Monday, May 02, 2005
The Full BlogHer Conference Agenda Is Published!
Cross-posted at Personal Blog too.
OK, big sigh of relief over here on my part, and I'm sure on partners Lisa and Jory's part too. We committed to post a full session schedule for BlogHer by May 1st, and we made our deadline.
You can see the new, full schedule here.
What you will see:
1. It's a rich full day. Sessions actually run from 8:30AM to 5:45PM.
2. There is a built-in networking segment toward the beginning of the day. I always find it a bit of a waste to simply have a networking function at the end. How much better to connect to people and get comfortable before you have to sit in a room and try to have interesting, interactive discussions! Of course, we're going to plan a no-host dinner for the night before, so we hope to meet a lot of people then too.
3. There are some full-group sessions at the beginning and end of the day, but the big chunk in the middle is split into 4 tracks. The 4th track is the one that's getting a lot of buzz, because it's our "Room of Your Own" track, a room that's been set aside and fully equipped, but will be open to attendees to schedule and use to create the session they really want to attend, but don't see on our schedule. We've already gotten some amazing ideas, as you can see, but I'm sure there are more floating around out there. There is one track that's definitely business-oriented...focusing on how blogging fits into your life as a business person, whether you're running a start-up, working for an enterprise, or in business for yourself. One track is geared toward more interactive discussions about identity and communication. And then there's a track that's got more of a focus on the journalistic side of blogging.
4. There are also some down to brass tacks technical training sessions...from beginning to advance levels. I'm really torn myself. I know I need to get more technically adept, but I hate to miss any of the discussions. Maybe I'll flit about from room to room like a hummingbird. Probably not the best way to learn, huh?
5. We have an awesome mix of well-known and lesser-known voices on the panels and in the sessions. We made a real effort to cull suggestions from our blog commenters and other people who emailed. We made a real effort to find people with diverse voices and experience. And I feel pretty gratified that the vast majority we asked to participate agreed immediately. There are still some open slots to fill, some of which we are in progress with, and are simply waiting for confirmations.
In a way it was tough to open yourself up and say, hey y'all tell us what you want. We got inundated with suggestions....and we got some people jumping to conclusions about what our conference was going to be and pre-flaming us for it. It was a LOT of sensory input, let me just put it that way.
But when all's said and done, this is going to be one day that rocks. I truly believe that just about any blogger is going to find a full day's worth of sessions that interest them...and that goes for men too.
Again, check it out.
OK, big sigh of relief over here on my part, and I'm sure on partners Lisa and Jory's part too. We committed to post a full session schedule for BlogHer by May 1st, and we made our deadline.
You can see the new, full schedule here.
What you will see:
1. It's a rich full day. Sessions actually run from 8:30AM to 5:45PM.
2. There is a built-in networking segment toward the beginning of the day. I always find it a bit of a waste to simply have a networking function at the end. How much better to connect to people and get comfortable before you have to sit in a room and try to have interesting, interactive discussions! Of course, we're going to plan a no-host dinner for the night before, so we hope to meet a lot of people then too.
3. There are some full-group sessions at the beginning and end of the day, but the big chunk in the middle is split into 4 tracks. The 4th track is the one that's getting a lot of buzz, because it's our "Room of Your Own" track, a room that's been set aside and fully equipped, but will be open to attendees to schedule and use to create the session they really want to attend, but don't see on our schedule. We've already gotten some amazing ideas, as you can see, but I'm sure there are more floating around out there. There is one track that's definitely business-oriented...focusing on how blogging fits into your life as a business person, whether you're running a start-up, working for an enterprise, or in business for yourself. One track is geared toward more interactive discussions about identity and communication. And then there's a track that's got more of a focus on the journalistic side of blogging.
4. There are also some down to brass tacks technical training sessions...from beginning to advance levels. I'm really torn myself. I know I need to get more technically adept, but I hate to miss any of the discussions. Maybe I'll flit about from room to room like a hummingbird. Probably not the best way to learn, huh?
5. We have an awesome mix of well-known and lesser-known voices on the panels and in the sessions. We made a real effort to cull suggestions from our blog commenters and other people who emailed. We made a real effort to find people with diverse voices and experience. And I feel pretty gratified that the vast majority we asked to participate agreed immediately. There are still some open slots to fill, some of which we are in progress with, and are simply waiting for confirmations.
In a way it was tough to open yourself up and say, hey y'all tell us what you want. We got inundated with suggestions....and we got some people jumping to conclusions about what our conference was going to be and pre-flaming us for it. It was a LOT of sensory input, let me just put it that way.
But when all's said and done, this is going to be one day that rocks. I truly believe that just about any blogger is going to find a full day's worth of sessions that interest them...and that goes for men too.
Again, check it out.
// posted by ElisaC @ 8:05 AM 
