blogher

Come visit our new site: http://blogher.org

OOPS - if you're looking for the BlogHer '06 Conference site, you've come to the wrong place! (This is the historical record of our 2005 conference.)

To find out more about BlogHer and our 2006 conference, join us here: http://blogher.org.

UPDATED: BlogHer Registration is LIVE!!

OK, everybody, in honor of BlogHer being on the same weekend as the Grand Prix race, start your engines!!

BlogHer Registration is live!

You will notice several differences between this year and last year:

-We are a two-day conference, and we are allowing people to register for individual days or both days, as they so choose. Remember, Day One is techie and hands on. Day Two is culture, conversation and community...and will be the Day that supports Room of Your Own sessions.

-We are allowing people to buy evening cocktail party attendance separately. So if you only want to attend one day's worth of sessions, but want to party both nights, you can feel free. Or if you want to bring your significant other to the evening events, you can buy them tickets to just the cocktail parties.

Yes, there are going to be caps on attendance. I will certainly try to give people more heads up than last year! Right now we are estimating that Day One will be about the same size as last year's conference, and that Day Two could be up to double in size.

Stay tuned for an update on the hotel room situation.

Consider the flag to have dropped...and the start gun to have fired.

UPDATED: The Two-Day Student Pass option is now publicly visible. Thanks to danah for her sharp eyes.

Hotel Room update: Get 'em while they're hot.

As some of you have noted here, the online registration form for the Hyatt San Jose was no longer giving the $75 rate.

I spoke with the hotel this morning, and the truth is that you had blown through our initial commitment for room nights on Thursday night! After continued negotiation with the hotel, we have secured more rooms. So, here's what is still available, on a first-come, first-served basis:

We secured 75 more rooms for Thursday and Saturday nights. Friday night has even more nights available (160.)

There are only a handful of $75 rooms left on the outlying days (Tues./Wed./Sunday./Mon.)

When it comes to Thursday and Friday nights we should be able to increase the number of rooms again at the current rate, if needed. But be forewarned that, given the Grand Prix and other conventions in San Jose that weekend, the hotel cannot commit to any more $75 rooms for Saturday evening. They do expect to be sold out all weekend. (And their regular rate will likely rise to over $200 as we get closer to July.)

One more thing to bear in mind: their online group booking site seems to have an inconvenient limitation. Once one night you're requesting is sold out at the group rate, it kicks the whole reservation request out of the group rate. Some of you have already noticed this.

Apparently the phone operators can handle this better than the online site can. So, if you have a problem with not seeing the group rate, feel free to contact me to let me know, but you might also want to call the group rate reservation 800-number to get your reservation done: 1 800 633 7313

Last thing: I think at this point it is wise for us to start checking out room block availability at the other nearby hotels. Maria and I will work on finding a couple of other options within half a mile of the Hyatt. If we start to blow through these rooms at the Hyatt, we will post alternatives.

Thanks everyone. I can't tell you how pleased we are that even before registration went live we are seeing so many of you making your hotel reservations. We are obviously going to rock this joint!

One more SXSWi panel is under BlogHer's wing

After some participants had to withdraw somewhat last minute, Hugh from SXSW Interactive asked BlogHer if we would like to help him rescue a panel that seemed right up our alley.

Given that the panel is entitled "Increasing Women's Visibility Online: Whose Butt Should We Be Kicking?", how could we refuse!? We are excited about it because it is definitely going to be right up there with the other four panels BlogHer is co-producing...and featured some kick-ass women with a variety of viewpoints on the subject of women's visibility. Here are the deets:

BlogHer/SXSW Session #5: Increasing Women's Visibility on the Web: Whose Butt Should We Be Kicking?
Sunday March 12th 11:30-12:30

Where are the women online? Stop asking "where are the women?" and think bigger: Why don't women have a public profile equal to their contributions? And whose fault is it? To answer this question, BlogHer has recruited women who perceive the issue in very different ways...and therefore propose very different solutions.

Join Ayse Enginer in conversation with Liz Henry, Tara Hunt, Virginia Debolt and Jan Kabili, and the 5th panelist: the BlogHer audience.

Clarification: How speaker submissions work.

It was suggested to me that I could be a little more clear with my description of how speaker submissions will work. So here is a more detailed description:

Day One is all about technical training and hands-on learning. We have determined the schedule, but we need instructors. I am looking for people to submit themselves or others as qualified to lead any of the sessions currently without named instructors. You could submit your resume, your applicable site URLs, other speaking experience or teaching experience...whatever you think will make the case that you should lead a session. If you do not want to be an instructor, but see a session where you'd like to be a floating mentor, helping people hands-on, particularly in languages other than English, you can let me know that too.

Day Two, which is yet to be published, is going to be more about the community, the conversation and the culture of blogging. There will be two kinds of sessions when released: those like Day One that are already defined, but need speakers, and probably 6 open sessions slots for what we call "Room of Your Own" topics...sessions that BlogHer the organization will not define, but are eager to let BlogHers in the community define for us.

