Wanted to share a few images with you from BlogHer 08 and my trip to San Francisco. 

For more scenic shots, check out my California travelogue I posted in December.

To browse other’s images, check out BlogHer 08 on Flickr.com.

Frank, who waited on us at John’s Grill and then insisted on taking us to the Frida exhibit at SFMOMA – he is from her state and Mexico, with Carlos Hernandez who treated Wendy and me to lunch

Reuniting with Andy Wibbels, who is TypePad’s go-to blog guru and author of Blog Wild! a book I read at least a year before meeting Andy at BlogWorld Expo in 2007.

Double-decker sight-seeing bus

So great to see Kristin King again! We met at SOBCon08. She’s a really talented writer who writes InkThinker.

Dawn writes “Because I Said So”

BlogHer party at Macy’s

Two fun young ladies – Amanda and Natalie – who met each other at BlogHer, but look like they’ve been best friends forever.

THE Queen of Spain took a moment to take a photo with me – I’m a huge fan!!!

Laura Fitton, known as Pistachio on twitter and I met up with AKA Monty – the first time I met this delightfully bubbly lady!

BlogHer’s founders

Meeting up with Mommy Needs a Cocktail who gave out martini shakers!

My hotel lobby – remembered to take a picture when I checked out.

Landing at Midway – can you see the skyline in the background?

A reader writes:

Love to hear your thoughts as to why Heather Armstrong has some negative perceptions about her as alluded in the article about BlogHer and how Mommybloggers profit. [To take the focus off of Heather and her blog - www.dooce.com I'm modifying the question to: Any downsides to being "too" successful in the celebrity blogosphere?]

“Armstrong even limited her time at BlogHer because her biggest fans – other bloggers – tend to react to meeting her by publishing every detail, and sometimes those details are less than kind. ‘There are hundreds and thousands of strangers who detest me,’ Armstrong said. ‘It’s a weird reality to live with.’” – clip from the article

As far as I can see, most of the tweets during  co-speakers Heather Armstrong and Stephanie Klein BlogHer08′s closing keynote, “Living the Truman Show,” are positive.

I’m not going to make this too personal, except to say that I respect and admire Heather. I don’t read her blog regularly, but now I might: she really spoke to my artistic side. And, I loved her purple tights. Her blog logs between 5-6 million readers a month.

Now, back to the negativity . . .being a positive person this is a hard place to go, but it’s all too real to ignore.

I’ve seen this happen with not just bloggers, celebrities and every day people, but with issues, proposals and projects.

My advice? Listen to everyone, see if there’s any validity in the negativity and focus on the positive. That’s easier said than done, especially when emotions get in the way.

Let’s face it: today it’s all too easy to attack anyone and be anonymous on the Internet. Preparing for blog bullies, a BlogHerald post, counsels that meanness is bound to happen. Are you ready?

Take a look at Oprah.

Remember how much negative publicity via social media she got for endorsing Obama? How did she handle it?

She didn't. Oprah's PR firm did.

Their role model? Paris Hilton - no stranger to all kinds of publicity and commentary.

In closing, I'll let Stephanie have the last words from her post "the divine secrets of the BlogHer ’08 sisterhood“. . .

“When people in my life preface what they’re about to say with, ‘you cannot write about this on your blog,’ I pretty much always respond, ‘Don’t flatter yourself.’ You’re not that important or interesting (even if you are). It’s the one thing in life we find so hard to believe: that no one notices or pays nearly as much attention to us as we do.”

Image: Be nice to me or I'll blog about you t-shirt I got at BlogHer08 - thanks CafePress!

What do you think?

Do you plan for or anticipate "less than kind details?" Would your trade more success for more exposure - of all kinds?  

Warner Brothers, Bravo and Hearst opened the day with a HybridMedia keynote. To read more, visit the BlogHer08 live conference posts.

See what I had to say on twitter about BlogHer, including a live tweet stream from the monetization panel.

In the Home and Garden breakout session, I heard about the water usage restrictions in California, how Houston doesn’t recycle, what’s going on with sustainability and what secret resources people use to blog better. 

Meeting up with Chicago  bloggers introduced me to new local connections. The closing keynote was dramatic, inspiring and real.

With four floors of drinks and refreshments, the Macy’s party was fun and ended too soon. Ever the networker, I got cards from people on the escalator on the way out and folks on the street on the way back home.

On the way to the airport, I met Kristin from Crib Ceiling. Sitting here at SFO writing this post, I overheard someone I hadn’t met – yet- at BlogHer talking about how tired she was. “I didn’t sleep, but it was worth it.” I hear you sister. Gotta go – maybe I can still find her and get to know her and her blog.

