And I'd like to repost an excerpt to my response to Denise's post here:

...I was seeing ONLY fluff on the web and not much else. I would NEVER mistake y'all for only foofoo, but it was troubling me that the fluff was outweighing the giant brains on my tiny radar screen. I was seeing boobs and shoes and reading glee over swag before I was seeing thoughtful commentary about technical and social issues. Were my browsing habits to blame? Maybe. YMMV. And no, I wasn't there, though my first impressions via the web were, well, boobs, shoes, swag. [Insert note: I've since read that technical issues seriously affected the live blogging.]

My picture of BlogHer is changing as I read through the after conference posts, but my first impression was, well, I'm mostly shutting up now. I'm not anti-fluff, and hey, I like swag as well as anyone, but when it's all you see...

My favorite BlogHer look is Denise's text in the day of conference chat room. And that of the other non-attendees who joined in for the Naked Blogging chat.

Nerd's Eye View

Pam (and all),

I think part of the instant fluffiness was... it was fast and easy. Anything I would have blogged about early would have been fluff, because the juicy, meaty meaningful stuff needs time to digest before I can react to it.

I have about 5 different beginning of posts that I started in different sessions; throughout the next couple weeks I will delve into them and come up with something worth posting. But blogging about the schwag, the shoes, the food, the lousy connections? No thought there.

I remember last year that the thoughtful posts began a couple days afterward and continued for almost a month. I'm hoping the same thing happens this year.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

I don't want to hijack this thread, which is appropriately posted under fashion, with questions about who blogs about what, when, and why. (Though your explanation explains why the blogging I was seeing looks like it did.)

Maybe this conversation should continue here in an earlier thread about "Live Blogging" where I asked this: What's the value of live blogging for the reader?

Nerd's Eye View

Seeing posts about "pink and fluffy" and pasties and shoes on some of the other blogs I read was fun. Seeing it on the official BlogHer site was disappointing. I posted about this yesterday - this is the point I was trying to make:

So it seemed to me that the BlogHer homepage, on the weekend of the BlogHer conference (attended by hundreds and hundreds of mostly women bloggers) was sending a very confusing mixed message, saying, Women are an important force in the blogging world, and people should sit up and take notice of what we have to say and take us seriously, while at the same time squealing, And OMG, look at our cool shoes! And purses!

And then we wonder why, as women (or as moms, or even as bloggers), we are not being taken more seriously.

Mrs. Davis
The Lovely Mrs. Davis Tells You What to Think

This is my take on it. I've been to conferences (although not this one). You sit in sessions. You take notes. You participate. You leave the session. When you leave the session you socialize. And the socialization hits you the most *in the moment* because here are all these people you either haven't met before or haven't seen in a long time and you're just really, really excited about it. And in the case of BlogHer quite possibly women (and men) you know very well through their blogs. And they through yours. After being in session for an hour or two your brain is ready for the break that fun and socialization gives. And then after the break you're in another session. And so on.

The fun and the fluff is part of the ride and the easiest to get out in the moment because it doesn't require processing. It's just there. When academics attend conferences on their subject they don't respond to the papers they've heard read immediately. Responses can take weeks...even months. It's after you leave the conference and calm down from having met or re-met everyone that everything else sinks in. And you roll it around in your brain. And you think. And you write. Keep your eyes open and you'll see more in-depth less-fluffy blog posts in the coming weeks.

(Sorry this was so long...maybe I just should have blogged about it...)

Monkey Trouble, Sassymonkey Reads, and Sassymonkey Eats

The vast majority of the women I know (myself included) are driven to connect with people on multiple levels. Women are all about finding SOME connection with people they interact with - the more connecting threads the better. In my experience at least, women tend to look at all relationships with an eye to the bigger picture.
My very best friends over the years? We never seem to run out of things to talk about; we can go from the topic of world politics to breastfeeding to romantic weekends with our men to who we want to win the Stanley Cup next year. It's all about evolution of the relationships, making them deeper and stronger, connecting with people on as many levels as is humanly possible. Sometimes they have something to learn from me, more often I have something to learn from them. It's all part of the experience - of inputting as much new data and perspective into life as is possible. The serious AND the fluff. And the fluff fills in the spaces and helps a person keep perspective in the big picture. I mean, I know it may not change the course of humanity if I buy myself a new pair of smokin' strappy sandals... but damned if it doesn't give me an improved perspective when I sport 'em into a serious meeting. And make me more likely to do business with the woman on the other side of the table who says "Hey - GREAT shoes!"
Just my ha-penny worth of input...

