No, I didn’t go to BlogHer – for a few good reasons. It has nothing to do with me being a “him,” though. Largely, I stayed at home for Ponzi’s benefit. I didn’t want to take away from her experience at the event, as the BlogHer conference is ultimately about women in blogging – and she’s a woman who blogs. If I went, I’d do nothing more than (inadvertently) impose my own perspectives on the experience. I really believe she had a chance to learn more without me there.

Ponzi started blogging after watching me do it for a while – but she’s not a geek. I often drag her (term used loosely) to tech-centric events that she doesn’t care much about. BlogHer is a chance for her to mix and mingle with people who don’t eat, sleep, and breathe technology – and yes, those kinds of people really do exist! She’s a very independent thinker, and I have no doubt she’ll come home with several useful ideas and fun stories.

“Gnomedex” is starting to appear in a few BlogHer posts – a couple of them related to how Ponzi and I handle sponsors. Microsoft’s Conference Marketing, Part 2 and Definitely Femtastic should take a look at Microsoft Rewrote the “Rulesâ€Â? of Conference Sponsorship. It’s not easy to do a conference – but I must congratulate the entire BlogHer crew for pulling it off. I’ll be picking up Ponzi from the airport at Midnight tonight.

On BlogHer

Confirmed Gnomedex Discussion Leader: Susan Mernit. I bet you were beginning to think that we had forgotten all about the female of the species (much geekier than the male, or so the song claims). We certainly have women in our dais, and I’m certain we’ll invite a few more of them on stage as the event unfolds. Ponzi has certainly made a few suggestions for female leaders, although so far (much like in years past) we’re largely receiving responses from the male candidates. Are we really going to be a Bizarro world BlogHer?

Susan Mernit