The women of BlogHer want your ideas!
They are already beginning preparations for the 2009 national BlogHer conference in Chicago, and are asking people to submit themselves or others as speakers, or propose ideas for the kind of panels and content they’d like to see.
Founder Elisa Camahort Page writes:
BlogHer is passionate about delivering the most inclusive and diverse experience to our conference-goers that we possibly can, including (and particularly) on our speaking roster. Not only do we look for diverse speakers, but we have a commitment to bring new speakers to BlogHer. Every single year we aim to feature new corners of the blogosphere and to have the majority of speakers at BlogHer be new and fresh voices, focusing more on those than on “stars.”
I had the privilege of being one of the closing keynote speakers at BlogHer Boston this year. Elisa has asked me (along with previous BlogHer speakers Polly and Liza) to help get the word out among the LGBT community, especially lesbian moms. She adds, “I should emphasize that we don’t necessarily want to have speakers to talk about being lesbian moms only, but rather simply to incorporate their voices and perspectives into any panels dealing with parenting blogging in general.”
I should have expected such wise words from Elisa, but I have to stress how refreshing it is to have someone take this approach. I encourage all of you to contribute ideas and to attend the conference if your schedule and finances permit. It’s a little glimpse of what inclusion looks like (and a lot of fun, to boot!)