading my BlogHer pictures as I speak (all 760 of them!), and am struggling to get back into my blogging and children-tending rhythm, when all I really want to do today is sleep.
I must say that BlogHer was nearly completely different than I was imagining. Does that make sense? Nearly completely? Here are a few of my biggest surprises from BlogHer 2010:
- I didn’t use my computer. In fact, I only pulled my laptop out once. It ended up being a waste of precious extra space (which I was running very low on come Sunday morning). Who would have known that I would do no blogging while at a blogging conference?
- I saw the same people almost everywhere I went (usually people that I already knew quite well) and others I couldn’t meet up with for the life of me.
- They fed us….and they fed us well! I was expecting free water and maybe a few cookies, but we had fancy food at every meal. The only time I had to buy food was on my way to the train station to leave on Sunday afternoon. And I felt compelled, anyway, to eat a gyro from a street vendor (which ended up being a little piece of heaven!)
- Even New Yorkers stare at three tut-clad women walking the streets at 7:00 in the morning with strange looks.
- The swag from all of the vendors was way better than I was expecting, and way MORE than I ever could have imagined. And the brands who attended BlogHer were so much nicer and engaging than I could have hoped for.
- Ree, the Pioneer Woman, was both gorgeous (and tall) in person and kind enough to stop and chat. But even more amazing was the fact that she remembered a picture of mine that she featured on her blog back in January 2009. How cool is that?
- I hardly made it to any classes. And yet, I feel like I came away having learned a lot.
- I won tons of cool things (like a great new phone from t-mobile and shoes of my choice from Ecco). Last night was seriously like Christmas when I got home and opened my suitcase.
- I love bloggers. Not that that is a huge revelation. But this weekend was immensely positive. And I connected with people I never would have expected to.
- My sponsors, Mabel’s Labels, SEED, and Hershey’s S’mores were the MOST AWESOME companies ever to work with (did you guys see the S’Mores suite?!). I have nothing but the best things to say about them!!
If you went to BlogHer this year, what surprised you the most about the conference weekend?
Note: During BlogHer 2010 in New York City, I received many items free of charge, either as swag or contest prizes. I was not obligated to write about any of the cool stuff I received, and all mentions are purely because I really appreciated them!
© 2010, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
It was such a fun weekend!
It sounds fabulous!! I want to go so bad next year!!
I only did 3 sessions, and I feel like I came away with so much more than I ever hoped for. So with you on that!
I missed it this year, but I will so be there next year. I hope I get to meet you!
I am so glad that you had a good time.
Sometime will you share, how you went about getting those companies to sponsor you? Did you just ask or what?
Just curious, that is all. :)
Sounds like a lot of fun!! I hope to make it BlogHer one day….and hopefully I’ll make it to NYC one day too!! So much to see & do…I love travel! Thanks for sharing your experience!
I’m glad you had a great time! I was at home but had a great weekend anyway ;-)
It was so awesome to hang out with you (a lot) this weekend.
Sounds like fun, I wish they had blogging conferences over here in Italy!
I am sad that I never met you.
I almost LIVED in the Hershey’s suite. Crack on a cracker, those things were the bomb.
I was disappointed that I only made it to two sessions. Both sessions were good. I was surprised at how long it took to get from event to event. I did my research with Mapquest and Hopstop before BlogHer, but neither account for traffic, lateness of events, and my sluggishness.
All in all, I had an amazing time. Met so many new bloggers through posting at MomSpark community. I had people coming up to me wanting to meet me, which was fun and overwhelming at the same time.
Sounds like so much fun! I am hoping to get there next year when it is a bit closer to me.