BlogHer 2012 Recap

Hello Hello! I am fresh off the heels of my first ever BlogHer Conference and wow was it amazing! My weekend was overwhelming, exhausting, inspiring, exhilarating, and just plain fun! I got a lot out of it, and know that there are things I will continue to reflect upon and discover about this weekend in the coming days, weeks, months and even years.

On Thursday night I attended the expo and got some amazing free swag!! I went to Astoria to drop all my stuff off at my friend's apartment, and was feeling tired and "meh" about going back out to the welcome party. It didn't take much for Anna to convince me to stay behind and share a bottle of sparkling wine with her! I ended up hanging out with Anna and Timmy on their roof until 12:30 that night. They were a fantastic host Mom and Dad to me this weekend! Being able to stay with them ended up being such a life-saver!

Friday morning I left bright and early for the newbie breakfast and the first session: The Personal | Blogging for the Love of It. Then it was time for lunch, where Martha Stewart was the keynote speaker!

After lunch I attended Beginnner | Ten Things You Can Do Now to Maximize Your Social Media Expertise but left early to get the end of Strategic Content Development Across Multiple Media: Onstage, Onscreen, and Online (which I liked much better). Then I attended The Voices of the Year Reception where we listened to 15 amazing bloggers share their selected pieces. These posts ranged from sad to the hilarious! 

After that I decided I HAD to check out the Hershey's Camp Bondfire Suite! I headed up with with my new friends Sara and Jackie, where we made our own smores!

 

 

Friday night was the annual Sparklecorn party. All I can say there was lots of sparkle and unicorns...certainly interesting. The showstopper of the party was this cake:

Here with my new friend, Sara, of Toddler Summer! We attended many of the weekend's sessions together and I am so happy to have met this wonderful and sweet woman!

I also loved meeting Jackie, who blogs from Paris at HJ Underway! Her and Sara were roommates for the weekend.

I finally got to meet the fabulous Victoria at Crowning Victoria! I've been following her for quite some time now, and I think this picture sums up her hilarious and vibrant personality!

That night I went back to Astoria and literally passed out- still in my clothes, contacts in, makeup on, teeth not brushed! Rare are the nights that happens to me!

Saturday I attended more sessions, and then our lunch kyenote speaker was Katie Couric. I always "liked" Katie Couric but now, I LOVE Katie Couric. I loved every single thing she said and she is truly inspirational. I'm very excited for her new talk show, Katie, to start up this September.

After that was another keynote discussion: Women Influencers as Change Agents Keynote, with Soledad O'Brien, Christy Turlington Burns, and Malaak Compton-Rock. I wish I could have enjoyed this more than I did. Malaak Compton-Rock was very distracted and not with it. It was uncomfortable to watch her struggle with talking about her charity work, or answering any questions that were directed at her. I just plain felt bad for her and hope that it was nothing more than that she was having an "off day".
 
Saturday Night I attended the Baby B(L)oomer's Party hosted by BOOMbox Network to take video of their party using the Storymix Media app. They had a beautiful party at the amazing OffSite event space in NYC. There, I met a really great woman, Barbara, who blogs at Friend for the Ride. She was amazingly sweet and interesting to talk to. Imagine my surprise when I found out she is the mother of one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Kath, at Kath Eats Real Food!!! I was very starstruck :)

Saturday late-night was the CheeseburgHer party, hosted by McDonalds. We decorated McDonald's bag "hats" when we arrived, it was quite silly. I looked ridiculous in mine, but here it is hanging out with Sara's hat:

There was even a photo booth which Sara, Jackie and I took full advantage of!!

After the party I said goodbye to my new blog friends and headed back to Astoria where I somehow managed to take my contacts out before crashing into bed again still completely in my clothes. I will remember this weekend for a long time and looking forward to Blogher13 next year in Chicago!! I have lots of blog reflection and revamping to do, and you will certainly start to see some changes around here in the coming months!

The lovely ladies of BlogHer12!