Stay At Aum Mom

I stuck around in California for a couple of days since I'm from the East Coast and have never been here before. I was going to write and comment when I got home, but this post moves me to type to you from my Santa Cruz hotel room, because I can. ; )

I don't know what your personal goals are or what the issues are that you care about, so I can't really answer with specifics regarding why you should go or read. I wasn't even really sure what to expect for myself. But here's a sampling of what the past few days for me included:

*Learning about video blogging, and meeting and spending time with Ryanne, Brittany, and Melanie, who are very active in this movement. Talk about some powerful ideas and women committed to doing quality work. Really - talk about them. They are - to a woman - cute, hip and witty, but that's the bacon bits on the salad, as it were. They're also substantive thinkers, involved citizens, and probably people I'd want with me when the fuse or the tire blew. Problem solvers. (I don't want to leave out Lauren either, who doesn't vlog but is tremendously bright and wise beyond her years, and a lot of fun too.)

*Sitting in panels with people I really admire like Eden Kennedy and Heather Champ and feeling the power of conversing and learning from someone whose work I've only been able to read on a screen up 'til now.

*Having a flickr meetup LED by the aforementioned Ms. Champ, which was very cool for me on a personal level. I'm so not a fangirl (at least not overtly. I have my standards, please! ; ) ) but I found myself a little nervous around her and that was so STRANGE. I'm a fan. Sue me. Anyway, this past year has been all about photography for me and her work and her vibe inspire me, so talking with her in person (and a bunch of other people too) at this meetup was one of the best things that happened for me during the whole conference.

*I blog in relative isolation. Very few people in my real life get it, or read it, and that's okay - that wasn't my intention when I started. But there was something powerful in gathering with other people who are interested in the same things - in my case mostly media, photography, writing, and design. It's very different from my work life, so I'm not accustomed to viewing it as any more than a hobby or a personal interest. This gathering sparked some ideas for me about how it could be so much more, and maybe is already...I just haven't viewed it that way. And I did end up meeting some great women who share personal interests and concerns, which was an added benefit, and a surprise. I went not knowing a soul and I was concerned that I might not fit somehow. Didn't happen.

*Working on the podcasting/audio team was great, and I love that we got a flickr shoutout. (That's Susan in the pic, but I don't have her link handy.) My skills were very limited going in, but in the past year I've also learned to trust myself more and know that in order to meet some of my personal and professional goals, I've GOT to get with the program. So I did, and it was wonderful. Empowering, even, to use one of my not-so-favorite buzzwords. But it was. Some things just are.

*Miss Zoot and Heather got me thinking about how to rock my Typepad as it should be rocked - or move on to another platform, if that's my druthers. Theirs was a great session (along with Melinda Casino, a fellow Contributing Editor.)

*The closing panel was very inspiring and I'm proud, as a DC-ist, that Caroline Little was there (and don't think I haven't had some ideas for pitches about regional blog ideas that are as yet undiscovered. Thought I'd give her a couple days.)

*There were so many ideas. SO many ideas. Like others have said, I haven't really processed some of it yet, but I will, and hopefully I'll write some more down soon. And I think there was some fine live-blogging of substantive topics on this site over the past few days. At least I thought Britt and Beth (amongst others) did a great job, and with the pace and the connectivity issues, that was no small feat.

Anyway, that's what happened for me there, or at least some of it. Of course there was wine involved, and I don't really care about my shoes, but I think it's important for us to remember that some people were just very excited to be there. It was a VERY relaxed and friendly environment, unique among any conference I've ever attended. It's also truly surreal to see people in person who you've really only seen online before (I'll spare you the idiotic comment I made to Heather Armstrong upon meeting her. Duh. I love when my brain stops working.) And I could see that for some of the women there who were clearly meeting longtime online friends, it was a very powerful social experience as well as an intellectual and technological enterprise. And with that cumbersome sentence I will close, and hit the boardwalk.

Laurie
lauriewrites

I agree with those who observed that the fluffy stuff was easiest to post in the moment. AND with all the technical problems, if you were lucky enough to get online, you wanted to post something quickly. There was plenty of substance at BlogHer 06 and as one of the frustrated live bloggers, I feel bad that we were unable to get that across in the moment. (I hope I've made up for it after the fact, now that I CAN get online.) But as serious as the discussions were, what I took away from it (both years) was the bonding and community and the love I feel for all the fabulous women I read and now have met. It was kind of like going away to college -- I learned, I bonded, and I partied. And for a 50-year-old married mommy blogger, the latter is probably the part I enjoyed the most.