Cards from fizzy and phenomenal people I met  . . . did I miss you? Leave a comment with a link to your blog.

This Pile

Kristen King, Inkthinker

Nicole Simon

Jane Goodwin, One by One Media

Stay at Aum Mom

Marie Millard

Mommy Needs a Cocktail

Amanda Wolfs, Parents

Jenifer Scharpen, notcalmdotcom

Katherine S. Gray, The New Civilization

Celeste Lindell, Average Jane

Dana Loesch, mamalogues

Alysson TeCarr, six apart

Jessica Okui, Zakka Life

Elaine, WannabeHippie

Wendy Felton, glossedover.com

Erica Rios, commonsensemedia

Jeremy Pepper, PR Pro, Blogger and All-Around Nice Guy

Home and Garden

Monique Hartt, RecycleBank.com

Genie Gratto, The Inadvertent Gardener

Jesse Engle, swatchbox

Debra Roby, A Stitch in Time

Mary Hunt, In Women We Trust and The Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability

Desiree Northend, LookiLoos

Julia Prodis Sulek, LookiLoos

Chicago Breakout

Jacqueline Fitzgerald, teleflora

Dana Kavan, Chicago Examiner

Tarrant Figlio, Retro-Food.com

Everyday Adventures of Me in the City

Free and Flawed

Jamie Villarreal, Oh How Lovely

Janna Porrevecchio, Weber Shandwick

Esther Crawford, faintstartlite

MJ Tam, Sugar My Bowl

Dawn Meehan, Because I Said So

It’s Saturday morning. I’m getting ready for day two. Here’s a flashback on day one . . .

BlogHer07′s concentric circles was faster speed networking than this year’s gather around the table ice breaker. But, the conversations were better this year.

Going for something different right away, I sat in on the Birds of a Feather Meet-Up for green/social change. My credentials? I teach at The Academy for Non-Profit Excellence and our client portfolio includes non-profits. My intent? To see who’s blogging about what and how it’s working. In all, I talked to about ten people about what they do including three PR agencies, a company and one person who is passionate about plastic. That’s what I was looking for: passion. Speaking of passion, I did get to connect with Beth Kanter.

Because these types of sessions are only 40 minutes, I dropped into MommyBlogging: Is MommyBlogging Still a Radical Act? This one was packed. I sat in the back where the mothers were walking their babies. Somehow, the background cooing and babytalking seem more than appropriate – almost essential to the discussion.

At lunch, I sat with a small group. We talked way more than I expected. I learned that I could get a Hollywood hair makeover at the InStyle magazine site. Seriously, that’s useful information.

After lunch, I headed to What We Do: DIY Content Syndication and Promotion. The panel was good, more on the newbie side, but I did pick up some useful tips for video uploads and ways to drive traffic. If you’re going to a session in California West, sit somewhere besides directly under a recessed light.

When this session ended, I found my way to the lounge and listened to intriguing conversations about PR and mommy blogging. Sometimes the serendipitous conversations turn out to be the best. For me, that’s becoming my biggest BlogHer08 takeaway: find people to talk to you and then listen to what they have to say. That’s what I did with the rest of the day. I missed the live community keynote session, but watched it online thanks to Laura Fitton’s qik video feed.

People I had conversations with who gave me their cards . . .

J.D. Bauchery

Evan Miller, Aveda

Abbey McDonald, MOM Central

Julia Smith, idealist.org

Anna Barrett Way Out Wax

Ann Melkesstian, GolinHarris

Mary Anderson, expansion plus

Beth Terry, fake plastic fish

Take Back the Filter – ask Clorox to take back and recycle BRITA filters

Brie Grey-Noble

Leanne Jakubowski, Disney Destinations

Deborah Hamilton

commonplaces

Kimberly Schrock

Amanda Herbert, Scholastic

Erin Riley

Andrea R. M. Meyers

Staci Boden

Greenopolis, a green social network

Scott Rosenberg

Dimi Berkner, Jossey-Bass

Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps

Soapbox Mom

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah

Mary Pencek, Cuvaison

Ann-Marie Nichols, The Write Spot

Melanie Notkin, Savvy Auntie

Did we meet and I missed you? Add your name and link in the comment section.

Here are your missing twitter updates from yesterday – didn’t want to break away, but do want to tell you what I did . . .

5:30 am Dispatcher says he can have a car at my house by 6:45, about 30 minutes later than I like. More time to get ready.