When Day Two is published you can either, again, propose yourself as a speaker for a specific session, or if you think we're missing the boat by not having a session on _______ (fill in the blank) you can volunteer to organize one in a Room of Your Own track.

Last year some of the Room of Your Own sessions were among the most well-attended and buzz-worthy sessions the whole day...leaving some of the planning to you truly makes this the "conference the community built" and embodies the spirit of Do-ocracy that BlogHer embraces.

Feel free to contact me directly if you still have questions, or with your submissions.

Day One Schedule and Call for Speakers

I am thrilled to unveil our BlogHer Conference '06 schedule for Friday July 28th, Day One of the Conference.

First a word on Day One's purpose:

Day One is about the 'education' part of the BlogHer mission to create an opportunity for all kinds of women bloggers to pursue exposure, education, and community. After last year's conference we received a lot of valuable feedback, and we got some very strong feedback that you wanted more and deeper technology discussions...and hands-on learning. That's Day One.

The Day One Keynote:

Day One Keynote is a conversation with two great technology leaders. BlogHer Marnie Webb will engage Caterina Fake (founder of Flickr and currently with Yahoo!) and Meg Hourihan (founder of Pyra, which became Blogger) in a conversation with the audience about "What's Next?" We'll talk about what's next in tech (and hopefully hear whether they think "Web 2.0" is hype? Or hip?) We'll also talk about what's next after you grab the brass ring...how do you find your next challenge? In the BlogHer spirit we will be collecting questions and comments beforehand and during the session, so this will be a Keynote Conversation, not a coupla Keynote speeches.

Day One Logistics:

First: when we get our online registration site up you will note that Day One and Day Two will be available as separate days or as a two-day conference. So, never fear, if there are those of you who don't want to take a Friday off to get geeky all day long, but can't wait to show up on Saturday, you will be able to.

Second: every session will be focused on learning how, and doing hands-on. For some sessions (e.g. audio, video, photography) we will publish an equipment/software list beforehand. We will do a series of repeated workshops, so people get an opportunity to attend as many of the sessions as possible. We will have not just a primary instructor, but additional mentors available, so people can get help during the hands-on portions of a session.

Call for Speakers: Deadline is 02/15/06:

You'll note that only a handful of these sessions have pre-assigned instructors. We are in talks with other folks, but mostly the opportunity is wide open. If you are interested in speaking, or want to recommend a speaker, for a particular session, please contact me ASAP. Remember these sessions will be hands on. Every attendee should leave a workshop feeling they did something with their own two hands.

The deadline for submission will be 02/15/06. We will be ready to announce the full schedule in time for BlogHer's descent on Austin for SXSWi.

What about Day Two?

Day Two is still percolating and its draft will be published soon. Day Two will have both BlogHer-defined programming and Room of Your Own opportunities, just like last year. And there will be a call for speakers and panel submissions for Day Two as well. Stay tuned.

What about Conference registration:

It's coming. Expect our new flexible conference registration site to be up within about one week.

OK, let me have it: your feedback, your speaker ideas, your wish list for what you would want to get out of the sessions that will be part of BlogHer Day One.

UPDATED: Online hotel registration site is up!

As promised the Hyatt San Jose has created a custom online site for BlogHers to reserve their hotel rooms. At that fabulous $75/night rate. The rate is available for the nights of 7/25/06 - 08/01/06 (vacation anyone?) And just so you know, they were awesome to offer us the special rate for all of those nights, while putting us on the hook for a minimum number of rooms reserved for one night only, the 28th. I know some of you have already reserved via the Hyatt phone line, but for those of you like me who prefer transacting all business online, you are now good to go.

UPDATED: Thanks Denise for calling our attention to the problem with the site, and thanks to Jenny for adding more info. Here's the dealio:

The Hyatt has to put some cap in their system as to how many rooms are sold at the special rate. That cap for the Friday night is 200 rooms. But they had put a really small cap in for every other night (like 5 rooms!)

And since they're not putting us on the hook for a minimum number of rooms for any other night, they're not going to just make the cap 200 rooms per night. (The Grand Prix is again in town on the same weekend, so they're pretty confident they can sell out the hotel at a much higher rate.)

So, right now we have negotiated for them to set aside the following number of rooms at $75 per night:

Tuesday July 25th/Wednesday July 26th: 10 rooms
Thursday July 27th: 25 rooms
Friday July 28th: 200 rooms
Saturday July 29th: 50 rooms
Sunday July 30th/Monday July 31st: 10 rooms

We'll start with that. The manager said if it looks like we're gonna rip right through those rooms we will go negotiate to get some more. At that point, we would probably have to make the commitment to cover a certain number of rooms on other nights, like we are for Friday night.

The site should be fixed to reflect these changes this morning.

SORRY for the confusion.

SXSW shows BlogHer some love

Today SXSW Interactive features BlogHer's participation at the conference in a nice little blurb.

SXSW stepped up to the plate specifically seeking proposals from BlogHers, and then really came through. Their schedule is jam-packed with sessions proposed and led by women.

Will we see you in Austin this March?

