I’ll be dedicating a couple of posts this week to my experience at BlogHer, which despite a strep-infected son, a mild encounter with a GI bug and my lack of ability to properly sell myself in an environment that is ALL about selling yourself, was a really fun time. I decided early on that I was not going to worry about connecting with sausage or lotion manufacturers (boy, could that be misconstrued!) and was just going to go and meet people and have fun.
I knew that there would be a contingent of pet bloggers at BlogHer, a small but mighty group of really great women (plus Tom!) who share my love of pets and ambivalence about coupon clipping. On Friday, we took over a couple of tables at lunch to touch base and reconnect.
If you follow many pet blogs, you are probably familiar with the Flat Pets who accompany a lot of the bloggers on their adventures. Needless to say, they received a lot of attention at lunchtime. And so well behaved, too! Not a single bit of food was stolen.
Because I am me and some things never change, I had the fantastic idea of putting together an afternoon gathering somewhere fun, but of course I didn’t come up with the idea until two days before it would actually take place.
Fortunately I have some organized friends who jumped- I’d say stepped, but it was more than that- up to the plate to help me get something together in a very short period of time to welcome my like minded friends to our beautiful city.
Carmen over at The Honest Kitchen was amazing. She not only helped me figure out a meeting place at the very last minute, she put together some beautiful and generous swag bags for everyone so we could strut around BlogHer with something exclusive like all the cool kids were doing. Except instead of mini bottles of shampoo, we got T-shirts and pet food. AND she bought everyone Starbucks. Bliss!
The Flat Pets of BlogHer wasted no time investigating the contents of the bags. They seemed to like them.
My husband works for local company Qualcomm, and on a whim I asked them if they would be up for sponsoring some snacks. Danielle from Qualcomm, to my utter delight, said, “Sure!” and look what we got:
They are called Heavenly Cupcakes for a reason. And yes, those are little fondant dog bones and Apollos on top.
And my friends Chad and Bev from Iams overnighted me a bunch of Iams goodies to include in the bags as well, which was an amazing effort for someone who was given 24 hours’ notice. These goodie bags were groaning with greatness.
(That is a canister of dog tea in the back, there. I think I may have to do a tea and crumpets post.)
To my utter and complete delight, on Friday we actually pulled it off. Dog and cat lovers together, Iams and Honest Kitchen representatives sharing cupcakes, purebreed fanciers and rescue advocates all enjoying an afternoon coffee break down by the water talking about our pets, away from the hustle and bustle of women elbowing each other over some free Dr. Scholl’s inserts. To me, this is what being a pet blogger is all about. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.
This is me failing at blogging, by the way. I took 10 pictures of the cupcakes and the flat pets but I didn’t get the actual people together for a picture at the cupcake party so I had to use this picture from the next day instead, which is missing half of the attendees. I plead sleep deprivation. Sorry about that, guys.
Paws up to the BlogHer Pet Peeps: Carmen at the Honest Kitchen, Gretchen at The Adventures of Kendall, Jen and Bev at Iams/Eukanuba, Joanne at Tiniest Tiger, Karen (and Skeezix!) at Mousebreath, Marcie at Helen Woodward Animal Center, Pam at Daily Oskar, Paris at DogTipper, Rachel at Preston Speaks, Susi at KnobNotes, and the BlogPaws team: Tom, Yvonne, Chloe and Miah!
Looks like everyone had a great time! And don’t worry about the photos, i never take pictures of people either. :-s
I got home and went, d’oh! I can’t believe I did that!
Sounds like an awesome time! And I can’t wait to hear about the dog tea. 🙂
It’s pretty cool.
oh my, I can’t believe you only got 10 pictures of the cupcakes, they look amazing!
I had to hold everyone off. They disappeared pretty quickly!
Love the shot of Brody and Koa with their t-shirt and ball cap! The caption is perfect 🙂
My husband would like everyone to know he is not responsible for that poorly lit mess of a picture. I take full responsibility.
Glad you met up with all of the pet bloggers. BlogHer sounds huge (so many people) and I bet it was nice to meet up with your own folks.
My tribe! 😀 It was great to branch out and meet other kinds of bloggers too, but it’s always good to recharge with those who share common interests.
Love the pictures! It sounds like everyone had a great time!
How awesome of you to put together a swag bags for everyone!
I can’t wait to read more posts about BlogHer!
We sure did miss you Jen! I hope I get to meet up with you again soon!
Seemingly oblivious to pop-culture, I have you to thank for opening my eyes to Comic-Con. I’m working on perfecting my zombie strut but realized with a dejected heart that after closing down more than one bar with Jen, I have little need for zombie make-up – I’m there. I was grand seeing you. Remember your assignment to work on the J-Man at BlogPaws for Florida (winkie winkie)
You have to see the Comic Con photo group on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sdcc/
I am horrible at promoting myself, but I’ll do my best for my assignment. 😀
Looks like so much fun! Glad pet bloggers were represented there.
It was a ton of fun! I had a great time. Are you going to BlogPaws?
Dr. V, I think I know what you and Susi are cooking up! I agree–work on the J-Man!
Thanks for putting together that lovely cupcake break! I think you need a flat pet of your own. Maybe you should sign up for the flat pet class at BlogPaws…..
Ha! I think you all seriously overestimate my powers of persuasion…LOL!
I have to see when your class is- aside from speaking at the vet track I am just overwhelmed with how many amazing sessions Caroline, Yvonne and Tom lined up! But Brody would certainly look cute flatified!
My mom person said it was a nice break from the craziness of the convention! She & Flat Oskar really enjoyed it.
Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar
We love Flat Oskar! 😀
The pet people sure know how to have a good time! I am thinking I need a flat Pimp or Moo…
Bev’s doing a class at BlogPaws!
It was great meeting you and the pet bloggers at BlogHer. I’m just now getting around to going through all of my cards. I’ll make sure I link over to your post because you did much better than I! I didn’t even get cupcake pictures. Thanks for inviting me along for cupcakes and coffee. It’s a fun group.