... and I've been home a short while and had my first re-connect with my computer and this is a HEAVY topic and I'd love to wrap my brain around it because I do have one and all...

... but for now, I'll identify myself as the owner of the sandals. Because I love them. That fluff and the brain make me the woman that I am.

Link Text

Look, I don't think anyone is saying the "fluff" should be exterminated. I have cute shoes, I have to drag my laptop around in something, and I love swag. Though if anyone points a camera at my boobs and wants them for their "collection" I'm going to either ask for money or call the cops. Yes, I might be that uptight.

The issue is that on the day of the conference those of us that weren't present didn't have access to much more than celebrity worship, fashion, and physical attributes. The "live" wiki was empty, mostly, the chat room wasn't regularly visited by conference attendees, the tech issues stood in the way of getting a lot of the good stuff out. I'd read that Liz Henry was blogging various sessions for the Huffington Post, but I saw posts from before the conference.

I got Cosmo. I wanted Vanity Fair.

Nerd's Eye View

...the fluff hits the fan - thank you all for your comments!

Personally, I believe that one of the aspects (and perhaps most important) that makes BlogHer unique (from other online communities) is that...you guys never fail to get me thinking about a topic that I would have otherwise considered too controversial to handle.

Both Denise's and Pam's thoughts on BlogHer '06 (and beyond) moved me to consider my own role as a C.E. for Fashion and Shopping - a beat typically recognized for its fluff - as you guys also have this uncanny way of making me want to dig a little deeper.

Into myself.

I mean, look around - I am surrounded by brave, beautiful and brainy women - what in the hell could I ever offer to the mix?

Beyond the fact that I can listen to more than one conversation at any given moment - not much.

But, I am finding my voice and have even learned to slow down and chill out - with exception to the laundry - and that it's okay to have a little fun...with myself.

And I believe that there are other bloggers out there (whether you do it at home, at school or the office) who would love the chance to be validated - just once.

It's the reason I applied to BlogHer in the first place - linking to other women I think are worth a click, or two.

There are many different layers to a BlogHer - the fluff being the easiest to shed - and all I ask (especially with regard to this post) is that we take a moment...and just look.

Posting these pictures made me smile (not to mention sing the lyrics to "I feel like a woman," a little) and feel as if I were there in the middle of it all...almost.

Oh, and I sincerely hope that paying someone a compliment (no matter above or below the waist) never goes out of style!

--------------------------------------------
For more from Liz Thompson, read:
C.E. Fashion & Shopping
This Full House
The Imperfect Parent

I like the fluff as much as I like the more thoughtful & critical pieces about BlogHer. I think I will wait a week and see how the dust settles before commenting on all the coverage. There are still so many people that haven't posted or even gotten home yet.

In any case, thank you, Liz, for including Jennster and I and our cute tops in your piece. I shopped long and hard for mine (and I detest shopping) so it was a total bonus to see it highlighted :)

Best,
Izzy
http://izzymom.com

(and I second the vote...Badgermama for coolest hair!

While we're talking about fabulous women blogger fashion, check out a few shots I took last weekend showing the Fashon of BlogHer, including bags and shoes :-)

http://www.downtheavenue.com/2006/08/female_blogger_.html

It was great to have voices from England, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Australia, Canada, India - the list goes on.

One of the unique aspects to a blogging conference with 'women in mind' is that the colors of each of their personalities and voices come through in every conversation and at every turn. It was not only refreshing but inspiring.

The stories exchanged over the two day period were both heart warming and enriching in many many ways.

Renee Blodgett
http://www.downtheavenue.com

I'd like to say that I do not mind at all the "pink and fluffy" aspect of so many posts or especially the Flickr stream. For one thing, blogging is becoming more visual, and honestly you cannot take a picture of some of the most interesting things discussed at the conference.

Why should we abnegate ourselves, anyway? Do we have to be more like the guys in order to feel respectable? Maybe it's not the "pink and fluffy" stuff that leads to the "no wonder nobody respects us" kind of reaction, but rather the inappropriate reactions of others who insist on judging others based on superficial indicators.

Which is worse: Noting how cute someone's shoes are? Or dismissing an entire gender because we dare notice such things?

Those who find women to be shallow simply because of our shoes or bags -- or our attention to such things -- are simply justifying their own prejudices, and are not really paying attention, imho.

I say accept no shame in shoeblogging. (Now the boob-blogging is something else, and I'm still deciding on that. Call me a prude.)

Laura Scott
design, snap, blog ... admin