Anyways, while most of the conference is hidden away from the public, tonight at Re/Dress NYC there will be a meet and greet from 6-9 where you can meet all of the participating bloggers and me - I'm going to be there too! I'm really excited to meet Sakina from Saks in the City as she's one of my absolute favorite bloggers.
Are any of you planning on attending? If so, please be sure to introduce yourself to me. I love, love, love meeting readers.
Hopefully I'll be seeing some of you tomorrow. I'll be the girl in...uh...god, I still need to figure out what to wear. I'll be in clothes, likely bright ones.
I wish I could! My annual trip to NYC is almost always in the winter. :(
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree: it may be semantics, but conference definitely implies a somewhat more inclusive meeting. This seems more like a summit, one where the leaders are self-appointed.
Have fun tonight!
~lowbudgetdiva
I haven't really paid that much attention to the YFF conference as I'm not a fatshion blogger, and I haven't realized the people attending were such a homogenic group. Hm, that's interesting.
ReplyDeleteWell, I do absolutely agree that having someone larger would have been a plus, at least.
Anyway, I'll be there - in spirit!
Well to be fair to Gabi, more were invited (including bloggers bigger than 24!) initially, but many weren't able to make the trip. And this is only the first one, I'm sure it will get bigger and more inclusive/diverse as it goes on.
ReplyDeleteDid you have fun at the meet and greet though? :)
The meet and greet was fun. I spoke with xtina for a bit and got to meet Sakina and that was really nice, but what I enjoyed the most was just chatting with the folks in attendance. There were so many people for whom this was their first foray into size acceptance and so that was really great. It brought me back to being 22 and just understanding size acceptance and much I've moved from there.
ReplyDeleteLauren my comment wasn't an insult to Gabi. What struck me at the meet and greet was how much people love her, a lot of whom are people who have not otherwise intersected with fat acceptance. I think she's brought the issue to people that would otherwise never have thought about it and that is amazing. I met women who had travelled from CT and Washington DC just to meet Gabi and they talked about her like she was a celebrity. It was really sweet.
But I do think Alexis' line about a summit with self-appointed leaders was spot on, especially the more I learned what the bloggers were doing in NY. It seemed not so much a conference as a gathering of bloggers for plus size retailers to market their products to.
I'll write more about the meet and greet later, but it was a great night and I thank Gabi and Deb for throwing the event.
Oh I didn't think you were insulting Gabi, at all! I just wanted to say something as I could see it looked like the ones who attended were the only ones invited, when actually a great deal more were but just couldn't make it (including myself, I had to pull out at the last minute to my eternal sadness, especially now I know you went to the meet and greet!).
ReplyDeleteIt's true conference wasn't the most apt word for the event, it was based on the weardrobe conference which also wasn't an actual, genuine conference. So I can understand that :)
Really glad you had a good time, and I have a huge respect for Gabi, she works so hard and has really helped make girls feel more confortable and confident in themselves - as have you, Bloomie! xx