Michelle's Blog @EverythingMom.com

Thanks to our friends at H&M, members of the EverythingMom team flew from locations across Canada to attend the BlogHer ’10 annual conference in New York City last weekend to meet, mingle, network with and learn from other attendees. Between the people, the conference, the parties and New York City, it was a weekend we’ll never forget.

It was so energizing to have so many talented, fascinating and charismatic people in one place for the weekend. The speeches and presentations were very well done, the Voices of the Year were inspirational and the opportunities to meet people we admired endless.

The selection of morning and afternoon sessions made decision-making difficult as we surveyed our options and planned our days. Hearing directly from bloggers and writers who are walking the path and willing to share their experiences was both enjoyable and valuable. I think we all learned new things this weekend!

The parties were a fantastic time to meet, mingle, celebrate and to kick up our heels a little…or a lot! I will admit to dancing the night away at Sparklecorn, simply because I could and had great company with whom to do so! The private parties gave us so many options of things to do and places to go that we could hardly decide what to do and when. Yet the official BlogHer events were also great simply because they were inclusive and a great place to catch up with anyone and everyone.

And of course, we have barely mentioned New York City. Oh, New York, how I loved you. What a great first BlogHer experience. I won’t speak for Michelle or Carrie Anne, but only for myself when I say it really put the icing on my cupcake to come to such a great event, meet so many really amazing people and then also have NYC as a backdrop and easy distraction for down time. It was simply wonderful.

We loved that the Hilton New York supplied us all with free wifi in our rooms and conference rooms! This was a huge part of our weekend as we were all tweeting under the hashtags #BlogHer and #BlogHer10 – and honestly, it was a great way to track people down. Most of us were on Twitter on and off all weekend long, tweeting event details, trying to meet up with people or simply finding the people we were meeting so we could stay connected on Twitter after the conference. I also was impressed to see the hotel tweeting away with us, checking in, making sure everyone was having a great weekend and comfortable stay. Thank you, @HiltonNewYork, it was all really well done!

Special thanks to the Hilton New York and BlogHer organizers who did an amazing job making sure we were all well fed with buffet breakfast, lunch and a generous afternoon snack. We didn’t need to worry about going hungry! As well, we were all thankful that PUR had a refill station located in the main area so attendees could ensure they stayed hydrated during the conference. We were all happily filling bottles to take with us wherever we went.

We enjoyed a priceless weekend of connection and inspiration. We were able to open our minds, our hearts and our hands as we learned, listened and bonded. We made new friends who we will welcome to EverythingMom with open arms, and we cemented friendships and the bonds of our community with those who were already close to us.

BlogHer ’10 brought together an amazing group of people, mainly women (but some great guys too!) who all came together to celebrate what we have in common: our love of this online world, and of those who both seek and create community within it.

We were proud to be part of such an amazing weekend and can’t wait for BlogHer ’11 in San Diego! See you there!

Just as EverythingMom is the place to discover Everything for mom, H&M is the place to discover Everything for back to school fashion. You will find cool tops from $5.95 and dresses from $14.95, to sweaters from $12.95 and all the accessories to complete the look, H&M has something for every personality and style at the best prices. Visit www.hm.com/kids to see the full line of fun back to school fashions and locate a store location near you.

Thanks to our friends at H&M, members of the EverythingMom team flew from locations across Canada to attend the BlogHer ’10 annual conference in New York City last weekend to meet, mingle, network with and learn from other attendees.

Day Three (Saturday)

Even after a full day of sessions and parties on the Friday, everyone was up and eager to start the second and final day of the BlogHer conference (hangover or not).

Carrie Anne had the chance to attend the Scholastic Blogger Breakfast at their office where she learned about the new fall releases, changes to the school B00k Club program and a new Read Every Day, Lead a Better Life initiative. Plus she had a chance to visit the Scholastic Store and meet some celebrities.

Back at the conference the day was packed with another full set of new sessions. There was something for everyone. Interested in improving your writing? There were sessions on publishing or humor writing. Looking to strengthen the business aspect of your blog? There were sessions on networking toward a job or how to pitch potential companies. There were sessions for fitness bloggers, personal bloggers, writers who use their blogs to affect change in the world.

Sometimes sessions that would interest you would overlap but thankfully BlogHer had a plan and live blogged every session. So if you missed a session or couldn’t attend BlogHer at all, you can read all the sessions on their site.

