Blogalicious Bound!

Tomorrow I’m heading to Atlanta to meet up with 159 other bloggers for Blogalicious. I’m so excited for the MamaLaw ladies who will get to see months of their hard work come together during a weekend which I know will be too short. I’m thrilled to get to see friends who I wanted to talk with more while at BlogHer in Chicago and to meet the people I’ve been chatting with on BigTent or Tweeting with all because of Blogalicious.

I know that there will be a lot of learning this weekend. I’m hoping for honest conversations about race within the blogosphere and an open dialogue to discuss the issues, challenges, and perceptions that plague bloggers and PR/marketing alike. I know that the conversations that start at Blogalicious will need to continue not only at next year’s conference, but throughout the year.

During the 2 years that I’ve been blogging, the issue of diversity has been part of this site. As a mom who blogs, this site has always been my forum for sharing my knowledge about good technology with you and the best websites, software, applications, etc. are ones that reflects the diversity of the world around us. The fact that I am Asian American and the mom of 2 biracial children doesn’t really come into play when I talk about Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer’s use of technology in our home and the educational value of the things that they use but examining technology to ensure that it represents diverse cultures is something that I always look for.

In her post, Women bloggers of color: How are we doing?, Stefania Pomponi Butler (aka CityMama) asks if marketers value diversity and if they seek it out.

Have I heard from them? I don’t know. Have I been targeted as an Asian American blogger? Probably. Do I hope that PR and marketing reach out to me because of my knowledge/expertise in my field and the way I write? Yes. Do I hope we will get to work together once they realize that I am Asian American expert in my field and a good writer with ethical practices? Absolutely.

I have certainly learned a lot in the couple years I have been blogging and am honored to be a part of this ground-breaking conference. I’m thrilled that I get to share my experience about blogging with others through the Taking Your Blog to the Next Level panel but by no means am I done learning. There are so many more people that I look forward to learning from this weekend and look forward to sharing what I have learned with you.