Oh, it is nice being at a conference full of women who understand what it’s like to be recognized on the street by a blog reader. We’re all niche celebrities here, and not an hour goes by that I don’t want a woman tentative approach another and say, “Hey, I read your site and I’m a big fan …” It’s awesome, sort of like a laser tag of mutual admiration.

I’ve gotten to meet some of my favorite online writers here (and even Caterina from Flickr!), and conversations have included: boobs, blogebrity bumpwatch 2006 (gas or 10 weeks pregnant?! answer: the latter!), book deals, blogs we hate but follow obsessively, shoes, reading lists, self-expressing breastmilk, homogeneous diversity, real estate, and verchinas. Despite the overwhelming number of smarties to talk to, I can’t help but think of the ones that got away. Where are Sarah B and Brittney and Heather Corinna? Or even Mimi Smartypants, although she doesn’t identify as a blogger. I am selfish and they really should be here for my amusement. (That said, Heather’s hottie doppelganger is totally here.)

As for the workshops, I found day one a little rudimentary. I really enjoyed the Web 2.0 discuss at lunch, but other than that the workshops felt like they were aimed at newer bloggers. During the “buiilding an online blog community” session, I asked about dealing with the inevitable burn-out that comes from building and moderating an active online community, but I didn’t really get an answer. The workshop was clearly focused more on conceptualizing and building your FIRST online community — not on the challenges you know you’re going to encounter when working on your second or third. My Best! Roomie! Ever! Helen Jane and I discussed how nice it would be if there were two concurrent tracks for day one, one for bloggers just ramping up, and one for experienced bloggers dealing with the ongoing challenges.

The workshop I most wish had happened? I would have loved to have seen Heather Armstrong (who gets buckets of hate mail) and Heather Champ (who’s the community leader at Flickr and must deal with many, many trolls) lead a panel on dealing with trolling and hateful folks. That would have been awesome.

So! On to day 2. The number of conference attendees seems to have doubled as the night wore on, and there are lots more women I want to see. Susie Bright, danah boyd, My editor from Seal Press. And so many others. But for now? I must sleep while the lovely ladies of the blogosphere party around the pool.