I just did a post about falling off the wagon with running, and here I am falling off the wagon with blogging as well! I’m actually on vacation this 168 hours with my extended family on the Jersey shore, and have been enjoying a bit of down time. Well, sort of down time. With a 3-year-old and an almost 1-year-old, there’s not a lot of total relaxation, but hey.
Anyway, this post will be a recap of the past week’s 168 Hours news. On Friday and Saturday, I attended the BlogHer conference in New York. Per my previous post, did I take the swag? Not much. I took a toothbrush and a Mrs. Potato-Head toy. I got rid of most of the swag that came in my conference bag, and it felt very freeing to walk around the exhibition hall knowing that I really didn’t intend to take anything.
I did, however, meet a lot of great people, including those whose online monikers I know, like The Mama Bee. I met up with the founders of Executive Moms, the Drinking Diaries, and also Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. While she and I were talking, we met up with Erica Noonan, a Boston Globe reporter. Because of that encounter, we wound up being the subject of the Globe’s BlogHer coverage, “The Happiness Project (In 168 Hours).” It was a very flattering piece. Now I need to go through all the business cards I collected and start touching base with people. Conferences can be a bit overwhelming, and I am slowly learning to handle them better — just going up to a table and introducing myself, for instance.
After that, it was off to the beach, briefly, before I went back to New York to speak to the Savor the Success network. This group of women entrepreneurs has chosen 168 Hours as their book club selection. I got to meet about 40 New York-based folks at the speech, and will meet with more by phone in another month. If you’re interested in networking with other business owners, please check out the organization. They do good work.
And now I am back in New Jersey, enjoying some time getting very sandy. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom just how much sand a wet child can attract, but suffice to say, the hose is getting a work-out. I’ll be back posting again more regularly next week.