BlogHer07 Begins Today - Christine Kane

Conferences and conventions are intense.

There are echo-chamber rooms that resonate with so many loud noises that you have to shout to the person you’re meeting.

There are people dressed in tuxedos with trays of tiny food offerings that combine such an unlikely group of ingredients that you have to stare for a good three minutes before you can determine what exactly you’re about to eat.

There are occasional moments of ackwardness – maybe someone sets her drink down and you think she’s going to join your table, so you make space. But really she was just setting her drink down so she could adjust her camera strap and she moves on without even glancing your way.

Or maybe someone else comes up to greet you with a big smile on her face, only to realize you are not who she thought you were, which leads to a silly staccato of a conversation.

I’ve been to music conferences filled with artists who have spent weeks dreading those three days. Still, they go, and they live through it, connecting whenever and wherever they can.

I’ve also performed at many large conferences and conventions, and taken food off of trays that I immediately set down on the table behind me.

Now I’m here at BlogHer07 for my very first time. I am speaking and performing. (And eating tiny food yet again!)

The way I see it, conferences have three stages for participants:

There’s the first stage – when you hear about the conference. You read all about it, but you don’t go and you feel left out and you experience a massive case of FMS. (Fear of Missing Something.)

Then there’s the second stage – when you go the next year and you think, “Oh MAN! This is gonna be great!” And you forget to allow for the fact that you’re a first-timer and that you might have lots of moments of feeling like everyone else knows each other and no one knows you at all. And to make matters worse, you don’t understand all these abbreviations and in-crowd-speak. More than a few times, you might think, Ohmigod maybe I don’t belong here after all. At this level, you might find yourself sitting in your hotel room late on the first night watching Pretty Woman for the 42nd time in your life.

Then there’s the third stage – when you return to the conference and you know lots of people and you know the ropes, and you’ve already figured out the weird abbreviations and you can even chuckle at some of the jokes that would’ve made you look around last year and wonder why people were laughing. This is a good level.

There are lots of first time BlogHer attendees here. I am one of them. Let the festivities begin…

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14 COMMENTS ADD A COMMENT
  • Chris Owen

    oh yes this very definitely captures “conference life” as we all know it but have just never found the words for!
    Perfectly captured Christine!
    Unfortunately as BlogHer is promoted each year I DO resent how far away Australia is! I would give several arms and legs to attend it. So i hope you enjoyed it for all of us who couldn’t!

  • Sarah Dopp

    I’m finally home now (wow those flight delays were rough) and back to work on my tech projects. Your album, “Right Outta Nowhere” is on repeat and keeping the weekend alive for me. You brought me to tears on Friday night with your line, “And all you need to know is that you’re free to go.” It summed up my whole impulsive BlogHer trip, my independent business insanity, and just about everything else in my life.

    Thank you so much for the concert. It was magical.

  • Christine Kane

    Thanks everyone – my flight didn’t get in til 2:30 sunday am. and then i had a festival to play in the afternoon. and then sunday was the opening night of swannanoa gathering. so my life is still in pieces and parts – i’ll be writing soon!

  • Betsy

    Hi Christine,

    First, I didn’t know you or your music before Blogher and hearing you play the songs you did made me run up and buy a CD. So regardless of the cocktail stages of conference life, you definitely “own” the stage. 🙂

    And second, the way I handled blogher for the first time was to pre-decide I was going to feel awkward since I was a first timer. 🙂 That saved a lot of time, and I could get over it quicker. I’m sorry we didn’t get to chat much beyond the CD exchange, but I wish you the best – the music is great!

    Betsy Aoki

  • schmoops

    you just described my experience at last year’s blogher, perhaps next year I will reach stage 3. Oh how I would have loved to seen you play at this year’s blogher where I would have SO set my drink down to come hang out with you and soak up some of your fabulousness. xoxo

  • Corinne Edwards

    Regarding Blogher –

    As a first timer and a new blogger, I also felt like I should not even ask a question because I did not know “blog-speak.” (Unfortunately, it did not prevent me from making a fool of myself a couple of times until I learned to shut up)

    I went to two of the techical groups and the whole thing, for the most part, went WOOOOSH right over my head. How did these women get so smart? Is it possible to catch up – even a little?

    But, overall, if you were honest at Blogher and let people know how newbie you were, I found the women there incredibly supportive and encouraging – to just be patient and don’t try to gobble it up all at once.

    Christine, your performance was spectacular. You reach out and touch someone. And everyone.

    Wrote about you on my blog today. Hope it gets a few people out in Chicago in October.

    Hey, since we all admire Christine, let’s join to promote her in our home towns when she is nearby. I would be a favor to our friends.

    See my post at http://www.personal-growth-with-corinne-edwards.com/christine-kane-october-7-dont-miss-her/

  • barb

    you are not a ‘5’ you must participate. have fun. barb

  • Caren

    Lovely gift of a drawing this morning. Elizabeth Perry of Woolgathering captured Christine just before her concert:

    http://tinyurl.com/2tbbwh

    Makes me feel like I was there!

  • Christine Kane

    ghassan – last night, the poor man holding the tray started laughing at me because he was waiting for me to decide what exactly he was carrying!

    hi deb – then we should all just stand up and mingle together as perpetual stage-2’ers! thanks for your honesty…

  • Christine Kane

    susanne – thanks! yea – i agree with you there. for people like me, big events will always have some level of “does everyone feel as weird as i do?”

  • Deb

    I like your break down of the process. However, I seem to get stuck repeating level 2 every year. It’s like “Groundhog’s Day.”

  • Ghassan

    Christine
    That was funny
    You stare for 3 minutes at the food before you eat?
    I just do like Homer Simpson, I just throw it in my stomach

  • Susanne

    I hope you have a fabulous conference. And I really like the way you break it down here.

    And often one doesn’t realize that one has gone from stage 2 to 3. One feels awkward but to the first time attendee one looks confident and at home.