Favorite sessions from BlogHer this year included the photography session led by Me Ra Koh, the women without children and the blogosphere session with Laurie White, Teri Tith, Suebob Davis and Laurie Scott. Being childless in your thirties, forties and fifties is a ‘life’ issue, not a blogging one, however women with blogs, have an open and very public venue to express their feelings about it.
Some chose not to vocalize their feelings publicly on their blogs but one thing was clear – everyone wanted to talk about how they felt about it. They varied……women who had fertility treatments but never got pregnant, hated the notion of being fat and going through the birthing process, never having the maternal instinct to reproduce, forgetting until it was too late, being too busy with career and academia and then realizing it was too late, disliking children altogether (that was a rare sentiment), loving their free lifestyle too much and general fear.
There was also the beautiful readings on the first night of several bloggers chosen by the BlogHer community.
A few I missed I would have loved to catch were the ones on the political landscape. They had separate sessions as well as a combined one – two liberals, one conservative. Progressives engage outside the political blogosphere in political discourse…..and action with Erin Kotecki-Vest, Joanne Bamberger and Diane MacEachern.
The BlogHer 08 photo album has been uploaded but sadly unlike previous years, the lighting was much tougher to work, I didn’t bring my external flash and no F stop or ISO change seemed to make a difference. Hence, the collection is grainy, dark and on the small side.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
