Blogging Goodness at Mom 2.0 Summit

With now 3.5 Million mom blogs, you might think the community to be huge and impersonal, but the reality is that there is still a fairly tight group of bloggers like me who have been at this thing long enough to really get to know each other. We take the opportunity to get together face-to-face whenever we can and Mom 2.0 Summit was exactly what I needed to feel connected and buoyed and inspired to keep moving forward with this passion of mine.

Rachel and I have a LOT in common

There is just so much to tell about the three days I spent in New Orleans, I can't even begin to try in a single post. In case you missed it, I posted a video recap earlier this week. Although I love the Big Easy like nobody's business, it wasn't about the city for me. It wasn't about the Ritz-Carlton where the conference was held, or the food that left me feeling unsatisfied and significantly poorer. There was a time when I very much enjoyed luxury, but these days it is wasted on me.

It was partially about the content of the keynotes, panels and workshops I attended which were heavily focused on the business of working with brands as a blogger. I was assigned to live-blog five sessions for the Mom 2.0 blog but the lack of good wi-fi and any power outlets in the rooms made that impossible so I took copious notes the old fashioned way...with pen and paper. Now I am carefully constructing summaries of the panels one at a time, the first three of which are up:

• The New Style: Bloggers, Brands and the Post Review and Giveaway Era
• How'd You Get that Sponsor? The Nuts and Bolts of Pitching
• Demystifying Marketing, PR & Social Media Strategy; Tactics, Metrics and Semantics

For me and I suspect for almost everyone there, Mom 2.0 was all about the people. The connections made, the friendships rekindled and the bonds between kindred spirits solidified. Believe it or not the most significant conversations of my entire weekend happened on the flights to and from New Orleans. 

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have run into Karen Walrond at the gate in Houston and I ended up sitting between her and Caleb Gardner, an exceptionally cool blogging dad and PR rep for Edelman. I previously knew but had taken for granted how much Karen and I have in common: a passion for people, photography and great music not to mention undergraduate engineering degrees. Never in a million years did I think I'd be talking about wastewater treatment with two bloggers on the way to a blogging conference. After having talked to Caleb a bit and checked out his online spaces I now totally feel like the big dork in the middle of an uber chic sandwich on that flight. 

On the flight home I was lucky enough to share a deep and reflective conversation with someone I consider a good friend and integral part of my blogging support network, Stacey Nerdin. She totally gets me (I think) and I am lucky she lives so nearby that I see her fairly often.  

Pam and her stylish panel

Then of course there were my awesome roomates and partners in crime, Pam, Ellie and Jennifer. Fellow fashionistas and enablers of my shopping addiction are those girls. The other thing the four of us share in common are very successful current careers that have nothing to do with blogging. That is a surprisingly rare perspective we bring to Mom 2.0.  

I'm also so happy to have made some new friends and gotten to spend a bit of time in person with old ones. This includes Rachel, Mir, Laura, Danielle, Gigi, Ilana, Kim, Janice, Lindsay, Savannah, Susan, Colleen, Audrey, Whitney, Cecily, Kristen, Regan, Christine, Renee, Christy, Ron, Leah, and Jessica.

Just to name a few. In no particular order.

Because life is not about the stuff you know or the money you make. It's not about where you live or what you wear. It IS about the people you meet and love and share with and teach and learn from and invest in every day. So try to remember that and be grateful...I certainly am.