First Night: Infiltration

As predicted, I am overwhelmed by the collective power of BlogHer attendees. Some have been blogging as long as 10 years while others just started but have hit the ground running, already earning triple-digit readership. I shared a cab from O'Hare with the two ladies who just happened to be running the "Take Your Blog to the Next Level" panel - real techies - and they were amazing. One girl, Marilyn, has "4 or 5" blogs and tends to change the format on all of them ... monthly. Oh, she is also married and is raising two small children.

Fer chrissakes, what do these women eat for breakfast???? Sheesh.

Last night, I managed to elbow my way into a rib-eating feast with all the attending food bloggers. The place was Carson's, a legendary place known for their air-tight delivery of their famous ribs anywhere in the world. We'd followed one gal several blocks like a line of ducklings - what a payoff!

I was sitting next to my new best friend, Susan Voisin, who manages to be a fat-free vegan while living in Mississippi. She's my hero. (Susan ate a portobello burger.) The conversation topic was, as imagined, FOOD. There was also some dishy food blogger gossip but alas, I knew none of the characters.

Here's Elise Bauer, who is very famous in the food blogging world - something like 50,000 page view a day. She's getting a fashion update in preparation for her rib ravishing session. She led a session today and using tech tricks to increase traffic. She is brilliant, like everyone else here. I keep looking for the "Blog Success: How to Train Your Body To Eschew Sleep" panel session but no luck yet.

It's already starting to feel like SXSW - over-stimulating and highly educational. However, instead of celebrities and struggling rock stars roaming about, there are blog-ebrities (I met Pioneer Woman!) and not-so-struggling individualists who have something to say. I'm just trying to keep up ...