blogher

Agenda in html

Per many kind suggestions that our original attempt to display the full agenda in the blog body was painfully ugly and hard to read, and even kinder suggestions that having to download a pdf to view the full agenda was, well, sucky, we enlisted that all-around amazing volunteer Mir to help us create, instead, an html file that you can click to to view the entire agenda...and then click through to the various speakers' blogs or click through to the discussions going on about each topic right here on this very blog.

So, here goes...this is a test, this is only a test.

Here's the new agenda, is it beautiful?

BlogHer Session: Advanced Tools

We've got our roster and session outline defined for the morning Advanced Tools session.

First meet your expert users:

Alexendra Samuel
Heather Champ and
Marnie Webb

This session will introduce you to advanced tools that can enhance your blog while saving you time. Find out how to make your blog:

Smarter: Marnie will show you how tagging can help you develop content and connect you to a community of fellow bloggers.

Faster: Alexandra will show you how to blog more efficiently by integrating blogging with social bookmarking and aggregation tools.

Hotter: Heather will show you how to integrate images into your blog with the latest photo blogging tools and techniques.

Frankly, this is a session I need! I don't grok tagging, and I shamefacedly admit I don't use flickr. Sounds like these three geek girls can help me take my blogs to the next level.

So, does that sound like stuff you want to learn more about too?

A man issues a challenge!

Love Scott Rafer's post here saying that real men like to be outnumbered and challenging other guys to sign up for BlogHer.

OK, so that was kind of the point of this post I wrote on my Worker Bees blog last month, but Scott perhaps shows a teensy bit more humor with his approach.

I like it.

And I can't seem to comment on his blog, so I thought I'd say so here.

And now that I've got Scott's attention, I thought I'd also add that I don't like blogs where you have to go through some rigmarole to be able to comment. :)

Oh, and PS-the list he's using is only the list for the Friday dinner, not the registrant list, so it's only fair to say there are a few more men signed up that aren't coming to dinner Friday night...although why they would miss it is anybody's guess! It is fair, however, to say that male registration is so far hanging out at around 10%. Come on dudes!

5 who should be acknowledged now!

The BlogHer Team and the BlogHer Advisory Board are listed in the left-hand side bar. This Advisory Board has been anything but a silent partner, helping us on everything from the agenda to securing sponsorships. Each of these women are volunteering their time to make this conference not only happen, but be the best that it can be, as it were.

Now, I wanted to publicly acknowledge 5 additional BlogHers who have taken major tasks off our hands and are going to do their part to make BlogHer go off without a hitch.

Grace Davis: Grace is working with independent book sellers in the area on getting a book table for the vendor area.

Courtney Lowery: Courtney, as we already mentioned, worked with Jen McClure on our recent fabulous BlogHer edition of the NewCommunuications BlogZine.

Maria Niles: Maria is taking on Friday night, from our BlogHer training session in the afternoon to the dinner in the evening.

Ashley Richards: Ashley is working with some of our Advisory Members to create Discussion Guidelines for the conference. How to avoid the pitfalls of other conferences? Make audience integration and interaction part of the ethos for every session.

Miriam Verburg: Miriam has been doing yeoman's work for a while, corralling our Bloghership program!

Visit their blogs now, and visit them at BlogHer...to thank them :)

Gotten your hotel room yet? Here's some info.

As of today, here are the latest rates at five of the closest hotels to the conference center:

The Westin Santa Clara (right next door)
Lowest rate = $109

The Santa Clara Hilton (one long block)
Lowest rate = $99

The Santa Clara Marriott (about a mile)
Lowest rate = $99

The Santa Clara Holiday Inn (also about a mile, with shuttle service)
Lowest rate = $65

The Biltmore (SJ airport and free 5-mile radius shuttle)
Lowest rate: $89/night

If you're interested in room-sharing, you can post such an interest at BlogSheroes here.

The schedule keeps getting bigger and better

OK, it's been a while since we posted a new version of the Agenda.

So, trumpet fanfare please, here is the latest BlogHer Agenda, now in html, not pdf, YAY!!!!!

What's new? (Other than the recent additions Lisa posted?) Well...let me tell ya:

Mary Smaragdis from Sun Microsystem (perhaps you know her as Mary, Mary Quite Contrary) has joined our Blogging for Business session.

Marnie Webb is joining in on the Advanced Tools session.

And there's a good news/bad news update on the Politics session.

I'll give it to you straight first: Unfortunately LaShawn had to withdraw due to a family event, but the good news is that she personally recommended someone so good it will surely ease the pain, meet Ms. Ambra Nykol. With Courtney Lowery moderating Ambra and Roxanne, I think we are in for a rocking good time talking political blogging.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of this new agenda is that it's your first peek at the Room of Your Own sessions that people have proposed.

There is truly something for everyone! As someone said to me...the only problem is picking which one to go to. Good thing we have those committed live-bloggers getting Blogherships so we can make sure the conference is thoroughly blogged to death.

Schedule explodes: ¡Lleguen las nuevas!

