Blissdom ’10 Highlights: Friends, Bloggers, and Harry Connick, Jr.

I’ve attended three blogging conferences since October, 2009. I’ve had every intention of blogging recaps of each. Unfortunately, I’m a thinker; I like to mull my experiences over before I share them with others. However, I think I’ve gone beyond the normal reflection stage and passed into the procrastination stage. In an effort to remedy that I’m posting my thoughts about Blissdom, the most recent conference I attended. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing my experiences from Blissdom, I_Blog, and Blog World Expo with you.

Blissdom Friends

If you ask an introvert how many friends she has, she’ll most likely answer with a small number — certainly nothing larger than five. If you ask an extrovert how many friends she has, she’ll most likely answer with a very large number — possibly a hundred or more. The difference is in how the introvert and extrovert define their friendships: an introvert counts only close friends, those who have shared their jeans size and most secret guilty pleasures; an extrovert counts anyone she’s met whose name she can remember.

I told you that, to tell you this: I’m an introvert and if you had asked me how many friends I had before I went to Blissdom, I would have said, “Four.” But when I arrived at Blissdom I was welcomed with hugs from people I’d only known online or met a few times in real life. Malia was kind enough to pick me up from the airport (and deliver me back to the airport on Sunday). Robin met me in the lobby and ushered me to a hamburger joint when she heard my stomach roar. Barbara, Alli, Danielle, Kim, Megan, and Linda stopped what they were doing (stuffing swag bags) and greeted me as if I were their favorite family member. And I realized I have a lot more than four friends. The entire weekend of Blissdom was like that. Everywhere I looked, there were people I knew (either from previous conferences or from online interactions) and every time I approached them it was as if we’d always been together.

Swag and Sponsors

From the time I arrived on Wednesday to the time I departed on Sunday, everything I experienced at Blissdom was top notch. The panels were interesting and informative, panelists were knowledgeable and approachable, and there was plenty of down time to find friends. The swag bags were bar-none the best I’ve ever received. When I attend a conference I generally dread even dealing with swag bags because I don’t like extra stuff. My house is full of stuff and I don’t need more pens, stress balls, or plastic whatchamacallits. The Blissdom swag was none of that (and I should know; not only did I get a bag, I spent more than five hours helping to stuff those babies full of fabulousness). So thank you to the Blissdom swag sponsors: Hershey’s Bliss (we got two bags of chocolates), Lisa Leonard Designs (we each received a beautiful “bliss” necklace), ConAgra Foods (mmm crunchy snacks like cheddar waffle chips and onion strips), Hanes (comfy socks), Cover Girl (sexy smoky eyes kit), and Lands’ End (they supplied the very awesome bags; I use my bag from last year all the time and I was so hoping they’d come through again this year — they did!).

Harry Connick, Jr.

Yes, the whole conference was everything everyone says it was: fabulousness on a stick. The thing that you can’t ignore, though, is that the Blissdom women brought out the big guns this year and hosted Harry Connick, Jr. for a short concert on Friday night. I am a HCJ fan from way back. I know obscure weird stuff that an 18 year old’s brain holds onto or that only a true geek would know. Harry sang three songs and talked about the Musicians’ Village he’s helping build (with Habitat for Humanity and others) in response to the Katrina devastation.

And yes, I was able to meet Harry! I staked out my spot early and was able to take this amazing photo with my friends (thank you to @my3boybarians for being the official spectacular photographers for this event!)

Danielle, of Extraordinary Mommy, took some video of Harry and the band singing When the Saints Go Marching In:

And here I am with the bass player:

He told me he’s 37 and started playing when he was 30. Nothing like a little genius to make you feel like a slacker. And where’s my thumb? I hide my thumbs. Just one of the many freaky things I do when I’m nervous. (Oh, I wish I were kidding.)

And here I am right after meeting Harry. Apparently my happy face is also my “holy crap, that girl’s 10 kinds of CRAZY!” face. Cassie seems to be handling it well, though, don’t you think?

Thank you to Barbara Jones, Alli Worthington, and Paula Bruno for setting the bar higher for blogging conferences. You ladies made big promises and you delivered on every one. Well done!

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