It is that time of year again when the BEA buzz is filling up my Twitter and Blogger feed. BEA 2010 was absolutely fantastic and I am getting more and more excited for BEA 2011 (and it has nothing to do with my wedding being a week and a half later). One thing that I wish I would have done differently last year was getting to know other bloggers that were attending.
While I was there I was so busy and overwhelmed with everything that was going on that if Jill Blogger from Jill's Book Blog came up to me and handed me a business card I completely forgot about her because I didn't have any prior knowledge of her blog. Yes, the "big" blogs I recognized, but for the most part it was embarrassing when Jill Blogger would introduce herself and I had never even heard of her blog before.
(Is it just me or is that paragraph a complete hot mess?)
This year, in attempt to have a better foundation of knowledge in regards to the bloggers attending, I am creating a BEA 2011 Blog Feed.
What is a BEA 2011 Blog Feed? I'll tell you.
By filling out your information below and submitting the form you'll be added to an RSS Feed. This feed's sole purpose is to host posts by bloggers who are attending BEA 2011. My hope is that by beginning to read the blogs of those bloggers attending BEA in April that come the end of May when I meet Hannah Blogger from Hannah Blogs About Books that I can say, "Oh! I love your blog/the look of your blog/your content/insert this feature here."
Now, I know that is unrealistic to know everyone there — and that's not my purpose. I simply want to begin reading your posts now so that when we DO meet and are introducing ourselves that you aren't thrown together with the lot of everyone I don't know.
Am I explaining this well?
The purpose of filling out this form and subscribing to this feed is to get to know the bloggers who are attending BEA 2011 before hand so that the time in NYC can be spent talking books, blogs, and all things BEA rather than worrying about the awkward "so my name's Reagan... "
Better?
Oh, and the best part: You TOO can subscribe to the BEA 2011 Blog Feed and get to know the bloggers that are attending as well! Check it out and subscribe! Simply take the url and go into your Google Reader and click on Add Subscription and paste the url!
Note: Because I have to do this manually it will hopefully be updated on a nightly basis. Don't expect an immediate update. I asked for the Twitter Name for completely selfish reasons — so I can create a Twitter List as well of all the people attending BEA. Stay tuned for another post on the details of that.
There are several things I wish I would have known going into BEA 2010 that I want to share with you before BEA 2011. This is the first: get to know other bloggers who are going before hand. Know their blogs and build a connection now so that you can walk into BEA or BBC with friends and relationships. The best way to do this, that I can think of, is to have one place (or feed) where you can subscribe to other bloggers who are attending BEA 2011 — thus the BEA 2011 Blog Feed.
But, of course, it only works if people actually put their urls in.:)