Saddle up, chicas, the BlogHer Conference schedule just keeps getting better. I'm frankly beside myself with glee to announce that these women are joining us to talk about blogging on July 30:

La Queen Sucia - That's right, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. She will join Liza Sabater, Debi Jones and Ellen Spertus in the Flame, Blame and Shame panel. Don't miss her post today - her latest book, Playing With Boys, is coming out in paperback and has a gorgeous new design.

Noriko Takiguchi - I pounced on this journalist and author (Asahi Shimbun Newspaper, Nikkei Newspaper among others) at a recent blogging fete thrown by Renee Blodgett and she agreed to join our panel on Globalization. Nancy White and I are still fighting over her, though, so we'll see...

Patricia Nakache - Venture capitalist Nakache, a former Fortune magazine writer and McKinsey consultant, is watching the blog space closely from Sand Hill Road. She's joining moderator Mary Hodder and blawgging pioneer and attorney Denise Howell on the panel, "Women who want to fund, build and sell things."

Note to yourself: Time to register if you haven't already...

Elisa is working on a few other exciting announcements, so we'll update this one-page schedule soon...

We love the nightlife

Note: The Blogsheroes|BlogHer Beta is still undergoing tweaks, so let’s get this party started here…

Don’t think for a minute that you’re getting out of BlogHer Con ’05 Saturday night without a good time. After all, if Elisa's pillowfight is going to take place, we need to get on it!

Here’s the scoop: The evening of July 30, for those of you who are interested, we're continuing BlogHer's conversations, fun and games via small, subject-oriented dinners.

My question for you is: How should we organize our Saturday-night dinners? By birds-of-a-feather? By session? By favorite cocktail? You tell me.

Yup, I’m on the do-ocracy kick again. Like a broken record. Only this time I want to know what topic you’d like to discuss with your new BlogHer friends. Dinners need six people for us to make the reservations for you, so feel free to openly recruit in your comments below.

I’ve gotten the party started with a Citizen Journalism dinner. By the time July 30 rolls around, I may re-name it Keggar-w/TexMex-for-Suffragette-Journalists-and-Friends. If you'd like to talk about women writing news of any kind, I would love to clink glasses with you!

So - what dinner to you want to hostess and/or what dinner do you want to attend? (Hostesses will get to select the restaurant, so g'head and grab the opportunity.) Please provide:

Name: ?

Email: ??

Dinner topic: ???

Hostess: Indicate yes or no

... Oh, and bring your own pillow.

BlogHer edition of New Communications Blogzine

Today's newly released edition of media sponsor New Communications Blogzine is an entirely BlogHer-devoted edition!

You will find article from numerous BlogHer participants: Team members, speakers, Advisory Board members and volunteers. Go read pieces from BlogHers, such as Evelyn Rodriguez, Renee Blodgett, Alexandra Samuel, Elizabeth Fletcher, Lisa Stone, Jory des Jardins, Jen, Courtney and moi.

Special shout-out to volunteer Courtney Lowery of the New West Network and Magazine for working with New Communications editor Jen McClure to put it all together.

Don't miss the BlogHer edition of the New Communications Blogzine!

Check out the Naked Ladies!

I'm all atwitter--we've got our Naked panel finalized! These four women will be participating in a panel discussion on identity blogging called "How to Be Naked". As I've mentioned in an earlier post, identity bloggers share more than just info on their favorite gadgets, least favorite pundits, and beefs with the IRS. They share themselves. And none of these girls I would describe as shy (at least not online).

As more and more women take up personal blogging, questions of diclosure arise: How much can I say about my job? My sexuality? My marital situation? How can I express myself without overexposing myself or others? These panelists have all asked these questions and come to different conclusions.

One has lost a job from blogging
One ponders if she will get a job, despite blogging
One reveals her transition from He to She
One tells it like it is, even if it means flaming herself

Please no scratching or kicking to get into this session, folks. Single file! First come first served! Some pre-press from our panelists on coming to BlogHer:

Heather Armstrong, of Dooce:
"At the end of July I’ll be headed to Santa Clara, CA via San Francisco to speak on a panel at BlogHer Conference, an estrogen-packed weekend with all The Ladies. The panel I am speaking on is called How to Get Naked, which when it comes to delivering a baby or just walking around the house I know EVERYTHING about. Word is no one on the panel will actually be naked but you know that we’ll all be thinking about each other’s boobs.

Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By:
"Despite the title of the panel, this old lady is keeping her clothes on."

Koan Bremner of Multidimensional.Me:
Now, I just have to decide what to *wear*... ;-)

Jeneane Sessum of allied:
"Proud to be among the panelists for blogHer's personal bloggers' panel. I remembered saying something I liked about blogging naked, so I searched my archives. This was a good one from 2003:"

"...I think too many bloggers get trapped in a catch-22 over self-exposure, though. They start out with a few self-telling, honest, often painful posts, and suddenly put pressure on themselves to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in all manner of all things on their blogs. Some of us who tend toward very public expression of very private places begin to feel an unreasonable responsibility for 24/7 exposure. Even begin to resent blogging. And who wouldn’t.

"Perhaps pure-personal-truth-telling can be sustained, but does it need to be? Who puts the pressure on—-our readers or ourselves? Unless we’re going to live here, naked, all of us, with a real time voice recording of the goings on inside our heads and hearts, we can’t sustain the open-wound model. And we shouldn’t have to."

This'll be good.