Blogging while Brown Conference: Slides & Thoughts

Last Saturday, I had a chance to attend and speak at Blogging while Brown Conference in Chicago. This was my first time speaking at an event like this in US – to be honest, I was quite nervous when I was asked to do this.

But I somehow always have an incredibly good luck when it comes to anything to do with WordPress 🙂
A lot of the attendees were excited to talk to me & ask questions, and I felt really welcomed as a representative of Automattic/WordPress.

The host of my panel, Cheryl Contee of Jack and Jill Politics and another speaker Dirck Hargraves from VOX Global were super nice, so I was able to relax a bit. Cheryl’s achievement as a political blogger is really impressive, but besides that seeing her speak (off stage, too!) was one of the best part of the event.

In my presentation “Growing Your Blog with WordPress”, I talked about WordPress mobile tools including iPhone app, upcoming Blackberry app, and posting through email. Everyone was really interested in import tool to move from another blog system, as well as building a community web site using BuddyPress.
Here are my slides:

Growing Your Blog with WordPress

Coincidentally, my client Hajj Flemings was there as a speaker. I missed his BrandCamp event last year (delayed flight back from Japan!), so I finally got to see his presentation in person.

I’m not an African American, which 99% of the attendees were, but I could relate to being a minority (= Asian in Michigan, woman in an IT field). During the Q & A, there was one question about how I think about being a woman in male-dominated techie world. I think the definition of majority/minority is different online, it has less to do with how you look, but more about what you do and how you think. So in a way blogging is especially great for less empowered group of people in the society. You can be a powerful force online solely based on your ability to get things done (writing, organizing, promoting, etc).

Being a bloggers event, there are a lot of great reports written about it. I’ll let them illustrate the atomosphere:

• Blogging While Brown 2009: A Conference for People of Color with Lessons For All Bloggers (Megan’s Minute)
• Oops We Did It Again: Blogging While Brown 2009- Chicago-First Video (What About Our Daughters)
• Blogging While Brown Rocked! (Awesomely Luvvie)
• Blogging While Brown (Hot Time in the Old Town)