BlogHer ’13 Recap

It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from my little trip to Toronto and Chicago (BlogHer) and I’ve been crazy busy so I haven’t had a chance to post a recap until now.

After deciding to go to BlogHer on a whim, I came back to more work than I could have anticipated. My day job has been go-go-go, I’ve been trying to catch up on the blogging stuff that I couldn’t get done when I was away. My family was here last week from Winnipeg as well, which means I’ve had little time to gather my thoughts. Not to mention that there was a mix up with the family I babysit for, so I had to watch the kids on Monday night last minute which meant that I had nothing with me (not even my phone charger) and couldn’t get anything done.

I’m not complaining though. That’s just the way things go when you return from vacation.

Toronto

I flew in to Toronto, which was the first time I’ve ever been. The next day Marissa and I went on a short jaunt to Niagara. I didn’t spend much time in Toronto itself, but I went sight seeing for an entire day (all by myself!) and got to see the views from the CN tower, enjoy the exhibits at the ROM and do a little shopping.

Chicago

From Toronto, Marissa and some other awesome Toronto bloggers let me tag along with them to BlogHer. Ford graciously lent us a Ford Escape and a Ford F-150 for the (supposedly) seven and a half hour drive from TO to Chicago.

I say supposedly because we got lost, and we ended up going over the wrong border crossing and then re-crossing minutes later after our GPS corrected us.

— Side note – You’d think that driving a Ford F-150 from Toronto to Chicago would have been a huge gas drain, but they only had to fill up once! I’m so impressed. —

It was a three hour detour but we were listening to 90s music so it was all good.

The wonderful groups behind Buytopia and the Hyatt put us up in the Hyatt – Mccormick Place, which was stunning. The room was on the 26th floor so the views were amazing. We had a “parlour” and two conjoining rooms, which was great since there were seven of us, so we could just hang out in the parlour and – like real bloggers, get some work done.

The restaurants at the hotel were great and we really didn’t have to leave the hotel for anything if we didn’t want to. It’s in a really convenient location, too, so it’s a very cheap cab ride to restaurants and attractions in the city. We used Hailo Chicago to help get us around smoothly, which was really convenient.

The hotel was right near the conference, though that didn’t stop me from getting lost over and over again (woops). It was really convenient when you need to go back to your room in the middle of the day and relax and get some work done or drop stuff off. We had a lot of heavy bags the first day at the conference because of the Expo.

BlogHer

The conference itself was a lot of fun. The first day we missed the sessions, but got to meet some brands at the Expo (and got a ton of swag, too), and had the opportunity to see a bit more of Chicago.

The second day Sheryl Sandberg spoke (at 9:00 AM. Luckily I’m an early riser) and we attended some great sessions. We also went to hear Randi Zuckerberg and a few other very inspiring women speak on entrepreneurship and the power of the internet and social media.

Any time you get a group of bloggers together, even if it is just 5 people or 5000 like at Blogher, it’s really inspiring and motivating.

I’ve heard from a few bloggers that BlogHer isn’t as valuable for personal finance or lifestyle bloggers, but I think it is. Sure, you don’t network with that many bloggers in your niche, but you can connect with others. Just because they don’t blog about finance doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in it!

There’s a lot to be learned and none of us know ALL of the ins and outs of blogging. It’s also very inspiring, so I saw a lot of value in it.

Wish I could see everyone at FINCON, too, but unfortunately my vacation time is maxed out.