Chicago/BlogHer 07 Wrap

Or, Best Blind Dates Ever.

It’s one thing to go in with an agenda, another entirely to stick to it. I was happy to let go of mine, after all, it wasn’t a very clear one to begin with. Letting it all go meant I had time for some off-the-grid activities. They weren’t entirely out of scope – the people I spent time with were bloggers that I’d not met before in 3-D.

What’s better than when your blind date for dinner shows up in the lobby of the hotel carrying a Fish Wednesday ID Badge? Not much, unless you count getting to tag along with that blogger and her groom to be to an old school Italian restaurant. We chowed down on giant plates of pasta at Volare, at the best table in this busy place. Sinatra played over the sound system at the bar. It was great to hang out with Chicago locals and hear about life in the windy city. N, who prefers to blog anonymously, writes Kinetic Loop, a blog about Chicago with lots of interesting links to stories about – um, killer bunnies and photography. I don’t read her enough – the blog is funny and snarky and smart and the links are really interesting. There was much talk about how to avoid the bridal industrial complex, life without cars, what to do in Chicago, blogging, photography, and lots of other stuff. Good company and a fine feed at a place I’d probably not have found on my own. Good luck, you two, and don’t get suckered into registering for crap you don’t need or buying a 4000 dollar dress that you’re only going to wear once in your life. You won’t, I know it.

This morning, I breakfasted with Mr. Virtual Tapas Bar himself. It’s truly serendipitous that he was in Chicago during the brief time I’m here, and he was a great sport and agreed to drive in to the city to meet me at 8 am. We ate at West Egg, as recommended by last night’s dinner hosts but I gotta be honest, I couldn’t tell you what the food was like because I was too busy noodling with Mr. Virtual Tapas Bar’s new ukulele. Plus, we’ve been email pals in the virtual world for a year and half and fellow sufferers of expat life, so we had what I believe would be best called A Lot To Talk About. (Di, Christina, I so wished for you to be with us!) After breakfast we sat in the lower lobby of the hotel and I insisted that Sal play the uke for me. For the record, he sounds pretty good for a self taught guy. Expatapalooza Chicago Lite 2007 rocked the house.

Fortified by what I really like about blogging – that it allows you to connect with likeminded people you’d never otherwise meet – I headed back into the fray. I wandered off track for a while under Chicago’s many elevated roadways through weird intersections made out of rivets and I-beams. Finally, I found my bearings and was back at the conference center. I attended two sessions that I rather enjoyed, one about podcasting, the other about food photography. I fear I was obnoxious in the photography session, throwing up my hand every three minutes because, duh, I had questions. Are glam Fish Wednesday pictures in our future? Here’s hoping.

At the end of the day – and I’d really stuck it out – I went to the keynote address where I was, sadly, disappointed and bored. I’ve heard Elizabeth Edwards speak before, I was excited to see her in person because she struck me as funny and smart. That didn’t shine through in this Q&A session at all. I kept drifting, every now and then I’d see someone get up and walk out, someone would ask a question and Ms. Edwards would take a long walk around the issue at hand… I was relieved when it was over. Then – I was really determined – I went to the after party. I was so grateful when a woman I met wandered by and said this: I hate everything about this. Because while I was enjoying the company of some terrific people, everyone was shouting, the space was packed, it was a chore to be in the space. Hearing her say that made me realize that I didn’t like it much either, so I squeezed my way out into the warm Chicago evening.

Was it worth it? Did I learn anything? Well. Yes and no. I rather enjoyed the conversations I had with the people I met. But I’ll admit that now that I’ve been to BlogHer, I’m still not clear on the value. The focus – women who blog – remains too broad for me to get behind. This was something we discussed at Volare, Kinetic Loop and I. Get two women together, she said, and there’s no guarantee they have anything in common. Women are wildly unalike as a species. Men are a bit more like each other. I’m inclined to agree. Just because you’re a woman with a blog, doesn’t mean we have common ground. I know that makes me sound cranky, but so be it.

Will I attend next year? That depends. One of the things I enjoyed seeing was the panels that were focused on subject matter. Food blogging got some good play. A conference that tracked by subject matter would be wildly appealing to me. I’d love to attend the travelbloggers conference, you know? Bundle workshops that teach writing about travel with workshops about travel photography, pitching your stories to travel publications, and technical issues – your travel kit, what makes a good travel blog, cool plugins for travel sites, that sort of thing… I’m there. If I see a sharper focus in next year’s program, I may jump in again.

I don’t feel like I got any closer to answering the questions I had about the organization, but it was fun. I’m glad I went.