Michelle took some time to visit the sponsored suites located within the Hilton New York’s rooms, like the Ecco suite where members could pre-book a foot message and pedicure or the Hershey suite where you could actually make s’mores over  fit pit (not sure how that passed fire code). None of the EverythingMom team came with kids but KMart did sponsor a child care suite during the conference sessions for parents who did. And if the whole conference experience was a little over whelming, BlogHer also offered a retreat in the Serenity Suite, hosted by a rotating volunteer roster of bloggers.

From all the parties and events and booths we visited, we did accumulate a lot of swag. Some was great and worth squeezing into an already overstuffed suitcase, others not really necessary. To avoid unwanted swag being dumped in the garbage, which isn’t really environmentally friendly, P&G sponsored a Swag Exchange. That coffee mug you don’t want may be just the ticket for someone else. Before heading into a night a final parties we did a purge at the Swag Exchange. Jen even found another Mr. PotatoHead to take home to her kids. This was just one of the many initiatives taken on by BlogHer this year to try and make the conference more green.

Michelle and Carrie Anne hopped in a cab over to ELF’s (Eyes Lips Face) new studio for a little Games and Glamour event. There they had a sneak peek at the new fall line-up from ELF. Their make-up line isn’t yet available in Canada but they are working towards getting it up here next year. The Game portion of the event was playing with Xbox’s new Kinect gaming system. Kinect works with Xbox 360 and uses a sensor to register your body’s movement versus using a handheld remote. Very cool! Toss in some dangerously delicious watermelon martini’s and Michelle and Carrie Anne had a hard time tearing themselves away.

But this was the last night of BlogHer. The last night to connect and hang out with some amazing women who, many of which, we only knew online. Tonight was the night to let loose at the two official BlogHer parties: Sparklecorn and CheeseburgHer.

Both parties were full of energy and everyone let their hair down and just had a great time. There was no differences between newbies and veteran attendees, well known and unknown bloghers, everyone was equal and had an equally fun time. Feather boas, tutus and glow bracelets graced the dance floor of the Sparklecorn party and by the looks of this video it was another great success. At CheeseburgHer, people danced on the beds, tossed pillows (yes there were beds and pillows at this party) and donned creative McDonald’s paper bag party hats. This year they even had a hat decorating contest and had set-up a decoration station full of tools to get your creative juices flowing. And the winners were pretty creative.

At the end of the night, or maybe it was early morning, the EverythingMom teamed turned in. Carrie Anne would be heading home the next day and Michelle and Jen would follow on Monday. There was a lot to digest from the last three days (and a lot to try and fit into their luggage).

Just as EverythingMom is the place to discover Everything for mom, H&M is the place to discover Everything for back to school fashion. You will find cool tops from $5.95 and dresses from $14.95, to sweaters from $12.95 and all the accessories to complete the look, H&M has something for every personality and style at the best prices. Visit www.hm.com/kids to see the full line of fun back to school fashions and locate a store location near you.

Thanks to our friends at H&M, members of the EverythingMom team flew from locations across Canada to attend the BlogHer ’10 annual conference in New York City last weekend to meet, mingle, network with and learn from other attendees.

Day Two (Friday)

BlogHer begins! Friday got off to a busy start with a Newbie Breakfast and then the official Welcome and State of the Blogosphere, featuring the founders of BlogHer: Lisa Stone, Jory Des Jardins and Elisa Camahort Page. During breakfast they also revealed that BlogHer ’11 will be held in San Diego, CA next August!  Visit the BlogHer ‘11 site for more details, including registration.

Friday was also the first day we could attend sessions. Each day had three time slots for sessions, and in each of the three time slots were seven choices of how to spend our time. Topics ranged from “Moving People to Action” to “Offline Networking for Bloggers” and much more. There was something for everyone! If you missed a section or were unable to attend BlogHer ‘10, you can find all the sessions online.

We also took time to duck into the Expo Hall to check out the booths from conference sponsors. So many interesting people to meet and products to check out – I especially liked being able to send a Mr. PotatoHead postcard home to my kids at the Playskool booth. Clever idea!

Also nice to see was a special book corner where you could purchase books published by some of the BlogHer attendees. There was also a book signing schedule included in our conference program. A great chance to browse some awesome books and meet the authors!

We made quite a splash wandering around in our EverythingMom/H&M shirts and our tutus! Tutus, you ask? What were we doing running around in tutus? EverythingMom had heard how Catherine Connors (who writes the blog Her Bad Mother) has a nephew named Tanner, who has Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. Catherine has been raising funds and awareness for this disease and families with terminally ill children. There were many ways to get involved before and during the conference. We decided the EverythingMom team should spend some time in tutus as well! You can read all about Tanner and the tutus here.