UPDATED: The BlogHer has landed! Announcing our 2006 conference site.

Get ready to party with the BlogHers, because we have secured the perfect spot for our 2006 2-day Conference on July 28th and 29th: the Hyatt San Jose.

Let me introduce you to some of the features of the Hyatt San Jose. First, there are a number of conveniences for BlogHers coming from out of town:

-Only half a mile from the San Jose Airport
-Free shuttle service from the Airport to the Hotel and back
-On-site Hertz rental car center
-Full service Business Center
-2 restaurants, plus room service until midnight
-Free WiFi in all public areas
-In-room high speed Internet
-Full re-model to be completed by the time of the conference
-Pool and whirlpool
-On-site Fitness Center included
-Plenty of free, on-site parking for our local attendees

And, drum roll please, we have been able to secure a rate of only $75/night for BlogHers! We have a block of 200 rooms set aside for the night of Friday July 28th, but the great part is that they will extend the $75 price for up to 3 days before and 3 days after that date for attendees who want to turn their stay into a longer vacation. The deadline for securing this rate is Saturday July 1st, so mark your calendars now.

The reservation number is: 408 993 1234, and they will also be setting up a special web page for BlogHer reservations. Our group name is: BlogHer. Stay tuned for the web link as soon as they set it up.

As for their accommodations for our conference itself, there are a few more details I'd like to share:

-Power strips to every table
-There will be both WiFi and plenty of actual Ethernet connections, to eliminate not only the bandwidth, but also the authentication bottleneck.

And perhaps my favorite feature of all: networking events out on the patio by the pool!! Yes, there is a large outdoor area at the center of all the Day Two meeting rooms...complete with mucho greenery and a large outdoor swimming pool. It's a very tropical feel and should be lovely on an evening in July in California!

We checked out several places for BlogHer this year, including convention centers, but we loved the fact that BlogHer will really be able to take over the Hyatt. We'll be the only event there, and we will probably represent a majority of the people staying there for those couple of nights. So that is why I said the BlogHer has landed...the Hyatt had better ready themselves for a BlogHer invasion in late July!

UPDATED: Everyone is going gaga for the $75 price , so I really have to give credit where credit is due. BlogHer Team member Maria Niles (who organized last year's festive pre-conference dinner) did the legwork on the Hyatt San Jose, and that $75 price was in place before any of the rest of us even checked it out. Thanks Maria!

Lights, Cameras, Vendors! How Would You Like to Interact with Exhibiting Sponsors at BlogHer '06?

At last year's BlogHer Conference we set up a Vendor Alley where exhibiting sponsors could demo products and chat with attendees. For the most part, Vendor Alley was a success, but we knew we could improve it by:

1. Offering even more visibility. Sure, on the floor plan of Tech Mart, Vendor Alley is in the center of everything, but the map didn't account for a 5-foot wall that cordoned the vendors off from everyone else.

2. Integrating the exhibiting sponsors with the programming a bit more. Note that I didn't say REPLACE the programming with exhibiting sponsor content. The two should not compete, but if an attendee wants to learn about, say, podcasting, and then talk to some providers on her own free time, we should make it easy for her to get all the information she needs.

3. Naming the exhibiting sponsor area something other than Vendor Alley. The name is kind of cool, but it's also too reminiscent of darkly-lit, forgotten areas where people throw out their trash. We want to provide a meeting place for commerce and illumination.

We've witnessed a number of approaches to featuring sponsors--some less appealing than others. BlogOn provided an Innovators Series that included 15 to 20-minute demos in-between sessions. This turned off a few attendees, who preferred to view demos and talk to vendors at thier leisure, not during prime content time, even if some of the presentations were interesting and useful.

We've witnessed the Holding Pen Approach to exhibiting sponsors, where in an attempt to keep sponsors and content separate, vendors are relegated to their own lonely room, away from the hot debates and natural walking patterns of the crowd. At least the exhibitors can catch up on some sleep.

We found ourselves in an interesting position this year, wanting to please our sponsors, but not wanting to infuriate attendees who invested time and money to get a non-commercial education. And we couldn't forget those press, IT decisionmakers, and tech heads who attend conferences to get their dose of the latest, greatest products. They want to hang out with the exhibitors and see demos. We think we've come up with a solution and we hope you'll let us know what you think about it and who you will want to see in the Exhibition Area of BlogHer '06.

We propose an Exhibitor Pavilion, separate from but located near the centrally located Exhibitor Area, where sponsors can schedule public presentations, and where BlogHer attendees may go at their leisure to hear about product launches and upgrades and view demos. We would publish a schedule so attendees knew when presentations of interest were being held. Sponsors would have the option of adding to their presence at BlogHer by offering presentations Comdex or Seybold-style in a theater setting.

Attendees, we're wondering: Would you find this feature helpful? Would you be willing to see demos scheduled during content sessions, or would you want these relegated to only breaks and networking times?

Sponsors: Would you find the additional exposure useful to you?

We're presenting this option to sponsors now. I'll follow up with feedback we receive.