I Had a Blast BlogHer09,  but Please Market to Me as a Professional Too!

mrspotatoheadI attended BlogHer09 over the weekend. I was really excited to go. It was built up as the women’s event to attend. Anyone who was anyone in the woman’s blog world was attending.

I didn’t meet a person I didn’t like. I didn’t meet a person who was unfriendly, rude or unaccepting. There was a warm and inviting aura around BlogHer. Everyone talked to everyone. There were no boundaries. Not a common thing in today’s society. Where was the cattiness, the judging, the categorizing? If it was there, I didn’t see it.

I watched Twitter updates for weeks about all the women shopping and planning wardrobes for BlogHer. I definitely brought way too many clothes based on the tweet watch. It was more casual and accepting than it appeared.

I came home from BlogHer with mixed feelings about the event. It was a lot of fun to meet women with diverse interests and backgrounds. It was awesome to meet women I follow on Twitter and in the Blogosphere. It was energizing to be in my element. Surrounded by bloggers and online social media strategists. There was a strong sense of community.

Overall I had a really good experience. It was so much fun and the networking was second to none. The parties I attended were a lot of fun.

I came home with a whole new view on Twitter. Different uses and strategies as well as friends to tweet with. I came home with ideas and directions for my new blog.

I really liked all the live bloggers at all of the sessions. I couldn’t attend two at the same time, so now I can go back and read about the sessions I missed along with read the sessions I attended for info I may have missed. It’s nice to have a record of everything to go back and reference.

BlogHer, as a professional development tool, left me wanting more.

In the Exhibitor Hall all of the exhibitors and sponsors were there to market to women and especially moms. Brand recognition and market saturation is important, but I expected more techie exhibitors. Word Press should have had a booth. Apple. Adobe. HP. Google. Where were the serious web and tech marketers? Instead of learning more about the tools I can use for my blog and social networking, I was approached by Wal-Mart, Tide, All, Mary Kay and Go-Girl.

I’m not saying there wasn’t a place for these brands at the conference, but where were the industry-related sponsors? If this is a conference for serious women bloggers then where were the serious online brands and companies?

The sessions. Several attendees had the same concerns as I did about the sessions. The sessions were good. I enjoyed the conversation and seeing a lot of people I follow online in live action. But I didn’t walk away from the sessions feeling like I learned much. I did learn something at each one, but I didn’t feel weighed down by the amount of information flowing from each one.

I did not attend a Geek Lab (which I heard some were informative.) The sessions I did attend, turned mostly into a discussion and forum for attendees to chat about their blogs and personal situations. While I think discussion sessions are good under some topics, I wanted some sessions to be more focused and more in-depth. Every session I attended only barely scratched the surface.

My favorite session of the conference was Mommy Microblogging with the Twitter Moms. It was my circle, the people I follow on Twitter and in the blogosphere and it was a good discussion about being a mom/blogger/social networker online.

I wanted to balance my experience with a great discussion with my peers and then go learn more about the field I am in.

I attended Business of You: Advanced Social Media, Syndication and Stats on Day 2. One of the panelists didn’t have much advice or recommendations for tools. Her answer was “just Google your question and see what comes up.” I don’t need to travel to a conference to learn how to Google for tools. I can do that at home. I want to hear what everyone else is using and their reasons.

Maybe BlogHer needs to have more level-based sessions. Offer an advanced or beginner session on a topic. Or offer discussion-only topics. The Geek Labs were a good start for this. But where were the workshops for people who wanted to drill down further?

Here are some suggestions I have for BlogHer10:

- Bring sponsors in that market to women and moms. But also market to me as a professional.

- Session topics that are meatier – Social Marketing, SEO (this year’s Advanced SEO was very beginner), How to Monetize Your Blog.

- More information about the panelists. I knew some of them going in and attended some sessions based on who the panelists were, but I also discovered bloggers and twitterers. If I didn’t recognize them, then I didn’t have any more info on them. List all panelists by name, blog/website and Twitter handle on the agenda. They will be able to pick up new followers easier.

- A dinner break would be nice.

- An even stronger focus on going green during the conference.

- Better Wi-Fi. I fought keeping service the entire time. There were session rooms where I couldn’t get online at all.

- Better sound. I almost walked out of a few sessions because my ears hurt from all the feedback.

What is your feedback from the conference? What would you change for next year? Are you planning to attend next year? Do you agree or disagree with my opinion?