BolgHer: Highlights from the 2010 Conference

This past August marked the 6^th annual BlogHer conference which was held at the Hilton New York. The get together which took place on Aug 6th and 7^th, followed in the footsteps of five previously sold out conferences of the same name. With attendees from all areas of the blogosphere, the conference focused on blogger education, advertising and branding meet & greets, and of course networking opportunities.

Taking place immediately after the BlogHer Business Conference '10 - "an annual "crash course" on best practices for reaching the most influential and powerful consumers -- women online -- in the quickly evolving social media," the Blogger Conference empowered it's attendees to embrace, be confident and enjoy their blogs.

The "Little Fish in a Big Pond - Understanding and Loving Your Small Blog" panel focused on the joy and the importance of having a small blog in a world of millions of blogs, many which are enormous in scope of followers and subscribers. The core message, not every blog itself has to be, or needs compete with the giants, it simply needs to be enjoyable to its author and its readers. By doing so, the blog will have its own unique voice.

The Voices of the Year finalists were announced earlier this year. The VOY is a Community Keynote concept that highlights bloggers great work. Ninety finalists were selected from nearly 1,000 entries and are spread out across five categories. From those finalists, three from each category were selected to present their work as part of the 2010 Community Keynote on Friday, August 6^th. In the past, a total of 15-20 finalists have traditionally been chosen. This year, not only did 15 individuals from the blogging community ultimately make the list to present their work, but an additional 75 were selected to be honored as Voices of the Year. This larger panel of Keynote participants allowed for more exposure of the community's talent pool than in previous years.

In addition to the Voices of the Year Keynote Gala, an Art auction event was held. In response to the oil spill in the Gulf, the auction included artwork inspired by the works of the 90 finalists, with proceeds benefitting The Nature Conservancy in effort to help with long term recovery.

The most important conference highlight? Its overall message: understand why you blog, define your blogging goals, focus your influence, and embrace the technology.

Sources/Resources: BlogHer (official site including contributed community/member writings).