July 29th, 2009

Yup, I Hid In The Corner – My BlogHer Recap

I put the button on my blog and then I did it. I hid, literally, while attending my first ever BlogHer. Maybe my only-ever BlogHer. BlogHer 09 in Chicago was a real experience – some of it amazing, some of it not so much, and despite the fact that there are already numerous amazing recaps all over the blogosphere (there’s a Mr. Linky with bunches of them here) I need to share MY BlogHer experience, as one thing that is absolutely true about such a conference, and ya know, life,  is that it is a difference experience for every single person.

If you want a quick recap read this (but if you like rambling, just keep going, I promise to ramble on later in this post, lol!)

Quick and Dirty:

• Scrabble makes flights go fairly quickly. And seems to be popular with flight attendants!
• Chicago Deep Dish pizza – NOT my thing. At All. Sauce should be first and should actually be, you know, sauce. That’s all there is to say about that!
• Chicago was humid, and I was told that what I experienced was not even that bad for Chicago in July! Alberta is way drier. My hair was not happy.
• Keynotes: I teared up at the initial keynote speech. I felt a true sense of awe at being in that room as the conference opened. That alone was probably worth going for.
• Sessions: Shouldn’t be an easy quick topic but honestly? I didn’t find any of them that illuminating. I think I missed some good stuff due to overlapping unfortunately.
• Parties: Yep, there were lots of parties. I made it to only 3. I was overwhelmed by the people more than I expected to be. Oh well – I had fun anyway! I actually enjoyed the BlogHer 5k way more than the parties I attended!
• Swag: Sure there was some. Personally I enjoy free things, but it was not my focus and therefore I really didn’t catch much of the swag-drama that apparently went on. If you like drama I’m sure you can find plenty of posts on topic!
• Personal Issues: I could have tried harder and right this second I wonder why I didn’t. Yet I know in the moment I just felt so anxious and so not relevant that I didn’t know what to say or who to say it to. I can’t decide if I should try to attend anything similar ever again or if the same thing will happen. I don’t know what type of conference would really be a perfect fit for me, because I’m pretty sure BlogHer wasn’t the best one I could have attended, and let’s face it limited $$$ means I’m grateful to have had the chance to go to even one conference, I certainly won’t be attending multiple events per year. Nothing will be driveable from Alberta, that just isn’t going to happen, so airfare and such will always be a factor. And you know, the childcare drama thing could always come up. Ugh. Still if I found a conference suited perfectly to WAHM’s who blog and adore Twitter, I’d certainly try to go.
• Overall: Totally glad I went to BlogHer. Learned things about myself, enjoyed a trip away from home and the usual routine of my busy life, had yummy Cherry-Coke and amazing cupcakes and now I can cross Chicago off my places to visit list!

Rambling Version

My experience starts Wednesday night. It was so hard leaving my older boys with grandma and grandpa. I cried halfway home (it’s an hour long drive). Then I got home, met up with my sister who was taking over BabyBoy’s care, finished packing, and got very little sleep. Thursday I was up way before my alarm, filled with anxiety and excitement. I headed over to my BFF’s house to pick her up and we were on our way to Chicago. First lesson of the trip – it is so much easier flying without kids!!!

Arrived at O’Hare at midday – what a nice airport! Not that I have much to compare to, but I was pretty impressed overall. Other than the free wifi that I couldn’t actually seem to connect to. The train to downtown was a nice cheap and fairly easy option. Easier on the way home when we knew better what stop to get on at and avoided some stairs that made the walk to the hotel a little annoying! Got quickly checked into the lovely Sheraton and was impressed by the beautiful view from my room.

View from 23rd floor Sheraton

Most exciting part of Thursday? Meeting Amy Derby, aka @LawFirmBlogger!! Amy was great to chat with and it’s so cool to talk with someone in a field so closely related to mine. I think it would be a good sign for future conferences if they were ones I’d meet people like Amy at!

On Friday I got myself up nice and early and made it to the BlogHer 5k organized by PHATMommy. It was a perfect start to the conference for me. Not so many people involved, sunshine on my face and some very nice bloggers to chat with.  After the walk I got myself registered and then the day really got going. I attended sessions mostly in the mommyblogging track. The panelists were excellent but I felt out of place much of the time. Maybe because while I enjoy my blog, I am mostly involved in the blogosphere as a reader and for the sense of community. I couldn’t care less about monetizing, statistics or the like. I’ve seen many comments on the fabulous feedback post over at BlogHer about a writing track for next year. THAT would be worth attending for sure!

I stopped in at the Cocktail Party very quickly Friday night and then grabbed a burger with my BFF in the Sheraton’s burger restaurant. It was okay – nothing exciting, but edible! Then we headed to the Nikon Party (which I was so excited to be invited to!) They have some amazing cameras and can I just say chocolate fountains? Oh. my. god. Yum.

Chocolate goodness!

Also dropped in briefly at the TypeAMomfluence party and the Mommy Needs a Cocktail party (more chocolate – yay!) Then fell into exhausted sleep before starting over Saturday!

Saturday I skipped some sessions, I had periods where nothing appealed unfortunately. But I got in some more sightseeing then and that was nice. Had dinner later at McFadden’s (I think!) and the soup was delicious. Decided I’d had enough of parties, as fun as they can be, and spent Saturday night playing some Scrabble. Sunday was a day full of sightseeing and picture taking. We even caught some glimpses of bike races over by Grant/Millenium Parks! We were surprised by how quiet the downtown area was on Sunday (not that Edmonton’s is much busier!), especially when we had trouble finding somewhere to grab breakfast. Even McDonald’s was closed!

Quiet Downtown on Sunday

We did eventually get lunch though and then took even more pictures. Walked even more. The fountain in Grant Park is beautiful and BFF snapped a pic of me next to it that I actually like!

Laurie in Grant Park

Not long after that our feet gave out and we made one last stop before heading back to the hotel to relax for a bit before going to the airport and then home! I had been following Chicago tweets in the weeks before the conference and one tweet was about several Chicago cupcake shops. I love cupcakes so of course I had to make sure at least one stop was at cupcake shop. We found Sugar Bliss Cupcakes not too far from Millenium Park and WOW. No, not just wow, SUPER WOW. These were the best cupcakes I have ever had. I tried a Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake and the peanut butter icing was just amazing. BFF said a little peanut butter flavor would have enhanced the cupcake better, but the rich dark chocolate worked fine for me! I also tried a mini cupcake in Orange Creamsicle – also delicious!

Sugar Bliss Cupcakes

Mmmmm, peanut butter icing!

After all that sugar and a last Cherry Coke we made our way to the airport without mishap, boarded our plane with no delays and were headed home. Other than almost losing my wallet in Customs (thanks to Travis for calling me back and returning it!!!) and feeling shy and not introducing myself to Redneck Mommy who was right in front of me at the Edmonton Airport, it was a great trip back and I was so happy to be back in my own world!

So will I make it to BlogHer 10 in New York? Only time will tell!