Blog Indiana Conference
Over 120 Indiana bloggers gathered yesterday and today in Indianapolis, sharing ideas, support and enthusiasm for social media. Since this site is a blog (a website with regularly updated text in reverse chronological order), I’m at the conference!
There are about 40 women here, as far as I can estimate (conference organizers, please chime with an actual number!) which is more than I expected. The women (like all the bloggers) here range from “thinking about starting a blog” to “blogging is my highest priority.” Six of 24 workshops were led by women – pretty much proportional with women’s attendance at the conference. Three of 12 panel speakers were women – also 1/4. Maybe Indiana bloggers are good at math…?
The conference was organized by two men (Noah Coffey and Shawn Plew), though women were involved in supporting and sponsoring as well (far less visibly). Having a woman front and center in leadership might increase women’s attendance in the future. So would thanking the women (like the wives of Shawn and Noah) who worked so hard on the conference.
These simple things would have helped me feel more comfortable, as a woman and especially as a feminist blogger. There was a session last night for general networking, but having a time for women bloggers to get to know each other would be a great addition to the next conference.
I was glad that one of the workshop leaders and panel speakers, Bil Browning, is the publisher of the Bilerico Project, the second-largest LGBTQ blog in the world. His participation was not only in the context of being a gay man, but specifically focused on this site. This was unapologetic, as it should be.
I found it ironic that the last session I went to (Blogging Basics Open Discussion) gave corporate advice about taking up lines of a Google search about their company, pushing out hits of personal blogs by customers. It shouldn’t be a surprise – the promised democratization of the web is still trumped by money (wow, just like the democratization of anything else!).
Filed under: conferences on August 17th, 2008 by Anna Lisa
[...] Original post by Anna Lisa [...]
Thanks so much for your input, we’re already planning BlogINDIANA 2009 and are taking notes.
I had a real forehead-smacking moment when I read your suggestion about thanking my partner-in-crime, Joanna, for her assistance and encouragement over the past several months. Noah and I, while we were standing in front of the group on the first day, made a conscious decision not to thank our spouses at breakfast, rather opting to thank them at the end of day two, giving them special recognition. This completely backfired on us after we scrapped the day two group wrap-up.
Again, thanks for being part of the first conference, and we look forward to seeing you online and in person in the future.
Thanks for the compliment, Anna. I’m glad you enjoyed my presentation; I hope to see you on the site participating in the community!
We feature a lot of feminist posts and you might know some of our regular contributors. (I know Jessica Hoffmann has been guest posting on Feminste lately.)
Now that I know you’re out here, I’ll add you to our blogroll if you’ll do the same for us. And I’d really encourage you to submit a guest post to Bilerico Project (remember that tip?). I’m sure you’d go over well with our audience.
And how that I know of your site, I’ve added you to my RSS reader. I’ll be sure to check your site daily to see what you’re up to.
BlogIndiana conference: All good things must come to an end…
I really enjoyed myself at the BlogIndiana conference. Shawn Plew and Noah Coffey are to be commended for organizing an informational and fun weekend. If you didn’t get a chance to attend this year, make room on your schedule for next year’s conferen…
Blog Indiana 2008 Reflections…
This past weekend I attended Blog Indiana 2008, a conference by and for bloggers in the region, which I mentioned here a few months ago. Overall, I would call the event quite a success. For $50, participants had access to a weekend packed full of ric…
Anna Lisa – These are great comments and reflect a great deal of my own thoughts. I shared with Shawn that I felt that several groups weren’t as well represented as might be ideal and, since I write primarily about food, lifestyle blogs were my focus. But for me, celebrating and de- and re-coding what was traditionally “women’s work” – living well, focusing on family, cooking everyday food, creating community – is a political act that is ideally suited for blogging. It’s also an act that isn’t really sustainable with a business model.
I also felt that the business perspective reflected competition and winning a bit more than I would have liked, even in the non-corporate sessions. But, again, my focus in on community & I work full-time in a nonprofit, so that sort of tone inherently disinterests me.
That said, I think it was a great first-step in bringing together people. We just need to make sure that we get all the people there that should be.