See (Part 1) and (Part 2) for more details from my BlogHer ‘14 recap.
Saturday, July 26th
So you’ll
never guess what I did on the last morning of the conference. I ate breakfast in my hotel again, but this
time I woke up a little earlier so I wouldn’t miss too much. I’m not sure why I
didn’t get the memo that a hot breakfast would be served in the mornings, but I
really had no idea. Lucky for me both breakfasts at the hotel were
complimentary, so I didn’t pay out of pocket.
At least I know what to expect for the next BlogHer conference.
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| Richelle and I |
Anyways,
when I got to the breakfast, I realized that I did miss two of the 10x10
speakers. By the time I found a table
and sat down, Kara Swisher, the co-CEO of Re/Code, was getting ready to
interview Melissa Barnes, the Head of Global Brands for Twitter. They were both pretty awesome. Next, the Re/Code reporter, Nellie Bowles
interviewed Richelle Parham, CMO of eBay North America, on exploring the
untapped opportunity that e-commerce represents for online influencers. I love what Richelle had to say about the
future of blogging with eBay. She said
that in order to get your voice heard, have a point of view and just say it.
Finally,
Arianna Huffington
, the Founder of Huffington Post, graced the stage. She was interviewed
by Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon
Valley icon and newly-named Chief Evangelist of Canva. Correction – I must admit there actually
wasn’t much of an interview. Guy jokingly
pre
-warned us about Arianna’s controlling personality. He mentioned that the last time he
“interviewed” Arianna
, she said whatever she wanted to tell the audience. He suspected it would probably be the same
and it was.
Arianna
was unexpectedly funny and she always something witty to say when Guy was able
to get a question in. During the
interview, Mrs. Huffington explained how important it is to take care of
yourself and avoid burning out. In her new book, Thrive: The Third
Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and
Wonder, she explained that she outlines 12
steps to reconnecting with ourselves to renew and recharge ourselves. Here are a few things that I took away from
the discussion:
- Sleep your way to the top: She
wasn’t talking about what initially first comes to mind either. She literally means get some sleep. This was something that she didn’t do in the
past, but now she gets at least 7 hours of sleep each night. I’m definitely going to give it a try. I’m lucky if I get 5-6 hours of sleep and
that’s on a good night.
- Stop glamorizing being busy: Everyone
is busy and it isn’t a badge of honor, so we shouldn’t act like it is.
- “No” is a complete sentence: This
one speaks for itself.
Towards
the end of the interview, Guy asked Arianna a series of questions. He asked her if she liked “Mac or Windows?”
(She said both), “Harvard or Stanford?” (She said Yale), and “Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo?” (She said Manolo Blahnik.) The entire ballroom burst in
laughter when she said that Jimmy Choos are not comfortable because “they
are made by men who hate women.” Not
sure if she got any backlash from that comment, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t
care. This was a short recap of the highlights, but
you can watch the interview here
if you’re interested.
By the
time that Arianna left the stage, a large group of women ran out of the
ballroom to get their copies of Thrive signed. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy the
book before I left for the conference, but smartly Arianna had copies on hand
ready to sell. Naturally, I had to buy a
copy of the book for myself. I stood in long
line to purchase the book and then another long line to get the book signed. From
what I could gather from that day, Arianna stayed to sign everyones’s book
despite the fact that she was in a rush.
Unfortunately, my interaction with Arianna was very brief, but there was
a photographer on hand that captured the moment.
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After I
got my book signed I stood in line early for the lunch and keynote conversation
with Kerry Washington. I wanted to make
sure that I had a good seat towards the front of the stage. Not surprisingly, there was already a long
line forming for access to the ballroom.
It was pretty cool to stand in line with some fellow obsessed Scandal
fans. I hung out in line with several
awesome ladies I met while I waited in line to buy Arianna’s book. When the doors to the ballroom opened, all of
the women in line rushed the stage to find the perfect seat.
During
lunch, we were also treated to a performance
by a band called The Mrs. The band came to the BlogHer '14 conference to debut their
new song, I'm Enough. I’m Enough is an empowering song that tells women to embrace
themselves as they are. The band performed live after playing an inspiring
video about how women feel when they look in the mirror. If you have a chance check out the video (here) – it will move you to tears.
