About four years ago I met Lisa Stone the originator of BlogHer, co-founder of BlogHer with Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins at a retreat in Oaxaca, Mexico. She was inspiring, beautiful and up to creating a very cool platform for women bloggers.
Over the course of the subsequent months, I became involved with BlogHer and met the other members of the founding team. I participated in one of BlogHer's panels in 2006 (more here, here, here and here) and even became one of the BlogHer editors (I edited the Religion & Spirituality blog).
I have been amazed and delighted at the growth of BlogHer and the impact it has had in elevating the voices of women bloggers and technologists in the private, nonprofit and political sectors. Four years later, there is a group of us that is hoping to do with Latinos in Social Media (Hashtag on twitter #Latism) what Lisa and her partners did with BlogHer; and we are hoping to learn from BlogHer and partner with them to find out how they did what they've done. We have so much to learn from their success. I started the conversation with Erin Kotecki Vest (@QueenofSpain) during Gov2.0LACamp earlier this year and we are supposed to continue the conversation post SXSW.
In addition to chatting with and learning from the members of the BlogHer team, the LATISM family is committed to being engaged and a part of the BlogHer community as well.
This year several Latinas in Social Media will be participating in a panel at BlogHer. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that there will be a panel comprised exclusively of Latinas at BlogHer. The Latinas in Social Media panel will include a diverse group of Latinas with different blogging experiences. Meet the phenomenal women involved:
Silvia Martinez: http://www.mamalatinatips.com
Melanie Edwards: http://www.modernmami.com
Carolyn Gonzalez: http://caroincarolina.blogspot.com
Monica Vila: http://www.TheOnlineMom.com
Jeannette Kaplun: http://www.todobebe.com
Lisa Perez: http://Newyorkchica.com
Lexi Esparza: http://laprimerablog.com
Migdalia Rivera: http://latinaonamission.com
Mariana Perez: http://ridingwithnohands.com
Denisse Icaza: http://thecouponchica.webs.com
Ana Roca Castro: http://premiersocialmedia.com
You can register for the BlogHer conference here.
I will close with a famous quote by Eugene V. Debs, "When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other's throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilization the human race has ever known."
My only question now is what lies ahead after this panel in 2010?