BlogHer 10 Conference Review

Last year when I decided I was going to be deal blogging for the long haul, as opposed to heading back to work at a forum and posting deals there as I did the prior seven years, I made a decision to seek out industry trade conferences. How many I could attend would depend on time, conference worthiness, etc. I knew I needed to connect with market brands for current and upcoming deal information.

This year I ended up attending two conferences and one seminar. I hate the location of the seminar (the organizers should realize that non-mountain people have difficulty breathing in higher elevations), but the information was so fantastic I will get an oxygen mask and head back next summer. With my first conference (that I will not be attending again), I realized that sessions are fairly useless, so with BlogHer 10 I decided to make it all about connecting with the brands.

And connect I did!

First let me say that I think a lot of PR Marketing people do not understand what a deal blogger is. I have an elevator pitch that some PR folks wanted to hear, and thanks to the anonymous demographics survey many of you were willing to take last spring, I was able to spout some numbers that made them sit up and take notice (the higher incomes, how educated you all are, etc) of deal readers. I will be writing an article inspired by one of the PR folks that “got it” before I could explain deal blogging.

There is absolutely no way for me list every company/person that was at BlogHer 10 whom I met and hope to connect with at a later date. I went to private parties from a number of brands, of which Unilever stood out for hosting such a nice function! I also attended a beautiful party from Hallmark that I had to leave early due to illness (not my illness, and the illness was not contracted at the party).

Some of the private parties were absolutely crazy with swag: From the $110 jeans to the $80 charging station to the $60 curling rod given away at Getting Gorgeous to the giant bag of goodies from Social Luxe (and Avery seemed very interested in our coupon binders and I will definitely be following up, as well as contacting Ghiradelli because I like their chocolate) to the $400 LG vacuum cleaner I missed out on at a nameless party because I decided to sleep instead of attend! (whhhhhaaaaa)

The expo hall was a tale of a number of different PR-thought-processes. Renae and I spent Friday walking the expo hall asking for coupons. Sometimes, like with Aquaphor, we were met with blank stares, and other times,such as the case with Sara Lee, we were met with free coupons! And yet during other conversations, as with Johnson & Johnson they were willing to listen and indicate that they would bring coupons to future events. (And I hope the nice PR marketing man from JNJ that asked for my card contacts me in the future as I know my readers looooooove JNJ!)

Most of this will eventually find its way into my reader’s hands via contests: (although it is not looking too good now *sigh* )

What you cannot see is that these are stacked into a GIANT bag from White House Black Market. I’m guessing I have over 100 free coupons from the likes of McDonald’s, Sara Lee (I have so many free Hillshire Farms coupons, I have to start contests immediately), Church & Dwight (arm & hammer laundry), White Waves Foods (International Delight), Smuckers Uncrustables, Unilever, and and Healthy Choice. There may be more, but this bag is deep and that is what I scooped off the top!

I also have several free Eggland’s Best coupons because hubby won Third Place in their contest. Here’s the twitter pic they sent out. He said it was like Vegas with the slot machine blinking and chirping!

And speaking of hubby… here is what he did to the poor Pillsbury Dough Boy:

*sigh* Actually due to this I got free Uncrustables coupons.

Having hubby along at this conference was really very handy! We’ve attended banking conferences together in the past, but this was the first one he attended that was mine (as opposed to banking conferences that were his).

This is called BlogHer and so the conference is predominately women. But, believe it or not, there were quite a few men there. However, men were generally scarce, and therefore he was unique in a sea of women (heck he’s unique period) – several of the connections and some of my best conversations came about because hubby was there! A great example was the man from McDonald’s that came over to chat with us at the CheeseburgHer party (this party was wild! sponsored by McDonald’s the women decorated hats, ate cheeseburgers and Angus beef wraps, drank liquor, danced and generally had a fabulous time), and Rick (the McDonald’s PR person) approached us because hubby was just about the only man in the room not working with McDonald’s!

Because hubby has been to so many conferences in the past, he knows to scope out the expo hall floor the last hour for whatever the vendors are giving away in quantity that they would not part with earlier. He ended up with many of the Hillshire Farms coupons that way and he scored a Pur water filter at the end. I also have a second pair of Assets (by Spanex), another White House Black Market bag (these were fabo!), and hubby won the Eggland’s Best contest etc, etc. When walking with him, I was also offered different merchandise than when I walked with Renae and a lot of the PR folks no longer did a spiel, but really wanted to chat.

Hubby can be extremely charming when he chooses to be.

This is what we ended up with:

You really can’t tell due to the angle of the picture and how I cropped it, but folks, that is a king sized bed.

Here are the bags when full – 11 in total! And, these bags are bigger than grocery store bags!

We had to pile this all into our car!! And hubby did it! Next year, BlogHer is in San Diego and since I have to take a plane and pay for suitcases in excess of three, I will have to be very choosy with what I take home. So much of this was not product I received on the floor (and so chose to accept), but product that was tucked away in bags from private parties I attended.

What was my take-away on BlogHer10? Well, if you are a blogger looking to connect to brands, do try and go. It is well worth your time. You are unlikely to have the opportunity to connect with so many PR and manufacturer reps at one time anywhere else.

For those wondering what my favorite swag item was? … it is a Tim Horton’s coffee mug from Red Plum!

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