I attended Blogher for the first time this year. We have a client, Predictify, that is working with the MOMocrats and so off I went from Idaho to San Francisco for Blogher08. First, let’s preface this with the fact that I had some ideas in my mind – based on the agenda and obvious target audience – about what it would be like, but I really had an open mind with regards to what it was truly all about.

What I got was far more than I could have anticipated. Here are some observations from the newbie.

Many conference panels are more about listening than talking. That was absolutely not the case at Blogher. Even the way the rooms were set up for those sessions I attended advocated equal communications between session leaders and participants.

And there was a lot of talking in the sessions. I’m not talking about discussions of poopy diapers, cute shoes and favorite moisturizers (I heard all those conversations at breakfast and lunch). REAL dialogue about issues that matter to many women. Not every woman, but I would say that everything discussed touches the life of every woman in some way or another.

Meeting smart, motivated and independent thinking women was a – no, THE – highlight for me. I’ve got plenty of those type of women around me at work and in my personal life, but put ~1,000 of them in a room and we’re talking a whole new dimension. I met some brilliant women with stories I don’t think I’ll ever forget, and do not want to. Like BernThis, InsideBeauty, WhiteTrashMom, Semi-Charmed Wife, WomenandHollywood, MommyNeedsaCocktail and sooo many more.

There aren’t a ton of men at Blogher but I was happy that I did see a handful, and there was at least one Bloghim in every session I attended but one. I found great value in the men that were there, in person, like our own Josh Hallett who has attended the last three events, or from afar like Guy Kawasaki. There is much debate over men at Blogher and I am in the camp that believes if you want to work within the market that reaches out to moms – bloggers or not – you should attend Blogher. I can’t imagine getting that kind of insight anywhere else.

If you’re interested in blogging or networking and want the opportunity to “work it”, as Tyra might say, with incredibly bright and forward-thinking women then Blogher is worth its weight in gold. I hope to be at Blogher09. Come find me.

I have been to many trade shows over the years, from the glitzy (CES) to the dorky (WinHEC) to the niche (Webmaster World). I have managed booth-duty, staffed press briefings, and tracked down press and analysts on-the-fly. And at each of these shows, I typically avoided the lame-ass schwag bags handed out to attendees.

But then, I attended my fourth BlogHer, which I now refer to the Shangri-La of Schwag. Quite honestly, no other show compares when it comes to sponsors handing out goodies, offering samples and trials, and tugging at heartstrings. Here are my highlights from last week’s BlogHer 08 in San Francisco:

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BlogHer 08 has come to a close. Here are some photo highlights. The entire set is here.

There has been plenty of discussion the past few days about BlogHer. As a veteran of the past three BlogHer conferences it’s interesting to map the trends over time.

Rohit points out that it’s more than moms and that’s always been the case. I often tell the story about the final general session in ‘06 when a women stood up and literally declared, “I’m not a mommy blogger, so quit calling me one, who is with me?” and half the hands in the room went up. Perhaps then all those brands courting mommy-bloggers realized they may have been alienating half the audience.

Granted, moms are a big part of the conference, but one of the big discussion points in one of the sessions is that there are varying definitions for mom: married, single, working, stay-at-home, etc. But even within those broad segments there are further subdivisions. The end result? You can’t generalize or assume, you need to learn who they are, almost on an individual basis.

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There are “5 blogging moms, 7 days without kids, 1 car without car seats, and 2000 miles to drive.” And it all leads to BlogHer 2008 in San Francisco. 
 
The Silicon Valley Moms Group has kicked-off its first Road Trip from the East Coast to the West Coast… and they’ll be blogging along the way.  There is a tricked-out Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, lots of Weight Watchers snacks, cool tunes, and no kids asking “are were there yet?”
 
Some experts are calling it “smart marketing” and others are just excited to be voyeurs.  The coolest part is that Katie Couric — longtimesupporter of Silicon Valley Moms Group — has posted a kick off video!  (Sweet shoes!)
 
Follow the moms on Twitter (MomRoadTrip), contact them via email (momroadtrip@yahoo.com) or read about the adventures on theblog.  Better yet, keep your eyes peeled if you happen to live on the travel route of DC, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Reno, Silicon Valley and (finally) San Francisco.  
 
Good luck, Moms!  See you at BlogHer 08! 

Last week Voce sponsored Ignite Portland 3.

Over 750 people packed into the Bagdad Theatre to watch 13 speakers talk for 5 minutes each on various topics. Each sponsor is given a moment on stage, so I proudly shared that Voce is looking for some Northwest brands to fire up.

IP3 was a great event for us to sponsor as Portland has one of the most attended of the Ignite series. Originally started by O’Reilly, Ignite has now spread to cities throughout the world.

We are looking forward to following this sponsorship with an event in Portland (Legion of Talk) where we will bring in Voce clients to share their successes and challenges with PR in social media. Stay tuned for more information about these bridge building events!

On Friday I’ll be attending/MC’ing BlogPotomac in the DC area. This latest un-conference is being organized by Geoff Livingston with some assistance from Debbie Weil. I’m glad to say many of the session leaders are longtime friends and colleagues and I look forward to the discussions.

I feel flattered that the event has followed the BlogOrlando model I started a few years ago. If I have my facts right I think Geoff returned from BlogOrlando this past year and said, “Let’s do this in DC!”

A number of other locations/events have sprung up in the past few years: BlogSavannah, SoCon, BlogPhiladelphia and BlogCarolinas to name a few. I’m glad the BlogOrlando concept has spread as it has. However, my original inspiration for BlogOrlando was BlogNashville which took place in 2005…seems like so long ago.

I hope to post some photos from the event and perhaps a recap, but I imagine most of the comments will come on Twitter.

Speaking of BlogOrlando, we’re holding our first planning meeting on June 26th.

Our own Matt Podboy is attending the OnHollywood Conference in LA the next few days. Usually, LA and Matt make an interesting combination.

You can follow his real-time commentary on Twitter.

Voce Nation wanted to say thank you to the crew of cardsharks that joined us last week for the second annual Interop Poker Tournament. Voce, NetIQ, and Barracuda Networks hosted the event as a chance for media and analysts to escape the grind of vendor briefings and reporting, unwind with peers and have a healthy dose of competition.

Poker pro Mark Seif was on hand to provide pointers on how to play Texas Hold ‘Em.

Check out Shamus McGillicuddy’s post on the event for a first person account of the tourney.

Larry Howard of Infonetics Research took home top honors and bragging rights for 2008. Will he be able to defend his title in 2009? You’ll have to join us next year to find out.

More pics from the event are on the voce nation photostream.

Just two quick plugs for Josh Hallett and Mike Manuel this week…

Josh has a contributed story appearing in the May issue of PRSA’s PR Tactics, which was published online earlier this week. It’s about how practitioners can use social media to enhance and extend their media relations efforts. He also offers some tips on the importance of blogger relations (an excerpt from the article):

“Using blogs to reach traditional media sounds like the meeting of matter with anti-matter. Some say that blogs are the antithesis of media. Recent studies indicate that ever more journalists are looking to blogs for story leads and quotes, among other things. Combine this with the number of journalists who now count a blog as a publishing medium and the line between blogs and journalism is blurring more than ever.”

And Mike was up at the NewComm Forum this week, co-presenting a case study on corporate blogging with the good folks from PlayStation (an excerpt from his blog post).

“The case study chat with the new media team behind Sony PlayStation’s blog went well yesterday afternoon at the NewComm Forum, we actually covered a lot of ground - everything from content development and technical design to community management tactics and measurement. By the end of our session, the PlayStation guys had shared 15 “lessons learned” over the last year.”

Great stuff….