What would be measurable success? If we had a BlogHer Conference again in a year what would cause us to pat ourselves on the back and say "job well done"?
Elisa: When we came together, we had three goals. But we found out that what our attendees wanted was to talk about community. So that's what we planned the day for and want to know what you've learned, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home, and what is something you would recommend to someone who is not here, but maybe is looking on the chat, the live blog sessions or the audioblogging?
What would make you say - when we get together for BlogHer 06 - We did something successful?
Nancy: Bev and I want to plan in September in 2006 a Portuguese BlogHer conference
Eliza: Let me ask you, Brendan, as one of our male attendees - what was your experience.
Brendan: I thought it was really good and wanted to see how it would contrast with other conferences. And it did. And of course, as a man, I really don't know anything about women (LAUGHTER)
Audience: I never joined a women's group in my life before today. And what I found was so many smart women! I will never make that mistake again. (APPLAUSE)
Liz: We're talking about a transformative use for computers in our computer plant and the blogging in academia session.
Heather: This conference totaly blew me away. The big thing I took away is that I'm going to start video and audio blogging. I started blogging because Susan Mernit got me into it. But I realize I had some insecurity about mobile and video blogging and that's all gone now.
Audience: Right before I came to this conference traditional news media were discussing how bloggers were opening up the discussion about Darfour... look around the world and see what needs fixing. The power to fix it is huge.
Audience: I just really liked the whole context about education. I also like the BlogHer brand and if you guys could put together some kind of BlogHer starter kit and put it out to young girls, something that would be really accessible.
Audience: at the identity blogging session I realized that becoming vulnerable, being vulnerable out there, I am not alone. See that there are a lot of people in different context - I also enjoyed going to the Mommy Blogging session. I'm a corporate blogger, but I found that there are lots of similarities.
Marian Douglas: My dad, an electrical engineering professor, would be very happy. The balance of the humanities, the arts and the science and technology is really unbelievable. And if we could work with women in the Congo, Burundi, Latin America - places that have war. We really could put pressure in certain places. Get some video and some audio and stream it.
Barbara: I came here just knowing the word blog. I came away with tools that I can use to get started. I'd love a top 10 to do list and a top 10 don't list. I think both of these lists will be filled when I go through the notes I've taken. Thank you all for all you've shared today.
Gina Hescot: I don't have time to do this stuff - I have a job, I have school, I have a blog. We know what this is about. How do we get people who don't know what blogging is involved? How do we teach them how to do this? (And not just to go to Blogger). How do we make that shift so that a year from now there should be room for at least 1,000 people who want to come.
Audience: I'd love to do a Do one/See One/Teach One. So we get more people interested in blogging.
Stephanie: First, thanks to Elisa for emailing me back in April saying you have to check it out. And when I did, I said Oh, I've got to be there. Second, Heather Armstrong, I have to thank you for your inspiration. (Heather is gone). I want to stay in touch with the bloggers in Academia. There were a lot of important things for me that came out of that. I was very intrigued with what the teenage girls had to say in teens and blogging.
Mindy: Bicoastal Conference - and Midwest if you can.
Jenn: Other things I heard people say - there were lots of stereotypes broken today. There was a lot of interaction between say mommy bloggers and political bloggers, etc.
Elizabeth: I really like the idea of having a blogging kit for starters. How about for older women, because today I found out about Ronnie's blog the first time. And I love mommy blogs - it's interesting to hear what real women have to say about getting older.
Nina: Would like to say that I'm bringing fashion and blogging together, and no one in the fashion world seems to know what blogging is about. The last thing is that it's a really incredible feeling to be in a group of so many inspiring women in an industry where often I'm considered old. Nice to talk with people other than geek guys - and so many hot chicks who know how to code. (APPLAUSE)
Jay: I'm Jay Rosen from Pressthink and I came for the hot chicks who know how to code.
Why are events like this so important? I wrote about this and got comments from people who said we don't need this. So I had to think about it. For me, blogging as a practice is a form of free press, a first amendment machine. Now, after hanging out with all of you, I understand that a lot more. It is an extension of free press for the people. There's tremendous power in that. If so, it is completely inadequate unless it's a whole practice. And it can only be a whole practice with women.
My other discovery was - and I didn't expect it - was terror. I heard lots of people spontaneously bring up the terror of the Internet. How do I protect my kids, how do I protect my identity, how to I protect my job. And I think there's really something important about that. Because we live in an age of terror. Instead of being forced off the Internet by terror, the people in this conference have done is go right into it. And the speakers said there are ways to conquer the terror, defeat it - not be attacked. I think there's something important about going out and meeting this terror. And I never realized how important blogging was to face that fear.
Mary Hodder: Looking for a list of women speakers - their name, their blog and the topic they can speak about. I go to so many conferences where there are no women speakers, and the excuse I get is that they can't find any. There are incredible women here with expertise on these subjects. And I think we should build a list and say these are people who are experts in these topics, then the next time someone says they can't find women speakers, we'll have something to point to. I'd like you all to help me do that.
Audience: I'd like to invite us to move beyond panels as a format and even the microphone and move into other formats with open space technology and you create the agenda with whatever people want to talk about that day.
Amy Guerin: Now that we are hitting the radar screen, when we are asked to do conferences to push the organizers beyond tokenism.
Skye: I would seriously challenge everyone in this room to go and find five blogs of people who don't look like you. Learn something about other people.
Chris Murphy: In addition to going out and reading things that are not by folks you are typically reading, and I think we get into this pattern and are the things we end up linking to. Once a week, once a month, get into areas that are not in our comfort zone on a regular basis - to tie together some of these communities in a more aggressive fashion than we are used to doing.
Purvi: Thanks to Lisa Stone for coming up with the idea. (STANDING OVATION)
Lisa: I wouldn't have done it if Elisa hadn't agreed to do it with me, (MORE APPLAUSE)
Purvi: So I looked at your blogs and got the idea for the logo, the "hermoticon" to represent different women with different ideologies. Congratulations to all of you. This is great.
Matt Holm: Thank you for making us feel at home here. The other thing is that people are always worried about blogging the ROI. We blog for opportunity and these are the opportunities we have gotten - without blogging we would not have met these wonderful people. I challenge you all - if there is someone you want to link to, make a personal connection. The dividends it will pay will be phenomenal.
Alice: As marginalized as women bloggers might feel they might be, mommy bloggers might feel even more marginalized. I noticed a lot of comments about "just mommy bloggers." And I learned that mommy blogging can be a radical act; can change lives.
Audience: Is everyone familiar with the concept of Smart Moms? I think it would be a great idea to get smart moms around male-dominated conferences. The next bloggercon that happens, if all these women would appear, they might change their program.
Liza: This is an actual technical request. I am posting the to do list at BlogSheroes.com. I would like you to fill out your email address, names, blog and bio so that we can have this information so that when BlogHer.org sets up a new community site, I can dump this into the database there. I would also like to put in a field in the personal bio page for each member of the site so you can put in if you are available for conferences and what topics you are expert in. Because there are 150 women already registered here - it is already a resource we can use for that.
Elisa: One last thing: In January, I went to the NewCon Forum. I sat next to someone and we were the only ones taking notes with pen and paper. We parted ways. Then, when Lisa and I started this, I thought of "that Jory chick. She was cool." And she said sure. And not only does Jory kick ass, but we met at a conference and it went from there.
