BlogHer Is Upon Us

In the interest of full disclosure, Feld Entertainment providing a partial sponsorship for my BlogHer '10 conference with a stipend. All opinions expressed are my own.

I can't believe that BlogHer '10 is almost here. Somehow the days and weeks have slipped by, and I will shortly be on a plane to BlogHer. Feld Entertainment has generously provided me with a stipend which makes attending so much easier to justify to my family.

But I'm just excited to go. I love working with Feld, as they have such neat shows that are truly family friendly and age appropriate for the wee ones. Mister Man who is growing up too fast and is convinced he's a big boy is reduced to oooos and wide eyes when he sees the magic of Disney on Ice appear or Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus appear before him.

The fact that Feld can so easily recapture the joy and innocence of youth gets them big props in my book. And they're sensitive to the fact that little kids are in attendance, ensuring that there's nothing too scary and that the villains are portrayed in a fun and non-threatening manner. It makes it easy and fun to represent them while I'm at BlogHer this year.

BlogHer will be a whirlwind. I land at 9am on a Wednesday and begin my siteseeing. The first event is at 4pm that day, and it goes pretty much nonstop until I head back to the airport on Sunday afternoon.

There are so many sessions I want to attend, and I know I'm going to have to listen to some of them via podcast later. I love the speed dating and can't wait to meet so many wonderful bloggers. Once I'm done there, I'm off to the MomSpark meetup to network with more great women. The ability to meet so many wonderful and inspiring people is my favorite part about BlogHer. I came away last year with such great ideas, and I can't wait to do the same again this year.

I will be on the lookout for influential Chicago area bloggers to bring into the Feld Entertainment fold, so if you happen to be interested in learning more, make sure you find me!

Feld has also sent me some fun items to share - outside the conference space! - for those who are interested. I have coloring books, toy monster trucks, clown noses, and more. I'm happy to share for those who find me during the conference, as I'll have the items in my room.

I'm most excited about all the learning to do. I haven't been to New York in several years, and we've got some great time to do site seeing before the conference begins. We're walking across the Broolyn Bridge and heading to ChinaTown. We're visiting Dylan's Candy Bar and having dinner at Serendipity. I'm already exhausted, but coffee will make a big difference.

And did I mention that I'm doing my very first 5K? I am ready to run, and my training is complete. At 6:15am on Friday, I will be heading out to Central Park to run for over three miles - hopefully without stopping - in support of Tutus for Tanner.

This year, there are parties galore. I've been invited to a few, although it's rather intimidating to look at the full lists of some of the parties that are out there. They are great opportunities to meet more people in a relaxed session and see other places in New York that I otherwise wouldn't. I've heard more than one person say that they can sleep when they're dead, and I think that's the perfect motto for this conference.

We're even keeping alive the tradition of the Seamen party in "Room L" this year, with bubbles. It's a great low key way to finish up the conference reminiscing with friends made and relax before we start to pack everything for the return trip where we'll digest what we learned and reflect on how we've changed yet again. And then we write.

And thanks to Feld, I'll soon be posting some more giveaways. Wish me luck at BlogHer! For now, I'm off to bed before my early morning flight.