EdenFantasys had the pleasure – literally! – of sponsoring BlogHer ‘10, which was held at the Hilton New York in NYC on August 6th – August 7th, 2010. I’m the Off-site Review Program Manager for EdenFantasys, so I was asked to attend in order to network with both current and prospective bloggers. My 10+ years of blogging and vast experience with social networking were an added bonus, and gave me the unique experience of attending BlogHer ’10 as both a company representative and a blogger.

I accompanied Victoria Bowman Steinour, the marketing director and also my boss, and together we arrived and checked in at The Warwick (sidenote: don’t ever stay at this hotel, unless you enjoy paying $400+ a night and receiving poor room service and disrespectful and scornful attitudes from management and front desk clerks) on Thursday, August 5th. We checked out our accommodations – a gorgeous corner suite that easily takes up a good third of the floor we stayed on – and then helped two of Eden Fantasys’ awesome employees unload all of the stuff we needed for panel sponsorship (more about that in a moment), dildo decorating party and general swag giveaways.

Once we were settled in, we changed and then headed over to the Hilton to see what was happening. The People’s Party was set to start at 7:00pm, but when we entered the main lobby of the Hilton there was no signage or any indication of where the party was at. A few minutes and a very nice concierge later, we had directions to the grand ballroom on the third floor, and made our way there.

While The People’s Party was taking place in the ballroom, and was accompanied by delicious food, strong drinks and music, the real excitement was in the bathroom a few doors down, in which The Bloggess had taken up residence. Together, along with numerous bloggers that came and went (some bringing drinks, others bringing Play-doh, almost all bringing business cards, digital cameras and cell phones), we spent about three hours in that bathroom. If I recall correctly, very little excrement of bodily fluids and such took place, as we were all too busy socializing and chatting up The Bloggess.

The bathroom version of The People’s Party wound down, and after finding a cute little grocery store just a block away from our hotel, Victoria and I headed back to our suite, where we unpacked, prepared a lot of stuff that we would need for the weekend, and processed photos (you can view all of our BlogHer ’10 photos on our Flickr Photostream), and by 3:30am were more than happy to call it a night.

Friday started off bright and early, with a brutal wake-up phone call at 6:30am. We jumped out of bed as fast as one can move on three hours of sleep, got ready, and then dashed over to the the Hilton for breakfast (provided by Tropicana and the welcoming keynote. The welcoming keynote was exciting, heartfelt, and definitely made me eager for BlogHer to “officially” kick off. After the keynote came an informal, table version of Speed Dating, which involves bloggers pairing up, introducing themselves to one another, exchanging business cards, and getting to know one another as best as one could do in just a few minutes. Speed Dating took place at each table, which seated ten.

One of the highly anticipated events started up not long after the welcoming keynote and Speed Dating wound down – swag grabbin’ time! In case you’re not familiar with BlogHer, you should know that many well-known and even some lesser-known companies pay substantial amounts of money to be able to set up a booth at BlogHer. The booth remains open during both days of BlogHer, and company representatives are usually present to meet bloggers and talk to them about their company, products, services, and the types of relationships they would like to build with bloggers and social media experts. But the best part, hands down, is the swag. Swag is just a fancy term for the freebies that these companies hand out freely to bloggers who visit their booths. Swag this year included Play-Doh scented perfume, Tempur-Pedic travel pillows, samples of pet food, air fresheners and laundry detergent from P&G Home, and hordes of USB drives (I grabbed up a dozen or so myself). Note: bring at least one large-sized tote bag with you when collecting swag, because you will need it!

BlogHer ’10 featured not one but two areas for sponsors to set up their booths. The areas were separated by a hallway and a floor, and each one took at least an hour to get through, simply because there was so much to see, do, and talk about!

Friday afternoon was spent hitting up several panels (panels are basically speaking engagements where bloggers and other speakers talk about a variety of subjects related to blogging. A lot of the subjects related to blog monetization and social media, as well as writing better blogs, dealing with the negative aspects of blogging (i.e. not-so-constructive criticism and haters), and balancing blogging and working from home with family life.

After the swag collecting and panel hopping, Victoria and I headed back to our hotel suite to get ready for the panel we sponsored, Bringing Sex Out of the Closet, which was led by Twanna Hines. We provided 250 swag bags (full of goodies including our exclusive Kissa), and also had our own booth to set up outside of the room where the panel was being held.

To say that the panel and our booth were a hit is one of the biggest understatements of the year! People kept streaming into the panel, and more people were swarmed around our booth during both set-up and the wrapping up of the panel; and there was a steady supply of people talking to us and checking out our table in between. Our business card drop jar was also quite a hit, since we’re picking not one but 25 bloggers at random to win sexcellent swag bags! Psst… did you miss BlogHer? You still have a chance to win great Eden Fantasys swag! Check out Twanna’s great giveaway over at Funky Brown Chick!

We connected with hundreds of great bloggers, including Techy Dad and his wife The Angel Forever, as well as Cutest Kid Ever, and the lovely Melissa, who was extra lovely in our eyes because she brought us a cookie!

After the panel concluded and we cleaned up after our booth and handed out the rest of the swag (to the lucky bloggers who found EdenFantasys swag bags and Kissas in the swag exchange suite: you’re welcome!), Victoria and I headed back to our hotel suite to prepare for the Gala Welcome Party. We were definitely beat from the energy and pace of the day so far, and I was going hoarse from talking so much at our booth, but we pushed on, glittered ourselves up, and after a brief ten or so minute dozing off session on the sofa while we waited for our dinner (via room service, as we were too tired to go find food ourselves), wolfed down our food and then headed out to get our party on.

We saw all sorts of great creative spark at the Gala Welcome Party, including posters covered with blank speech bubbles for bloggers to write in their own captions (we saw a lot of great ones!), artwork available for auction, paint-it-yourself canvases for bloggers to do some more self-expression on, hundreds of colorful balloons, and The Bloggess, who spent the evening writing up haikus on an authentic pastel pink typewriter for bloggers to take home as souvenirs.

The party began winding down, no one came to claim this pretty red stiletto, so Victoria and I headed back to the hotel suite. We were seriously dragging at this point, but we had swag to pack, arts and crafts supplies to lay out, and a suite to decorate in anticipation of our Dildo Decorating Party, which was set for Saturday at 6:00pm. We had been handing out invitations since our arrival on Thursday afternoon, and wanted to make it an event to remember.

Bed time finally came at another brutal 3:30am, and we couldn’t jump into bed fast enough.
Part 2 coming soon!