We also heard from, Morra Aarons-Mele and Luuvie
Ajayi, the two 10x10 speakers scheduled to take a look back at what the
blogosphere built and to take a look ahead to where we’re going covering 10
years in 10 minutes. Morra started first
and then the conference organizers said that they were going to change the
schedule up a little and have Kerry come out before Luuvie. During Luuvie’s performance, she joked about
change in the schedule and mentioned that she was so happy that Kerry
Washington opened for her.
When Kerry
Washington finally came out on stage, the crowd went crazy. Kerry wore a Floral Cluster Popover Top from Kate Spade, a pair J Brand Jeans, not sure which fit but
some type of skinny leg, and from what I can tell a pair of Christian Louboutins. She looked just as flawless as we’ve seen her as Olivia Pope in
Scandal as well as on the red carpet. I also
loved that Kerry sent out a tweet about her outfit for all of her fashionista
fans – check it out here.
Demetria Lucas, the author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living
Your Best Single Life and the
creator of the personal blog, A Belle In Brooklyn had the
distinct pleasure of interviewing Kerry Washington. Kerry
talked about how she keeps her personal life private, Scandal, social media and
fashion. I pretty much lost my mind when
she came out. I must have taken over a dozen
pictures of the duo to make sure I had one perfect shot. I even walked up closer to the stage to take
pictures and I ended up sitting the floor until the end of the interview. Kerry
she was so down to earth and she even took a selfie with the crowd, which was
pretty cool. Unfortunately, I didn’t
make the picture even though I was right in the front row. You can see me in my pink
skirt trying to make the shot. If you want to watch the whole
interview, then click the link here.
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After the
interview, I attended the Style Mini-Conference. Out of the entire break out
sessions offered, I was most excited to attend this one. The discussion leaders
for this 2.5 hour session included Jane Park, the CEO of Julep, CeCe Olisa,
from Plus Size Princess, Monica Barnett from Blueprint for Style, and Natalia
Simmons from Ma Nouvelle Mode. I really enjoyed learning some helpful tips from
these experienced fashion bloggers.
Finally,
I attended the Closing Keynote, which was titled The Intersection of Race,
Gender, Feminism and the Internet along with 2 more 10x10 speakers. The panel of 6 women of color included
Feminista Jones from FeministaJones.com,
Grace Hwang Lynch from HapaMama, Kelly
Wickham from Mocha Momma, Kristen
Howerton from Rage Against the
Minivan, Natalia Oberti Noguera from Pipeline Fellowship
and Patrice Lee from Generation
Opportunity. I was so impressed by
the diversity and activism on the stage and blown away by their courageousness.
If you like, you can watch a clip of the session here. During the day I also got to meet Stacey Ferguson from Justice
Fergie in person. Stacey was one of the closing 10x10 speakers and she
shared her experiences and information about the Be Blogalicious community and
conferences that celebrates diversity among women in social media.
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Later that
night, I danced the night away at the official closing party hosted by McDonald’s.
I’m definitely not the biggest McDonald’s
fan in the world. I mean if I had food options,
9 times out of 10, McDonald’s wouldn’t even be on the list. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy
a happy meal every once in a while. So
it was a nice treat to be offered various happy meals, side salads and their
fruity smoothies during the party. McDonald’s transformed an empty parking lot into an outdoor lounge,
complete with lanterns, couches, and tents. They even hired Rev. Run of the
legendary rap duo Run DMC to get the party started. Rev Run had everyone at the party singing and
dancing to his old school mix of 80s and 90s hits. I didn’t realize how loudly I was singing until
I woke up the next morning and I barely had a voice. Overall, the closing party was the perfect
ending to the conference.
I have to
say that I’m very happy that my first blogger conference was BlogHer ‘14. This
conference was exactly what I expected it to be and I couldn’t be more pleased.
I heard from some veteran BlogHer participants that the conferences in the past
were bigger and better than this one, but I would never know the
difference. I connected with some
fabulous ladies and learned a lot about blogging and I that’s what I wanted. So
if you’re wondering if I would attend another BlogHer conference. My answer would be yes, absolutely!
Have you been to a BlogHer conference in the past?
Were you there at BlogHer ‘14? What did you think? Have you
ever been to a blogging conference? I’d love to hear about it!
