Like most conferences, the first thing to deal with at BlogHer '08 is the schwag. This year's batch of goodies comes in a serviceable white canvas bag from CaféPress, which I'm afraid is a long way from BlogHer 2006's schwag bag from sponsor Six Apart (which was a set of 3 colorful durable tote bags), but to be fair nothing can match that - I still use mine.
The contents of this year's bag were largely uninteresting to me, with one or two exceptions - the beta online sustainability community at Greenopolis partnered with Waste Management to offer a kit for recycling fluorescent light bulbs, which was kind of cool. But what I DID find interesting (and useful) was a room sponsored by the family-reuse group zwaggle, where we could get rid of our unwanted bumpf. To me, this is a very good sign, and I'd love to see the practice adopted in all conferences.
After dissing the schwag so thoroughly, I do want to acknowledge how grateful I am for the level of sponsorship at BlogHer, since it helps them keep the entrance fee very affordable, which supports a diverse group of attendees.
So far the conference format has been very interactive, and there are some great people here to network with, which is handy. The first break-out session I went to, on green and social change non-profit blogging, was focused entirely on networking. I might have anticipated that since it was advertised as a Birds of Feather meet-up, but I guess I was looking for a bit more context to the networking than the "speed dating" model we'd been using throughout the morning. My voice is already hoarse and I'm almost out of the allotment of MOO cards I brought for the day, but I'm definitely honing the elevator speech about my work.
Next up, after lunch, is a session on participating in open-source projects.
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