More BlogHer Newbie Notes

Wow, one week from today I’ll be headed to the Big Apple for the 2012 BlogHer Conference. I’m really looking forward to meeting some new people and making some memories.

There’s a lot of buzz about off-site parties. I’ve been invited to a few, for which I am excited. I played the Tweet “#XSuite” hashtag game a little, but only a little. I don’t intent to offend anyone, but it feels like a bit of a popularity contest. I’m sure there will be some good swag (and possible sponsorship opportunities), and I’m really looking forward to the few parties for which I’ve gotten invites, but I’m not really interested in spending precious hours Tweeting a certain hashtag to maybe get an invite to a party.

I’m going to BlogHer to meet people, make connections, and get some valuable tips, but mostly for a new experience. A conference with some 4,000 odd participants? That’s almost twice the size of some of the large design conferences I’ve been to. I’m going into this with no expectations. BlogHer itself offers lots of parties and swag opps, so I don’t feel the need to even venture off the conference site.

I’ll let you know how that goes. Maybe I’ll have a different view after I experience some of these offsite parties.