After the afternoon sessions, there was a short break to change or freshen up before getting the evening going with the Community Keynote: BlogHer Voices of the Year. Curated by Eden Kennedy, this was an amazing and often moving collection of selected blog posts from chosen attendees.  If you missed this part of the evening or would like to read the posts in their entirety, you can find links to all the finalists here.

Michelle and Carrie Anne attended the Sweets in the City party hosted by Sharpie and @TheBigToyBook. There were delicious cupcakes and wine served in glasses they could decorate with colourful Sharpie pens, plus cool toys to take home to the kids. Carrie Anne’s kids love the Perplexus, one of the toys given away to attendees. I met up with some favourite bloggers and friends for a lovely dinner at Bistro Milano instead, and what a great time we had.

After the Voices of the Year speeches, there was a reception, then the evening got underway with the BlogHer Voices of the Year Gala and Art Auction, curated by Kirtsy.

Once all the official BlogHer events were done, the EverythingMom team jumped on a Night Bus Tour organized by @NYCityMama and Tours4Fun. A great way to see the city lights!

Another busy day at BlogHer! It was a great day, full of learning, networking, and meeting other bloggers. We ordered room service and headed to bed, ready to face the next and last day of the conference!

Just as EverythingMom is the place to discover Everything for mom, H&M is the place to discover Everything for back to school fashion. You will find cool tops from $5.95 and dresses from $14.95, to sweaters from $12.95 and all the accessories to complete the look, H&M has something for every personality and style at the best prices. Visit www.hm.com/kids to see the full line of fun back to school fashions and locate a store location near you.

Thanks to our friends at H&M, members of the EverythingMom team flew from locations across Canada to attend the BlogHer ’10 annual conference in New York City last weekend to meet, mingle, network with and learn from other attendees. Some of our team met in person for the first time! Needless to say, we were ALL excited to get the weekend going and find out what adventures awaited us.

Day One (Thursday):

I arrived at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan first, excited to see the city and to be able to meet people as they arrived from various Canadian and US cities.

There was a Kodak Big Apple Bus Tour on Thursday, and Kodak had generously provided an EasyShare M580 digital camera with which to enjoy the day. EverythingMom was invited to take part, but sadly, I wasn’t feeling well enough to attend - with temperatures in the mid-thirties, it was a steamy day in the city! However, we would have loved to take in the sights with Kodak and I can’t wait to learn more about the EasyShare!

Michelle and Carrie Anne followed later in the day and it was time to get our party on! Thursday was a whirlwind day of introductions, connections and celebrations as we came together. It was considered the kickoff night of the conference, so there were no sessions booked - just events both large and small. EverythingMom was there to start things off with parties on Thursday.

Carrie Anne took in the Crazy Beautiful “I heart New York” social in the late afternoon at the Warwick Hotel, across from the Hilton New York (even volunteering to have makeup airbrushed on her!) And she and I met for the first time at the Canadian Embassy party with MomCentral Canada, as it got things going with the great atmosphere at Faces and Names, just a short walk from the hotel. There was a chance to have our picture taken with a Mountie as we came in, a signature cocktail and a crowd ready to enjoy. Fabulous ideas from even more fabulous hosts: @mc_canada, @bunchfamily and @sweetmamadotca.

From the Canadian Embassy party, the EverythingMom team jumped in a cab and headed uptown to the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Bloggers Night Out party. Held right in the offices of the magazine, we wandered halls to the event room and even peeked into a test kitchen! We enjoyed the event, the view and even better – met some of the creative team at Martha Stewart. We very much enjoyed a conversation with Anna Last, editor-in-chief of Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart magazine.

Back into a cab we jumped, this time back to the hotel so Carrie Anne could head to what turned out to be one of her favourite events: an intimate DinHer party for a group of bloggers hosted by Maria over at BOREDmommy. Michelle and I headed in to chat with some of our favourite bloggers at the BlogHer ‘10 People’s Party. After making the rounds here, Michelle and I headed to the Schick Intuition Plus K.I.S.S. & Tell party and then finally called it a night. These were just a few of the parties and private events scheduled for the Thursday night. Since the BlogHer conference and key events were planned to start the next day, it seemed as though many companies tried to schedule their events for Thursday, making it a crazy night indeed. It would be safe to say our BlogHer ’10 conference experience started off with a bang. We couldn’t wait to see what the next day would hold!

Just as EverythingMom is the place to discover Everything for mom, H&M is the place to discover Everything for back to school fashion. You will find cool tops from $5.95 and dresses from $14.95, to sweaters from $12.95 and all the accessories to complete the look, H&M has something for every personality and style at the best prices. Visit www.hm.com/kids to see the full line of fun back to school fashions and locate a store location near you.