There was only one thing wrong with BlogHer08 – I didn’t get to spend more than a handful of hours there on the first day. Sadly, my travel required my heading out of town and so had to miss almost everyhing, but I did have the pleasure of leading a session on the first afternoon . For the uninitiated, BlogHer is the annual confab that boasts one of the most comprehensive and powerful collections of women on the Internet.
My partner in crime for the session, Amber Scott, and I met only by phone and email prior to our leading the nearly two hour talk on videoblogging – a fact that shocked several of those who stayed afterwards to speak with us.
But should they have been shocked?
I think not.
After all, if there’s one thing that women, I believe, have in spades over men is their ability to join forces and connect with each other in very short order. When two strong women connect (provided their energy doesn’t clash so much that they repel) the result is almost always an exponential expansion of their respective strength.
All one had to do was walk through the lobby of the Westin St. Francis even in the early hours of BlogHer08 as people began to arrive and the energy was palpable. By Friday afternoon the air in the halls of the Westin fairly vibrated with it.
Many a Tweet, blog post and status update (even from the few men who populated the hallways) remarked on the fact that there was a clear and tangible sense that things were happening … connections being made … ideas being born …
I go to a ridiculous number of conferences, events and gatherings during the course of a given year and can state with full certainty that there is no other technology/business related gathering that comes even close to the incredibly powerful sense created at BlogHer.
It was an honor to be part of the proceedings …