Saga V

Saturday, July 19, 2008


A new day, a second chance would I fulfill my goal of networking? Damn, I hoped so. Breakfast was again a lonely croissant and sitting off to the side of the ballroom so I would have a plug for my laptop. The morning session was fun in that the Michelin Man was there.



First break out session of the day was something that I had an interest in even though I didn’t fit the stereotype. Who We Are: Women Without Children and the Blogosphere. I was looking for some content ideas other than mommyblogging. But what I found was a room full of women who felt they were being slighted by the blogging world and others because they do not have children. Perchance this room of women needed a place to feel free to rant and that’s fine, but it wasn’t what I was looking for so I took advantage of the “two feet” rule from BlogHer and went elsewhere.



I tried to pry my body into the sardine can that was holding the Who Better Serves Women Like You: Obama or McCain? But is was beyond crowded and hot and I couldn’t hear so I will watch the video of it from Erin on Qik. We had a long time for lunch and I was again not in a socializing mode so I went up to my room and napped and moped.



Breakout number two today was one I was very interested in and it didn’t let me down at all. What We Do: There's More to Monetization than Advertising. Although a lot of it was over my head, I did my best to try to keep up and bookmark all the affiliate programs and such that were mentioned. A huge shout out to @JLongtine by the way for all his webshots throughout the sessions he was at.



Oh yeah and somewhere in between these sessions I ended up winning more from @HP_Blogs. I even wrote a limerick to win another webcam. Wanna hear it? I knew you did:
There once was a Blogger from LA
Who drove very very far away
She made friends at Hp
A she and a he
Because they were giving stuff away.
{{applause}}



I decided to skip the last session and just do some catching up on emails and Google reader (500 items!) Sitting in an almost empty Ballroom, I suppose I could have gone over to the “clique” in the corner, but they weren’t very receptive the last time I tried, so instead I just sat alone. It was then I wrote a very “naked” blog for the BlogHer site regarding my experience so far and poured my heart out (and a lot of tears as well). And it was there that I read this from Casey and again the tears and lack of self confidence came back. But because of her I reminded myself that I was only going to get out of this conference network wise whatever I put into it. So I put on my more inviting face and even smiled at a couple of people. I was approached by the girls from GM and “interviewed” about my feelings on the Malibu Hybrid. I was honest about everything and mentioned the humongous bruise on my hip. Because they were there, their peers also came and sat for the closing keynote.



The speakers this evening were blogging rock stars Dooce and Stephanie Klein. I think I was the only one in the room who had never read them (except the GM girls, I had to do a lot of explaining to one of them). There was a bit of q and a and even some drama between Dooce and The Bloggess, but really I was just sitting there trying to work up the nerve to go to the closing cocktail reception.