Oh the pressure!

Have you ever had a dinner party and invited the best cook you know? You were sweating it a little bit as she took her first bite of food, weren't you? Or you went to one of those paint your own pottery places with an art teacher and you spent the whole time hoping that your finished product didn't look like one of her kindergarten students painted it. That's kind of what it's like being at a blog conference and sitting down to write a blog post about the experience.

I'm at a conference in Cincinnati called Bloggy Conference. It's a small conference, about 60 bloggers, so it's been very easy to get to meet up with and know people. Some of them are frugal bloggers. Some are mommy bloggers (or "life bloggers" as I like to refer to myself). Some blog for business. Others blog to maintain sanity.

Last night was the welcome party. Today there were sessions on authentic voice, using social media to promote your blog, a Twitter roundtable (for someone who usually tweets a few times a day, I've been burning up the Twitosphere), and a session called "Bring Sexy Back to Blogging," which did not actually involve nudity or anything that would help you in the bedroom.

I've learned a lot, but I put as much value on the getting to know people. I'm rooming with a woman named Judy from Omaha. Any worries I had that she might be a serial killer went out the window when she told me her husband spent 10 years teaching religion to high school boys. Judy is uber outgoing, so it was a good thing they put us at the registration desk to check people in last night.

Then there's Jessica, who looks like a normal human being, but who is really a New Kids on the Block fanatic. She's been to more than a dozen NKOTB concerts since they resurfaced in 2008. Despite that, Jessica is the kind of person I'd hang out with if we lived close to each other.

See? This is where the pressure kicks in. I've met so many fun and wise and sincere bloggers (I've met a few that don't fall into that category, too), that I don't want to leave anyone out. But I also don't want to be the person who keeps talking and talking about how much fun she had at a party that no one else went to and no else really cares about.

So, I'll just leave you with a few nuggets I collected along the way today:

Authenticity has no competition. -- Corporate Mom Dropouts

Men approach social media as a business. Women approach social media as a community. -- Girlfriendology

Write like no one's reading. -- Pajamas and Coffee (who did actually talk about nudity and bedroom aids in her presentation)

(Yeah, that last one...good advice, but please still keep reading anyway. I'm sensitive like that.)