How to Organize your Blogher Conference Schedule

Today we are talking about how to Outsmart the Chaos when it comes to your conference schedule and Blogher 2012. With BlogHer just a week away, I’m knee deep in the summer juggle, hanging in my workout clothes, managing my kids, working from home just like we all are making it happen one day at a time. But with BlogHer just a week away, its time to get organized and map out my plans so I know what I’ll be doing to have a successful event. Yesterday my friend Jodi Grundig of Mom’s Favorite Stuff tweeted this:

Well Jodi, here is your answer!

1.  Map Our Your Sessions Now:  Spend time on the BlogHer website and map out your sessions, key sponsors, and special events.  Pick the ones that are most important to you and then lay them out by day and time to see where and when it can all go down.  NEW for BlogHer and all your social media conferences, we’ve created an ORGANIZED CONFERENCE WORKSHEET to lead the way!  You can not only see each day but how they impact each other if they are each jammed to the max.  You’ll be able to identify where things overlap and where you might need to cut back.  After you make the list, go back and cut back 2 of everything because you’ll always plan for more than you’ll likely truly have time to tackle in real life.  And then print a final copy to have on hand just in case you aren’t connected.

NOTE:  In order to take advantage of the ability to fill in the Organized Conference Worksheet electronically, it is suggested that you use Adobe Reader to open, edit, save and print your planner.

2. Download the Conference App:  Who better than a conference organizer to tell you exactly where you need to be and when?  BlogHer has created a fabulous app with some fantastic features.  One I love is a scanner for QR Codes like you’ll find on my business card if we meet.  It has all kinds of cool options like messages, sponsors, twitter link and more.  Most importantly it has a schedule feature where you can look up the schedule by day, speaker, track and more.  The cool thing is when you go in by day now, long before you get there, you select the events you want to attend and you’ll be all set.  Once on site, when you open the app, just go to favorites and there you’ll have only the items you’ve clicked. Why is this important?  Because you’ve cleared out the clutter of events you’ve determined aren’t a good fit for you and focus only on what you already decided you wanted to attend.

3.  Use Alarms:  Make good use of the alarm feature on your phone.  A technology novice, I truly love my Samsung Note!  While I’m at a conference, I use it for video, with  a double facing camera enabling me to not only take video of you, but video of me, to take fantastic pictures on Instagram that I can share on my social sites real time, to update my website thanks to a fabulous size screen and keyboard, and it has a laundry list of other features I’ve barely started to use!  The key here is to use that alarm feature on the clock to give myself 10 minutes before the end time of anything so that I can have that gentle reminder to wrap things up and get myself organized to move on to my next event graciously.

A side note ~ if your BlogHer schedule includes meetings or events outside the conference schedule, you can also use your smartphone calendar to map out your extra events around what brought you here to begin with.

And now…about that smartphone.  Do you have one?  Because if you don’t, I happen to be giving on away!  Thanks to the generosity of About One at TypeAParent, I won this Windows based phone thanks to a business card fish bowl drawing.

Samsung Focus 2 ATT

About One did not ask me to post about the phone or give it away, but since I already own one Samsung phone I love, this is an extra one I’d much rather give to you.  So if you’d like to win a Samsung Focus 2 to have in hand onsite at Blogher, leave me a comment below telling me:

How to Enter: NOTE:  Each one counts as an entry and you can enter all 3 ways.  Please do not leave your email in your comments.

1.  Leave a comment:

How would you you use a smartphone for your best success when you attend an industry conference?

2.  Tweet “I’m organizing my BlogHer schedule with @MyGOMOM and my smartphone!” and then leave us a comment HERE sharing a link to your tweet.

3.  Visit our GO MOM! Facebook Fan page and tell what you are most excited to see and do during BlogHer 2012 and comment HERE that you have done so.

Winners will be chosen by random drawing “And the Winner Is”.  The winner will be notified by email within 24 hours. Contest is open 9:00 am July 27, 2012 to 10pm July 31, 20121.  Contest is open ONLY to BlogHer 2012 attendees for winner to receive the giveaway.  US Residents only.  GOOD LUCK!

I wish you good luck and I look forward to meeting you in person when you win, because I’m going to bring the phone to BlogHer so I can give it to you directly!  Thanks so much for stopping by…thanks for sharing your ideas by answering our question…and I hope my answer helps you Jodi to have an organized Blogher when it comes to your conference schedule!

Take care!

Disclosure:  This is not a sponsored post with any brand or organization.  Special thanks to AboutOne for choosing me as a giveaway winner during TypeAParent.  I was not asked to host a giveaway or post about the Samsung Focus 2 at anytime.  With a perfectly good phone already in my possession, paying it forward in the social media world is just the right thing to do!

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