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Photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal and Julie Rothman.
I think I’m about to take an unpopular stance in the world of mom bloggers when it comes to the Wall Street Journal post about the Mommy Business Trip from last week. This keeps popping up everywhere and mom bloggers are outraged at this article. Reminds me of the outrage over Time Magazine last year. Honestly, I think it was the title or really just the term Mommy Business Trip that has people up in arms. And controversy does sell so it’s not entirely surprising that a huge publication like the Wall Street Journal would recognize this.
I however would say it’s a relatively accurate description of blog conferences. Now mind you this is coming from someone who admittedly has never been to a blog conference. I have been to other conferences though and I have seen what sort of wild crazy parties happen through social media at some of the larger blog conferences. And I also know people (men and women) with a 9-5 job who have business trips all the time and none of them ever seem to happen quite like blog conferences do. Heck, even the clown conference I once went to didn’t have as wild of a time as I’ve seen through social media at conferences like BlogHer. And you know a bunch of clowns get into a room together and anything is possible, but that experience of mine just doesn’t seem to compare.
So I thought I would break down my limited knowledge of both the regular 9-5 type job business trip in comparison to the blog conferences I have seen out there. Then maybe more of you will see why I think moms going to a blog conference isn’t just your normal run of the mill business trip which I might add fathers and mothers do take with their 9-5 in an office jobs.
A More Traditional Business Trip
My neighbor has done her fair share of traveling for her job. It is absolutely not something she ever looks forward to and she really could do without. It’s exhausting and it’s a pain for her. She misses her own bed and her day is jam packed. Last summer she was going away every other week for the entire summer.
She would fly out on a flight which was chosen by a company travel agent that either left very early in the morning or very late at night. She would arrive to her destination after traveling all day long just to get there and head straight to her hotel room and crash. Then it was up bright and early the next morning to spend an entire day in a hotel conference room getting lectured. She might get a break for lunch. But for the most party she stayed in that one room all day long. She didn’t get to choose what she got to learn about. Everyone was there together getting training. If they were lucky they would break by 5 p.m. No one was up to doing anything after it was all said and done. So you have a group of grumpy employees grabbing elevators to go to their room, call up room service, and crash.
Then the next day it started all over again. If they were lucky on the last day they dismissed early and maybe had some time to kill before their flight would leave. An entire week, the only time out of the hotel was on the last day when they were checking out anyways. They would find something to do where they were, but sometimes it meant just eating a meal out. Others it was a meal and some sight seeing. But that was it, that was how my neighbor’s summer was spent last year. She would then get on a plane after having been up since 5 a.m. It’s now over 12 hours later and she’s still going. She gets on the plane, tries to sleep, but can’t, and then ends up being awake for a total of 24 hours by the time she gets home. The traveling took up her whole weekend so it was like she was virtually working 7 days a week for 3 months.
So who’s ready to sign up for that? Trust me, this isn’t the only person I know of who takes business trips very similar to this. It’s always dreaded and there’s very little fun/sight seeing. And there are never parties.
Blog Conference Business Trips
Now I don’t think all blog conferences are necessarily created equal. However, the big ones like BlogHer and Mom Summit 2.0 are all set up a certain way. And that is with a huge focus on the parties, or the networking. Even in the Wall Street Journal article the conferences they were talking about and the people they interviewed were centered around the parties. They were looking forward to not having to deal with the day to day grind and letting their hair down and hanging out with just the girls. Eating from the mini bar and not watching Sponge Bob.
Last year during BlogHer12 I wrote about how I was watching the tweets go by pertaining to BlogHer someone said she goes to feel like a superstar. And I felt sorry for her because she must be missing out on something at home if her family isn’t making her feel like a superstar.
So yes there is learning for your business happening at these blog conferences and of course not everyone goes for the same reasons. I probably would do the daily conference stuff and skip the parties throughout the night stuff. Some people truly do look at it as a getaway from their kids with the bonus of learning something new, but the child free time and networking/partying is number one to them. But there is more of a want to be at a blog conference rather than a you have to go or lose your job.
However, like I said I have been to other conferences before. One was only a day long one for the PTA. Honestly it was a pain to schedule with childcare, but I felt it was important that I went. Ultimately I was glad to have gone for the information I learned, but it was a long day centered around learning. Learning about new computer programs we could get families connected with and learning about what PTA can do for our school.
The other conference in my life I went to was a clown conference. Yes, they have those. That one was a weekend thing. A bunch of us clowns piled into a car (not dressed as clowns) and drove up to MA where the conference was being held and spent the weekend together learning our trade. There were vendors there selling everything from balloons, to makeup, to gag props. During the day we attended seminars which were of interest to us and at night we hung out in the hotel room. The last night there was a costume party which I attended. It was fun and some of the clowns really let loose and got wild, but for the most part it was a pretty subdued group. There probably was alcohol there (I was 17 years old when I went). Perhaps there were after parties or private parties going on, but I didn’t know about any of those. And the partying wasn’t the be all end all of the conference. It wasn’t even a huge focus of the whole thing. And I didn’t run into a bunch of drunk clowns in the lobby or on the elevator either.
Leading up to these blog conferences there is a lot of excitement. People talking about what to wear and what to pack. They have them set up to be a really fun weekend to draw the crowds that they draw. They get huge names to speak at them like Martha Stewart. Bloggers become awe struck when they meet some of their favorite bloggers. I’m just not seeing this as your typical business trip. Even your typical business conference does not have the same set up.
And again, we’re not talking about smaller conferences for blogging which are selling the learning and the learning alone. Even the Wall Street Journal isn’t focusing on that. I think if bloggers were honest with themselves about this article and what the larger conferences do mean it isn’t your typical suit and tie business man business trip. Perhaps Mommy Business Trip isn’t the right term. Perhaps it should be Blogger Business Trip, but lets be honest here, BlogHer and Mom Summit 2.0 appeal to so many people because of the kind of getaway that it provides to its attendees. Not because they are providing any really new and ground breaking education on the art of blogging.
There is nothing wrong with this. Moms need to get away. And this just might be the guilt free way to do it by saying it’s for my business. Everyone’s going to go for different reasons and get different things out of the experience, but I truly do not think one can compare a blog conference to a business trip. I really don’t even think blog conferences necessarily compare to other business conferences. I see nothing wrong with the Wall Street Journal article though. Looked like a pretty fair assessment of these blog conferences which are marketed towards moms. That’s who companies want to reach out to and to get them there you have to give them what they want. And for many moms that means a weekend away without the responsibility of knowing where everyone’s belongings are and listening to Sponge Bob all day long.
How do you feel about the term Mommy Business trip?
