In some circles, it might be considered rude to compulsively check your iPhone for e-mail, or raucously exclaim about Twitter updates. But at BlogHer’s Reach Out tour stop last weekend, bloggers were among their own hyper-connected colleagues, participating in workshops and networking events. Oh and, live-blogging the whole thing.

BlogHer was co-founded in 2005 by three women who wanted to create opportunities for women by fostering an online community. Now with 9 million unique and 50 million total page views a month, BlogHer is a forceful media network in its own right, says co-founder and CEO Lisa Stone.

More than 200 attendees (we spotted only a few men) came to BlogHer’s conference at the Marriot in Burlington on Saturday. Stone says BlogHer survey-takers chose Boston as a location for the conference, in a nod to the city’s “huge blogging tradition.”

Several Boston-area bloggers ran mini-workshops ranging from how to find your “blogging mojo” to promoting and increasing traffic. We got a chance to sit on the newbie-friendly session run by Beth Kanter, who offered advice on everything from preventing information overload to knowing when to step away from the computer. General consensus: No one wants to receive an e-mail you sent from the bathroom.

Though 25 percent of conference attendees haven’t started blogs, most conversations were dominated by the more experienced among the crowd. Topics even included the deleterious effects of die-hard blogging (think carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis flare-ups). Women confessed to feeling anxious or guilty when they fall behind with blog posts, or fail to respond to commenters. “Sometimes I have to remind myself that they won’t die if I don’t respond to their comments in 10 minutes,” one blogger says.

The girl-power vibe was palpable in the conference’s interactive format, which included frequent interjections and comments from audience members. Outside, between sessions, women networked and met face-to-face (“I saw your Tweet, and said, ’she’s in here somewhere!’”)

Boston-area bloggers featured in the closing keynote talked about using their blogs to raise awareness for political and social causes, and the “serendipitous” events that happened as a result. Dana Rudolph, Isabel Walcott Hilborn, and Kanter participated in the conversation, moderated by BlogHer’s co-founder Elisa Camahort Page.

BlogHer’s Boston stop drew bloggers from outside New England too. New York-based BlogHer editor Megan Smith sadly confesses her hopes of “strolling around Boston” were shattered when she heard it would take a $65 cab ride to get there from Burlington.

“When I first started, I really only knew the word ‘blog’, and then all of a sudden, I felt like I was a creative volcano,” she says. Judging by the eruptions of twitter updates, blogposts and business card exchanges during the day-long event, many others felt the same.

—Catherine Basham

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Paul Flannery on 10/13/08 in Events 1 Comment »