On Thursday, 4,000 bloggers will descend upon the Hilton Hotel in New York City for the annual BlogHer conference. They will attend sessions on "Ten Things You Can Do Now to Maximize Your Social Media Expertise" and "Advanced SEO for Bloggers." They will collect swag from sponsors who include Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, and Dodge. They will listen to keynote speeches by Martha Stewart and Katie Couric, as well as an address by President Obama via a live video feed. They will attend parties. Every minute of this event will be earnestly tweeted, blogged, and Instagrammed.
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Apt. 11d 
BlogHer is about women bloggers, not just women bloggers who are parents, right?
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Yes, but the editor thought that “mommyblogging” was a catchier title.
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I’ve been to Blogher twice, it actually gets annoying that there is a presumption that everyone is a mommyblogger. We started telling people (usually trying to hit us up with a sales pitch) that we were socialist, furry, adoption bloggers. It shut don’t the hard sale pretty quickly.
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Do people drink at that thing or what? I mean, I assume they drink in the evening, but do they start at noon or something reasonable for a conference?
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You know, Lisa, that essay had an alternative ending that I cut. I find it a bit disgusting that businesses are using women like this. They give them peanuts to not only sponsor ads, but to write original content talking about how much they love some random product. Ads, I can deal with. I have them here and they are a necessary evil. But writing original content to plug some product that I would never ordinarily talk about is just tasteless.
Women are the prime target for these businesses – and jewelry/purse/basket party companies and other jackal. They know that women will accept any low pay, demeaning job, as long as they get flexible hours.
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I’d add in that PR & marketing are very, very happy to get around the editorial/advertising rules traditional media still follows (not always well, depending, but mostly we do.) I have mostly given up trying to explain to women bloggers I know why they should care…a lot of them don’t; if they get a $100 gift certificate, then they’re happy.
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MH, of course there is drinking. Well, at least in my room. Usually, late afternoon at least.
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