The Good Girl Gone Blog

Hey ladies and dad...oh and my other male reader, Nathan,

I'm so sorry for my lack of posts lately. To be quite honest with you, I've been exhausted ever since blogher started. Although I tried to write the below post on Sunday evening, I accidentally refreshed my browser and two hours of work went down the drain. I did not follow the cardinal rule of writing on a computer: save, save, save. So here's to constantly saving this post as a draft. Hopefully it'll be as good as the original :(

I know you've probably read about a gazillion blogher09 recap posts, but mine is different. Yes, I am a blogger...but I'm also an intern, so when my company, springpad, offered to bring me to Chicago, I was ecstatic. Not only was I embarking on my first business trip, traveling to one of my favorite cities and getting to attend a convention made just for bloggers like me...I got to do it for free!

Here are some highlights from an intern's journey to blogher:

• Bonding with new coworkers - although I've been working with Kboss for over 9 months, T-rexa joined the company just a few weeks ago. Though we chat in the office, I definitely got to know T-rexa a lot more on this trip. We bonded over boys, hair removal and fashion faux pas. We even dressed up in wigs and aprons at the Swiffer SocialLuxe party. Who knew she was such a girly girl!

She even let me take a picture of her...err t-shirt. Check out the creative button placement!

• Hanging out with old friends- though I was psyched to be continuing my internship at springpad this summer, I definitely miss my mentors from BML. Sara and Heather inspired me to start this blog, and I'm extremely grateful to have met them. Even though Sara spent most of the time embarrassing me in front of her old coworker (read: cute, Jewish, young, single), I enjoyed every minute of it.

Check out their FABULOUS shopping blog! If you look far enough in the archives, you'll find a post or two from yours truly :)

• Meeting springpad users- a huge part of my job involves emailing bloggers who I think will enjoy springpad. It's one thing to know bloggers from their blogs and springpad profiles, but it's another to actually meet them. I'm so glad I got to meet some of my favorite users, such as Sandie, Jennie, and new users (and fellow 20 somethings), Jennifer from Free and Flawed and Jenn from Eating Bender! I'm following all of them on springpad, and you should too!

With Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen

• Giving out swag people actually liked- everyone thought our mini notebooks were adorable; I think the blue ones were the most popular. I also loved watching everyone oogle the Coach bag that I picked out. Some people literally came over and stroked it, it was that beautiful.

• Getting treated like a queen- maybe traveling for business is always like this, but I've never had my own king bed, let alone an entire hotel room to myself. My stuff was strewn everywhere, I took a luxurious bath and watched TV at 6:15 am. I even got a bouquet of flowers delivered to my room, courtesy of ivillage. (Yes, I know all of the bloghers got flowers, but still- I was impressed!)

So what if Trexa got pretty orange roses. Mine were ok, and hey, at least they weren't carnations (ew)

• Chatting with the other sponsors- though I had very little down time to walk around and check out the other booths on Friday, Saturday was a lot more relaxed. As a result, I actually had some free time to collect cool swag and meet the other sponsors. I particularly enjoyed meeting the laundry fairies at the All booth: they were dressed entirely in pink and had wings. Plus, they practically adopted me when I told them that their product's tagline, small and mighty, is basically my motto. Their PR rep even filmed me discussing it so she could show her boss. Future All spokesperson? I think so. Oh, and the fairies referred to me as "Small and Mighty" for the entire weekend.

I was ECSTATIC when I found out our booth was next to Nikon. I definitely took advantage of the situation and asked Kristine about a million questions. She was extremely helpful :)

• Executing a successful PR campaign- we'd been planning our "Go-To Girl" campaign for a long time, so it was great to see that people actually got it. I now have over 400 followers on springpad, so they must have liked us (or at least our giveaway). Though I've worked on some pretty fun (and award winning!) campaigns in the past, this was the first campaign I actually got to see from start to finish.

The "go-to girl" buttons I helped dream up. They're super cute and represent the different 4 differnt categories: babies, travel, food and shopping. We still have a few left, so if you want some, just give me a holler!

• Finally getting a chance to truly enjoy a party- the blogher parties probably got more hype than even the conference itself. Though the parties were supposed to be fun, I found them extremely stressful. Because I was representing springpad, I had plaster a smile on my face even when I was exhausted. I definitely worked on my mingling skills, eventually getting over the initial embarrassment of approaching people I didn't know and starting up a conversation about springpad. Though the parties before and during blogher weren't super fun for me, I LOVED attending BowlHer. Because the conference was over, it was the first party I got to actually enjoy. Kboss, Trexa and I were a lot more relaxed. So much so, that we all got a little goofy and donned pink boas! (Clearly it was a much bigger deal for K & T, because who are we kidding, I was born to wear a pink boa!)

via

Overall, blogher09 was a HUGE learning experience for me. I'm so glad I was able to attend, as both a blogger and an intern. Hopefully, I'll be able to attend next year's conference in NYC!

PS- I was also one of around 30 bloggers interviewed on Blog Talk Radio (!!). You should definitely check out my interview :)