Let’s Take It Offline – BlogHer & Blogger Social

Let’s Take It Offline – BlogHer & Blogger Social

I wrapped up my week last week in New York at 2 amazing in-person events for active online social media creators: BlogHer Business and Blogger Social ’08. I walked away with more robust connections with people I already knew online and a list of new blogs that I should be reading. It is difficult to wrap up 72 amazing hours, but I’ll try.

BlogHer Business was an eye opening event. Major standouts to me were results of Compass Partners research on women in the blogosphere, hearing about Kodak & DC Goodwill‘s blogging efforts. On the blogger engagement front, Method, Graco & GM shared the results of their respective approaches of working with bloggers – sharing the stage with bloggers when they presented the case study. For any PR person who has ever considered blasting a press release to bloggers hoping it will stick, they would thing again after hearing some of the horror stories of bad influencer outreach told along the way. My favorite comments from bloggers:

Typing my name after “dear” is not a personalized approach.

You wouldn’t knock on my door and ask to put a billboard for a product I have never seen or touched in my front yard – why would you think I would post a jpeg for a product I’ve never seen or touched on something as personal as my blog?

really Mack & VeeDubJust an hour after BlogHer Business wrapped, I was off to Blogger Social. The concept for the event was simple – get a bunch of bloggers together to hang out and have fun. That’s it. No powerpoints, no projects, no pitches – social. One of the highlights for me was being able to put a face to The Viral Garden. Mack Collier was one of the first bloggers to pick up and write about the Fiskateers crafting ambassador movement on which I had the pleasure to work during my time at Brains on Fire. Being able to spend time talking to him in person took us from the mutual admiration society to real friends and I look forward to our next meeting.

Overall lesson from the 3 days?  Twitter is real – get to know it.

Many, many, many thanks for the event planning/hosting duties of CK and Drew and the friendly welcome from my new BS08 friends (listed below).  How many days until BS09?

Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas Darryl Ohrt Joe Kutchera Paul Dunay Marshall Sponder Chris Kieff Tara Anderson Jason Falls Paul Soldera Roberta Rosenberg Saul Colt Todd Andrlik Nathan Snell Ryan Karpeles Mike Sansone Jennifer Laycock Neil Vineberg Cam Beck Mike Arauz Matthew Bailey Heather Gorringe John Rosen Cathleen Rittereiser Tamar Weinberg Rita Perea Linda Sherman Matthew McDonald Kaitlyn Wilkins Terry Starbucker
Jennifer Berk
Jane Quigley John Wall Scott Monty Kevin Horne Virginia Miracle Amanda Gravel Susan Reynolds David Polinchock Shashi Bellamkonda David Berkowitz Vahe Habeshian

7 Replies to “Let’s Take It Offline – BlogHer & Blogger Social”

  1. Bummed I missed the event but we’ve learned quite a bit from all the great BlogHer people. we’ll definitely be at the next one…there’s just too many Twitter friends to put a face to! Good wrap-up. – Mike

  2. Virginia the only thing I didn’t like about Blogger Social was that there just wasn’t enough time to actually connect with everyone. I was SO grateful that I was actually able to spend some time talking to you and getting to know you. Can’t wait to do it again!

  3. I was just about to yell at you for being in New York and not telling me, but then I remembered that I’m coming to see you next weekend.

  4. Viriginia,
    Even if we both live in the DC area its a “miracle” that we had to meet at the Blogger Social. I am looking forward to connecting with you more often at DC events.
    I agree with Mack that there was not enough time to have a conversation with everyone so i am looking forward to Blogger Social 2008-2 and Blogger Social 2009.

    Cheers !

    Shashi

  5. Virginia, I agree with Mack! There just wasn’t enough time. I was hoping to spend more time with you on Saturday. However, I am thrilled I got to meet you and look forward to connecting more virtually and in person again soon.

  6. Virginia, I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to meet you both Friday night and again at Rohit’s Breakfast Brainstorming for Personality Not Included. I just posted a bit of a follow-up on my experience of the contest and breakfast. Could you please take a look?
    http://itsdifferent4girls.com/blog/2008/04/08/the-thrill-of-competition-and-trying-harder/
    Happy to be introduced to your blog and hope we meet again soon. Cool note from EV.
    @lindasherman

  7. Hi Virginia, we had very briefly spoken last weekend and I’m glad you had a great time. Indeed, the time was way too short; if only there was a massive pause button. I’ll keep an eye out for your posts.
    Take care…

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