Posted by admin on August 9th, 2009 in Gift-Giving, Middle School Boys, Shopping

I haven’t written about my time at Blogher.  Mostly because I think the blogosphere has pretty well covered it. Like any other conference, most of the time is usually spent indoors so I welcomed my last day which was free of commitments and wandered around downtown Chicago taking pictures of the incredible architecture.  And, I visited the Art Institute which is so huge and  awesome but I couldn’t see everything in  one afternoon’s visit.  I wish I had taken my good camera so I could share the pictures with you.  As it is, my blackberry captured  pictures to remember my visit but not good enough to post here.

EA “Summer in the City”

There is one party  I attended  I thought I would share with you – the Electronic Arts” Summer in the City” party.  Our hosts were thoughtful to provide transportation in the form of a big black shuttle bus.  It was big and it had great music.  I would have been happy to ride around Chicago in it just taking in the sites!  The party itself was at the House of Blues and inside they had probably six different monitors set up so we could demo the games.

Need for Speed

EA introduced the game Need for Speed NITRO for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS .  We bloggers experienced firsthand the fun arcade-style, high-speed racing game.  My son used to have a racing game and a “fixed” wheel – this one is just a wheel you hold in the air, attached to nothing.  It took some time for me to get used to that but in the end I did.  Younger kids will love this game.  In fact, I think it is definitely perfect for younger gamers.  Although teens could certainly play it, I don’t know that they will buy it.  But then I am not a very good gauge about boys and their video games.  Need for Speed NITRO users can trick out their ride and experience the thrill of taking corners at 200 mph. 

Spore Hero

Spore Hero and Littlest Pet Shop Online were also there and I particularly enjoyed Spore Hero.  I am a really big fan of the whole Spore concept and have played it with my son on his personal computer.  Now they’ve made a version for the Wii and it has some striking differences.  The Wii version is truly a collaborative experience  (working with others to solve problems) whereas the PC version is more of an individual quest.   Both Littlest Pet Shop and Spore Hero are set to debut in Fall 2009 ( in time for the holiday season)  I didn’t  play Littlest Pet Shop or any of the others they had on hand but I watched as others played.

I really liked the fact that EA made an effort to have the party off site and had enough gear available for all of us to play.  Many of the sponsors and/or parties under-estimated their attendance and unfortunately it was hard to access the products to interact and learn or to talk to company spokesman.  The HP party had a line out the door one whole hour before the party even started.

Although there are always things you can learn in sessions at a blogging conference.  More and more, it’s important for me to meet company representatives so I can demo and see products firsthand.  It’s also very important for me to meet other bloggers from around the country who write about different topics than me.   And, to spend time with bloggers from my area that I don’t get to see enough.   And, to catch up with women I respect but just don’t get to hang out with enough. There is plenty to learn from those more experienced than I!

So, although I would have liked to meet even MORE people, there are always distractions and jet lag so all in all, I think I accomplished a lot.