BlogHer Day Two, In Which We Burst Into Song

The BlogHer triumvirago is up on the stage ready to welcome over 700 people to day two of the conference!

Lisa Stone: "There's supposed to be great samba music playing."

*silence*

Someone at a front table starts singing the instrumental prelude to "All You Need is Love" and the whole room busts out into a sappy half-ironic "All you need is love! Ba da da da! Love, love!" Mad giggling!

The official song of BlogHer, though, is Roo's parody of "Don't Stop Believin'" which I noticed in the comments on mom101:

Strangers, meeting...
in the Hyatt San Jose!
Bloggers, posting
in the Ni-i-i-i-i-ight!

Lisa: We're not a bunch of panel talking heads. We're real people. We love to disagree. We welcome it. Look at the community guidelines on the BlogHer site.

Today we want to make sure everyone uses the microphone. We have fabulous podcasters and a lot of women out there waiting to hear the casts. Chats by Jeaneane Sessum, Koan Bremner, others who aren't here.

If you're anonymous blogger then don't give your name. You're on the record here. If you don't want your photo taken, this always works (covers face with arms).

Elisa Camahort: Thank you to volunteers. People who aren't even here sent things, printed signs, everyone's helping. Please join me in thanking our wonderful volunteers! *applause*

Jory Des Jardines: Thank you to sponsors. Digital storage accounts free from box.net. Quick signup. Speaker bios are up there. Take a look at the sponsors listed on our card. Today we have 720 people, we would not have them, or childcare, or all this swag... without our sponsors. *applause* Thanks to them for making that possible.

Lisa Stone: So, when we told the Hyatt San Jose we needed 800 people on the internet, they pictured 800 business men in suits occasionally checking their email... *laughter from audience* So, we brought the system to its knees. *scattered cheers at the double meaning* Today it should be better! Free passes to South by Southwest will be given away today by the pool.

Elisa Camahort: Birds of a Feather groups will happen this morning out by the pool. You can also go hang out with the sponsors, test drive a sports car. *audience laughter* Now we're going to introduce some bloghers whose blogs changed the world...

I can't wait for the Birds of a Feather group. But which one? If only I could clone myself and be in several places at once. It'll probably be "Feminist Blogging" for me. Yesterday I had my dumb fan-girl moment in front of Lauren of Feministe, where I stood there with my mouth hanging open: "Duh... um.... your blog means so much to me... thank you!"

Now Cooper Monroe is talking about her Been There Clearinghouse blog efforts to help in the disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina. They asked on their blog for extra items, and it took off beyond their wildest imaginings. Like Grace Davis's efforts on Direct Relief, they adopted specific places in Louisiana to send their supplies and made personal contacts, rather than donating to large organizations. Cooper tells a story of a letter from a mom who got a package with her name on it, with personal little presents, the specific formula her kids likes, letters from children, all the things she asked for, but all extremely personal, from other moms from Cooper's blog - and she cried all day that someone cared about her as an individual, in the midst of the brutality of the situation.