Car driver says I’m a very rich lady. Why? I have three children. He’s so right about that.

Car driver insists that I must be flying into Oakland. There is no service on Southwest into SFO. He’s so wrong about that.

Board the plane. I get a whole row to myself because no one wants to sit in front of a grandmother and two kids. What am I thinking?

Kid is kicking me. That’s okay, I have one who does that. Reminds me of being on a trip with him.

First song on iPod – opening number from WALL-E* soundtrack, Put on Your Sunday clothes from Hello Dolly .

What I did on my 4 hour flight: napped three times, read the Rough Guide to iPods and my new Canon camera’s owner’s manual. Also came up a new speech and book outline.

Thanks to God/Creator for the scenery today.

Landed 20 minutes early. Had to tell the grandma how good the kids were. She slept while they watched movies.

@emom is another terminal. She and @carloshernandez will meet me at the Bart Station.

Called husband. He says to buy a Bart ticket for $12. I do.

Wendy and Carlos arrive. We get on the train and make plans for lunch.

We get off the train and walk out into a brilliant sunny day in a town packed with tourists. Cue for the cable car looks to be over 100 people long.

On the way to our restaurant, we change gears and go to John’s Grill instead.

I want to see the Maltese Falcon. Carols says it was stolen, but replaced. They can’t be that hard to find if IWOC gives one away every year at their Christmas party.

Frank is our waiter. It is his first day. He doesn’t know anything about the Maltese Falcon or much about the menu. I suggest we be the FAQ training table.

Irises on the table – I love irises.

Sourdough bread is soooooo much better here than the stuff we get at Dominicks. Note to self: we really, really, really have to bring the kids out here.

Lunch looks and is yummy!

Carlos asks how many apps I have open at once. Up to 3 or 4 for at a time for both twitter and email. What can I say? I’m a writer who likes to compose.

Frank takes our picture.

Wendy’s off to meet with her authors – see you tonight!

I pull out the crumpled flier I got at the Bart station. I want to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit. Took our youngest to see her exhibit at the Mexican art museum in Chicago 3 years ago.

Waiter hears I want to go and insists on meeting us there to get discounted tickets using his membership. See you at three Frank.

Carlos walks me to my hotel – he’s a great tour guide.

Hotel clerk asks if I want a quiet room. I’m tempted to say, no – I’d like the one by the fire station. She asks the manager to help her find a quiet room.

Only one elevator works. I am on the fifth floor. My room is smaller than the smallest bedroom in my house, but there is flat screen TV and a private bath.

Grabbed my purse and camera. Carlos and I find Frank at the museum. He is from the same state in Mexico as Frida and is proud to share his country’s art. We get in for free with no waiting.

The exhibit is packed and painful. Frida’s art is powerful and often disturbing. I love it, but I’m more drawn to the photographs and the video that show a lighter, more joyous side of her life.

Walking back to the hotel, I stop to look at Chinatown’s gate. First came here on my honeymoon. Last visited in December. I love this town and I think it loves me.

Back at the hotel, I can’t get on the Internet. I’m frustrated. I call the front desk. I remember to search for wireless networks. I get in.

Updating and tweeting until time to go to BlogHer party.

My hotel is a two minute walk. So glad I’m in a quieter, smaller space.

It’s 8:00 and no one is at the party except the organizers – at least that’s what I think so I walk around.

Beautiful people in the lobby. Shops closed. History displays prove this place has genuine character. How grand . . .

8:15 – a few more people at the party. I stay and walk up to the bar.

Meeting so many Mommy Bloggers – realize that’s what I doing something similar, but without a platform, 18 years ago.

Wendy’s back at the party -now she’s wearing a scarf she made -what a crafty lady!

Hello, Laura – it’s so great to meet you on the first night!

Who I met . . .

Shauna Glenn

Susan Payton

Busy Mom

Better Than a Playdate

Jane Goodwin

Aliza Sherman

Nadine Silverthorne

Shannon Entin

Kathleen Lancaster

Jenny Lauck and produce, BlogHer Ads

Laura Fitton, Pistachio Consulting

Carlos, Wendy and Me

* lyrics

Out there
There’s a world outside of Yonkers
Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby
There’s a slick town, Barnaby
Out there
Full of shine and full of sparkle
Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby
Listen, Barnaby…
Put on your Sunday clothes,
There’s lots of world out there
Get out the brillantine and dime cigars
We’re gonna find adventure in the evening air
Girls in white in a perfumed night
Where the lights are bright as the stars!
Put on your Sunday clothes, we’re gonna ride through town
In one of those new horsedrawn open cars