Several of the sponsoring and exhibiting brands didn’t understand the environment they were entering. No need to name names. It was clear that they hadn’t put the necessary thought into creating a great experience and making a positive impression on a group of 1,000+ influential women. So from them, an attendee experienced little more than an advertisement for their product or service. Whoohoo…blah.

Here are the ones that got my attention and got a lot out of the event.

• HP – They surprised me, but not completely because Ann Finnie, Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s consumer desktops and Voodoo Business Unit, introduced herself on Twitter prior to the event. She almost instantly established connections with hundreds of attendees, including myself. I showed up at the HP booth, “Hi Ann.” “Hi Kevin, glad we connected on Twitter and now in person.” Then HP went onto do something really cool. They recognized that attendees, as well as spending time face to face, were also blogging, twittering, and uploading photos. HP jumped right in and started using online social media (tools previously mentioned) to make announcements, give products away, and get people to come by their booth. They created a great experiences by leveraging both proximity and online connections they had with attendees. They now how 408 new twitter followers, 41% of the attendees – wow. There TouchSmart product is pretty cool too.
• Nintendo – The Wii Fit is just so darn innovative that allowing people just to walk up and try it is a natural. The devil is always in the details, and clearly the Nintendo team grasped this as well. Even as cool as it is, they didn’t have a booth, but a dedicated area of floor space that was well-trafficked but disruptive to the conference. They also had a well-trained and inviting team. My only complaint is that the Wii Fit pegged my 39-year old body with the the fitness level of a 50-year old. Ouch.
• Sesame Street – Home run here. They gave parents a unique opportunity to be filmed on the Sesame Street set talking with Grover for a minute or more. Grover gives a little ‘shout-out’ to my kids and I get to bring home a custom DVD recording of it all. WOW. Parents were going crazy over this. And when I got home, my kids went even more nuts! I wasn’t the only one as indicated by YouTube videos. View my meeting with Grover. Great job of viral marketing by creating a unique and personal experience, and allowing people to share it with their friends.

As far as the relationship that exists between female bloggers and brands, it can best be described as inefficient. There must be better ways for bloggers and brands to work together, and I for one, plan to help.

A lasting business question that I have is how will the newly established relationship between BlogHer and NBC’s iVillage play out? It combines one entity that is very raw, real, and with many niches, with another that is highly packaged with a mass appeal. Interesting bed-fellows, but likely will be fun to watch.

Recently, San Francisco played host to BlogHer ’08, where over one-thousand female bloggers and a handful (literally) of guys, including myself, collected for all things “blogging.” It was, frankly, a bit intimidating. Was I invading female-only territory? Would anyone speak with me? Would there be a hazing ritual?

It was my first BlogHer conference and uncharacteristically I approached it with loose objectives. “Take an open mind and learn” was my game plan, and I am glad it was. I must admit that I found myself to be a bit nervous. I’m not even a blogger by any strict definition. What the hell was I doing here?

Turns out, my self-produced anxiety and fears were unfounded. All, and I mean all, of the the women were very welcoming of my presence at their event. In fact, they seemed encouraged by my presence and genuine interest and reasons for attending. Other men I spoke with echoed similar sentiments.

First impression when I walked into the main event room was that there was a lot of power brought together here, the “bottom-up grassroots power-to-the-people” kind. I am not the first to recognize that women blogers are an influential group, but to see so many assembled together, interacting, writing, hugging, laughing, snapping pictures, and twittering leaves you with a strong impression that these women are tuned in, vibrant and expressive.

Another significant impression is how diverse the group is in every way — racially, sexuality, style, parents or not, appearance — except their gender. They are not a segment of society, they represent all of our society. And as a part of it, they have created a very tight-knit community with a common interest. Many know each other very well from reading their respective blog posts and comments. They are supportive and very comfortable challenging one another. And if you think about it, these are very healthy characteristics for a community.

Part of the community’s strength is that there are many leaders, some formal and many more informal. This conference’s organizers Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins deserve a lot of credit for putting together a successful event. They are smart enough to know that there’s enough talent and interesting people attending that they don’t need to be in the spotlight. They kicked things off, kept them going, and stayed out of the way.

Unique and brilliant and it worked. It was a great experience, I learned a lot and will go again.

Here’s the NY Times’ take on the event, Blogging’s Glass Ceiling

Next month I will share my impressions and evaluation as business marketer.