What?

Day One Breakfast, including a Newbie Breakfast!We love the idea of giving people who are attending their first BlogHer a chance to connect with one another before walking into a room with a thousand other people. This year we decided to try a Newbie Breakfast as a way to ease into the BlogHer experience, instead of a pre-conference cocktail party. Come meet other first-timers, hear a little bit about what the next two days will entail, and some tactics for not getting lost in the crowd!

PS-Don't worry, there will be breakfast for everyone...and we heard the 2008 plea for more protein with breakfast too :)

Welcome...and Speed Dating, BlogHer-styleFirst things first: We'll talk a little bit about who you are and why you're there. Then: It wouldn't be a BlogHer without some Speed Dating, BlogHer-Style!

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Identity/Passions: The Transformational Power of BloggingYour blogs are instigating change In Real Life, from changing how you make a living to changing your own self-perception. This session will inspire with stories of true transformation, but this session will also instigate transformation! We’ll ask: What do you say on your blog that you wish you could say In Real Life? Well, there will never be a better time to stand up and say it…we are dying to hear it!

Business of You: Bloggers are Pioneers in a Post-“Employee” WorldBloggers have created any number of “portfolio careers” using blogs as a jumping off point for freelancing, consulting, starting businesses, etc. This session will look at the fundamentals of valuing your work, skills and expertise from a business perspective. How to market yourself, how to attach appropriate value to what you do, how to decide when you’ll do something gratis, and when it’s time for that gravy train to roll to a stop.

Leadership: Owning Your ExpertiseThis is a Beginning level session geared towards those who feel passionately that they’d like to start raising their voice on political and social issues, but need help finding the confidence and internal validation to spread their word farther and louder. If you’re already submitting Op-Eds to the New York Times on a regular basis, then this session might not be for you, but if you’d like to be that person getting their Op-Ed published or being interviewed on CNN, or even if you’d like to gain the chops to blog more openly about your ethical, philosophical and political beliefs, then this session will leave you feeling empowered to do so in a way you never have before. This session features Katie Orenstein , founder of The Op-Ed Project, facilitating one of the most critical segments of that day-long seminar, assisted by Op-Ed Project alumna (and BlogHer co-founder), Elisa Camahort Page.

MommyBlogging: Have You Found Your MommyBlogging Tribe?Or do you feel out of the loop? We often say: “There’s not one blogosphere; there are many.” This actually has become true of the Momosphere too. There are many momospheres. Long-time MommyBloggers may feel dismayed about the fragmentation, while newer MommyBloggers may be having trouble finding their own part of the momosphere to hang out in. And they might even be wondering, “What’s so great about the MommyBlogging community anyway?” Things have definitely changed since that first MommyBlogging Room of Your Own session at BlogHer ’05, and there’s no reason not to talk about it head on. In a momosphere featuring literally thousands of bloggers, how can you tell who is in, out, big, small, popular, unpopular? The answer is you really can’t, and it might be worth discussing what we can accomplish in our own personal momosphere.

"Birds of a Feather" Lunch: Find your blogging flock over lunchEvery year we provide a time and space for attendees to self-form into Birds of a Feather groups around any number of topics. This year we are returning to the method we used in 2007: Birds of a Feather lunches. Find your flock over food. :)

Identity/Passions: LifeBlogging Outside the Lines: When you’re not a Geek, a Political Wonk or a MommyBloggerBlogging started as a geek’s game, and by 2004 political bloggers were making waves and mainstream media news. Post-BlogHer 2005 the rise of the MommyBloggers, first as cultural, then as commercial, force began. So where does that leave the rest of us…blogging about who we are and what we do with as much dedication, passion and amazing writing as any of those other blogging archetypes? We know that many of you who don’t fit neatly into the above boxes share the same concerns:

How can I dispel stereotypes about people like me?

How can I build community without something like an ideology or a kid of a particular age to serve as the common thread?

How can I get a piece of the monetization pie…I have income and spend money too, you know?

Join other LifeBloggers who want to flex their blogging muscles.

