BlogHer is not a conference for the weak. Walking alone into the packed ballroom at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco triggered flashbacks of my first day of junior high. I grabbed a seat at a table among the thousand or so (mostly) women gabbing away like old friends, though most of them had only just met. And just when I was starting to get comfortable, the “speed-dating” session began. For real. Participants are given two minutes to chat up the other people at their table until a whistle blows and you must get up and move on to the table next-door. For a half-hour straight. Like I said, BlogHer requires stamina and is no place for the faint of heart.

It’s an understatement to say that BlogHer is not a typical conference. Rather, it is an event that many attendees anticipate with the fervor of a kid on Christmas Eve. For BlogHers (as they are sometimes called), this is the annual opportunity to meet and mingle with the friends they have made online and in many cases are just seeing for the first time. Attendees wear name badges emblazoned with their pseudonym and/or URLs. And instead of asking, “What do you do?” or “Where are you from,” they greet each other with the opening, “What do you blog about?”

I have long been reading about the annual BlogHer conference since the inaugural event in 2005 on the sites of some of my favorite A-list bloggers: Dooce.com, Fussy.org and SuburbanBliss.net. All of these sites fall under the somewhat misleading category of “mommy blogs,” but in reality, they are just great writers who I truly admire. I had always been curious about attending, and figured I’d be rubbing elbows with these ladies at the buffet table, or engaging in witty repartee in the panel discussions and meet-ups. But in reality, as with any A-listers, these women were surrounded by an entourage throughout the conference. And in the case of Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com, literally hidden away from hordes of rabid fans. Seriously. Heather is the Angelina Jolie of bloggers and makes a comfortable living from her website. While far from the norm, this fact alone illustrates what big a business blogging has become.

Which is a long way of saying that while there was a lot to learn at BlogHer, for me it was more of an anthropological study. And what I learned only underscored the already ingrained notion that bloggers are extremely passionate people who care deeply about the subject matter they choose to blog about. Surprisingly, I only detected a faint whiff of disdain when I was told that all they really ask from PR people like ourselves is to be treated with respect and with consideration of their subject matter.

As for takeaways to share, here are a few:

  • Kirtsy.com- Explained in one panel as “Digg for chicks” (they said it, not me), Kirtsy modestly describes itself as “A social media platform of pure goodness. A plaza for the peachy. A portal to the pretty. A place to find cool things. To read smart scoop. To connect with fab ideas, exceptional people, useful information, excellent products. All of it. And more.kirtsy is just like that friend who always finds the best stuff. Only better.” Kirtsy is the social media platform of choice for BlogHer attendees.
  • Self-Promotion – To boost traffic, twitter links to new posts, include buttons for Kirsty, Digg, etc. and allow people to subscribe to an RSS feed. Not new ideas, per se, but worth mentioning.
  • The importance of online relationships – For anyone who ever had any doubt that relationships formed online are any less significant than those formed “in real life” this conference is living proof. Many panelists and attendees spoke to the point that the friendships they have made as a result of their blogs are their most genuine and meaningful, because they come from a place of shared interest and perspective.
  • Bloggers like PR people – Many of the bloggers I spoke with expressed a desire to be contacted by PR people who have information they can blog about. Maintaining a blog on a regular basis is a lot of work. Bloggers are always looking for something to blog about. There is a blogger out there who wants to write about your client – now it is your job to find them.
  • This announcement – The newly-formed partnership of NBC’s iVillage (the self-proclaimed leading online destination for women) with BlogHer and thereby BlogHer’s extensive network of 2200 women’s blogs is solid proof that blogging is has moved from the fringes smack dab into the mainstream.

Want to experience BlogHer 08 for yourself? Watch video interviews from BlogHer 08 here.