BlogHer Day 1 Redux – Baby Spot, Savvy Auntie, Overwhelm …

The first day of BlogHer is officially over and while I’m tempted to get out of bed and head out to a bar around the corner from the hotel to meet up with a whole bunch of cool people I’d really like to meet, I’m not going to do it.

Instead, I’m going to recap my day and what I need to not forget to do after leaving here.

As with all conferences, I am reminded that the conference sessions themselves are generally not the best part of the conference. It’s all about who you meet in the hallway.

In fact, I didn’t really make it to many of the sessions today. But, I did make some great connections.

I talked with Sabrina Parsons of Palo Alto Software, makers of Business Plan Pro. Sabrina is the CEO of the company and when I was checking out the site, I found out her husband works in the business with her and her dad was the founder of the company. We talked a bit about family business issues and she said she’d be open to an interview about it. Let me know if you’d be interested in hearing about that and if so, we’ll get it on calendar.

Before lunch, I stumbled into the exhibitor’s area where I didn’t see much of interest, but I did kick myself for missing the emails about calls for authors. I so should have been signing books at BlogHer! So, I got the contact information for next year.

And, I connected with a few women from PBS who I need to follow up with about their community tv show, which would be a perfect place for me to get the word out about naming guardians.

Then, instead of having lunch, I spent some time with Zameer and James from Baby Spot. They’ve got lots of cool strategic alliances lined up, which I can’t talk about or they’d have to kill me. They interviewed me for their site and I’m looking forward to hearing from them on possible partnership opportunities for us. I’m going to go set up a BabySpot account now.

As I was being interviewed by the Baby Spot guys, who should walk by but the Savvy Auntie herself Melanie Notkin. I interviewed Melanie and I’ll post the video as soon as I can upload it. One thing’s for sure, Melanie is one hot tech chick.

Speaking of hot tech chicks, I learned about Kirtsy for the first time today. How catchy and cool is that name? It’s a website of all sorts of cool stuff for women. I can’t remember the tag line they had on their buttons, but it was something like – where the bitches get together. Love it. And them. Must sign up for a Kirtsy account and then connect with @lmayes to learn how to promote the Kids Protection Plan website.

And, we can’t forget the stylish Patricia Handschiegel who sold her company Style Diary to Style Hive last November and is now about to launch a new TV show that is yet to be discussed in public. We’ll be getting together in LA to talk about the reality of launching a TV show. Thanks for showing me the ropes, Patricia!

Then, I was totally zonked and wandering aimlessly into random rooms and came across the spa retreat room and happened to open a brochure that promised to get rid of my cellulite. The name of the treatment is escaping me at the moment, but apparently I can now have a device rolled over my body 1x/week for 4 weeks at $300 a pop and I’ll be free of cellulite. Hmmm….. tempting.

To top the day off, I was invited to the Silicon Valley Mom Blog Contributors party at Saks for makeup and photos. I almost didn’t go, but I’m so glad I did because it was fun and I got some great photos! Head on over to Facebook to check them out.

If you are in San Francisco and need headshots, Tom Upton is great. And, I also met Stacy Libby, a PR gal who focuses on social marketing media and we’re going to plan a meeting when she’d down in LA.

Other random connections to follow up:

Krista on food: http://www.londonelicious.com

Jenny Lauck Blog Her Ad Guru and Mom: http://threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/

Nicole Pelton: http://notjustaworkingmom.blogspot.com

Nina Moon: http://www.charlieandnina.com

Jennifer Satterwhite: http://www.MommyNeedsCoffee.com and http://www.MommyBloggers.com

Mommy Needs a Cocktail – http://www.mommyneedsacocktail.com/

And several others who gave me teeny rectangular cards that are now at the bottom of my bag and I can’t reach them at the moment, more to come …

There’s just one thing I have to say before I go and that is that there are parts of BlogHer that make me feel really dumb. It’s weird because I’m definitely not dumb and yet more than once today I’ve felt that way. Definitely more to come about that.

0 Comments

  1. tvdeeganMonday, July 21, 2008 at 7:19 pm 

    Hi, glad you found our suite retreat at BlogHer. The cellulite reduction treatment is called VelaShape.

    There were a ton of amazing women there and I’m glad that so many companies and organizations are recognizing the power this group has. I learned a lot at the conference as well as meeting some bloggers that I’ve been following for years.

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