Business of You: Brands and BloggersBlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins will moderate this discuss with folks from both sides of the Brand/Blogger Border. We’ll get you all talking about:

How to market in the blogosphere without being dismissed as a shill

How to work with brands without being reviled as a BlogWhore

How both sides of this commercial relationship have equal responsibility to set their policies, be transparent and remain ethical in the eyes of their customers, readers etc.

Leadership: Writing Your Op-EdKatie Orenstein kindly excerpts the most actionable and practical segment of The Op-Ed Project with this session about quality opinion writing. Both the basics of crafting a high-quality, credible piece, and then the tactics to get that piece wider distribution. You’ll learn about the basic structure Op-Eds have, how you can play with that structure, what different kinds of evidence lends a piece credibility, what mainstream media editors are looking for, how you can become part of their pipeline and more practical, actionable information on getting your word out. Even if you have no other intent but to publish your opinion pieces on your blog, mainstream media be damned!, this session will improve your skills and persuasiveness.

MommyBlogging: “Balance” is a Big, Fat, Lying, McLiar LIE for Moms who Blog (and the rest of us too)Let’s chuck the usual work-life balance discussions out the window and talk about how we get it done, what we don’t get done, and how we reconcile ourselves to the chaos. Oh, and that little blogging habit? How does that help us, and what do we do when we think it’s actually not helping at all?

Identity/Passions: Enough About You...Who's Reading You?If you care about building traffic, then you must care about who’s reading you. How do you think of your readers? Readers? Audience? Friends? Fans? Community? And would it change your blogging if you thought a little harder about your readers? Or decided what kind of readers you really wanted. We’ll talk to bloggers with different perspectives on the identity of their readers…and we’ll talk about how blogging to build community is different from blogging to build a fan base or blogging to maintain friendships or blogging to find an audience…you get the picture.

Business of You: Blog to Book, the ThreequelThis perennial favorite may never be left off the agenda. We’ll again talk to authors, agents and publishers about what it takes to move blogging brilliance onto printed page

Leadership: What is "Pro-Woman" in a Post-Palin World?2008 was a volatile year for women in the public eye. Not just for those women, but for all women as we watched them in action and the reaction to them. BlogHer.com featured substantive, weighty and (mostly) civil conversations that dug up ongoing questions that dog all of us that consider ourselves “Pro-Woman”:

How do we address the rift between many women of color and the perception of the mainstream feminist movement?

Can pro-choice and pro-life women find common “pro-woman” ground?

If we believe that women are true thought leaders and change agents for the world and that women’s leadership is more important than ever in turbulent times, how do we reconcile this with the fact that women certainly do not all agree?!

What does it mean to be “pro-woman” when woman are anything but a monolithic bloc who think…or vote the same?

MommyBlogging: Is MicroBlogging the Path to MommyBlogging Bliss?Speaking of balance? Moms are taking over Twitter, and we gotta talk about it. Is microblogging a way to maintain community and conversation without the time suck of writing long, substantive posts? Or is it just a different (and even more insidious) time suck? Moms are finding innovative ways to use Twitter to connect, to take action, to raise their voices, to have fun. And some moms are backing away slowly from the addiction that is Twitter. Where do you fall?

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Community KeynoteAbout one minute into 2008's Community Keynote session, it became an instant BlogHer tradition, so yes, it's back for 2009. The Community Keynote features 20 bloggers from our community, reading their own work. Like 2008 we will have multiple, diverse categories in which you can submit your work. Also like 2008 the selection process will be curated by Eden Kennedy of Fussy and NaBloPoMo, assisted by a committee.

Stay tuned for the announcement when we open submissions for the Keynote. We plan to do that on April 15, 2009.

Cocktail Party

What?

Breakfast

Morning Keynote

Identity/Passions: TravelBloggers as Boundary-Breaking EvangelistsTravelBloggers bring the world to us, whether it’s their own home town or halfway around the world. We are inspired by the idea that TravelBloggers can truly “flatten” the earth, bringing us closer to cultures and people that seem completely different. We are also inspired by the idea that TravelBloggers can revitalize and revive parts of the world that need it most…from visiting Phuket post-Tsunami to singing New Orleans' praises, to uncovering what’s great about Detroit. We’ll talk to TravelBloggers on a Mission.

Business of You: Advanced Social Media, Syndication and StatsThere are so many services that help you spread your content around. Twitter may be king, but other options, like StumbleUpon, kirtsy, digg and more abound. The issue is how to use them effectively. To know, you’ve got to become an expert at reading your analytics. This session is about making sure you’re getting the most bang for your syndication buck. There will be Beginning Stats and Beginning Syndication tutorials in the Geek Lab, so if you don’t already know all the services and how/why to use them you can get the basics in the Lab. This session is intermediate to advanced only.

Leadership: Hope and Change in ActionThis session is quite simply about inspiration. Come hear about case studies of women bloggers affecting real change In Real Life…online and off.

MommyBlogging: Blogging as a Homeschooling ToolHomeschooling moms are a tight-knit community in the blogosphere. How do they use blogging to support one another’s goals to educate their children? And can blogging be an educational tool that they actually use with their children? Come find out blogging’s practical application in education.

"Birds of a Feather" Lunch: Find your blogging flock over lunchEvery year we provide a time and space for attendees to self-form into Birds of a Feather groups around any number of topics. This year we are returning to the method we used in 2007: Birds of a Feather lunches. Find your flock over food. :)

Identity/Passions: FoodBlogging in the Time of RecessionFoodBloggers may just be uniquely qualified to help the rest of us make the most of the comforting ritual and economizing potential of cooking. In this economy, how can FoodBloggers stay relevant…and actually provide a public service…whether they’re blogging about Crockpotting or Gourmet Cooking?

Business of You: Advanced SEOThis session is for attendees who are familiar with the basic principles and want to dig deeper. There will be a Beginning SEO tutorial in the Geek Lab, so if you don’t know your metatags, get the basics in the Lab. This session is intermediate to advanced only.

Leadership: The BlogHer ’09 International Activist BlogHer Scholarship Winners Share Their WorkIn 2008 BlogHer won the Anita Borg Social Impact Award. After community discussion we decided to use the award money to sponsor scholarships for five international activist women bloggers to come to BlogHer ’09 and share their work. Winners and their work will be announced by February 28th. Read more about the criteria, or submit yourself or a blogger you admire here.

MommyBlogging: Healthcare by CommitteeMore than ever parents are turning to the Internet to help take care of their family, and there is a wealth of resources out there, including medblogs. How can we all do a better job of assessing the credibility and usability of the medical information we find online?

Identity/Passions: PatientBloggers - You Are Not Your Disease, You Just Blog About It Every DayChronic or acute disease can change your life overnight…and make you feel as though you’ve lost control of your own body. PatientBloggers find support, information and resources, and regain a sense of control via their blogging. But are there also down sides? Privacy concerns abound. Being identified as just a person with a disease can feel confining. And what if you’re cured or in remission? Where does your blogging (and more importantly: That close-knit, supportive community you've developed) go from there?

Business of You: How to Get the Most from the BlogHer Publishing NetworkSit down with the BlogHer Publishing Network team and learn how to make the most of your membership, plus have the opportunity to ask your questions.

Leadership: Green and Eco-BloggingA movement is afoot to save the planet, and bloggers across demographic profiles are pitching in. This isn’t only about making personal choices. This isn’t just about paper or plastic. This is about how to be a resource for real change for your readers. And it’s about how to impact companies, organizations and governments to join us to save the world.

MommyBlogging: Online Safety For Your Kids Who Are Online ThemselvesWe know you all understand the value of the online world. You wouldn’t be a blogger or be coming to BlogHer if you didn’t. And a lot of you are watching your kids go online, starting younger and younger, and with more and more options as they enter junior high, high school and beyond. How do you help your kids assess their own risks online without freaking them out? How do you help them understand the Internet is forever and that self-control, not parental control, will serve them very well throughout their online life? How do you do all of this even when you know that the really bad stuff you hear about is also really rare, and chances are you and your kids won’t encounter anything more unpleasant than the occasional spam comment or flame post? Being prepared without being paranoid.

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Closing Keynote

Cocktail Party