I don’t know about you but I am tired. It was a fun but exhausting week – which may have more to do with learning a new job but which I will instead chalk up to long nights reading and writing posts and visiting other bloggers. I know I did not visit nearly as many participants as I wanted, but I think one could spend an entire month visiting participants and still not get to them all. We ended up with over 600 registered participants this year, up almost 20 percent from last year. Insane.
I don’t know about you, but it looks like the self-interviews were definitely among one of the highlights of the week. We certainly received more comments on Monday than we did any other day. It is always interesting to see how people respond to the same questions. It allows one’s personality to shine, which I love. There are some amazing and inspiring bloggers out there, and I know I only saw a small fraction.
Tuesday was all about giveaways and the best of 2012. I’ll admit I shied away from the best-of posts. My TBR pile is over 550 books these days; I really do not need to be adding to my wish list any time soon! With certain behind-the-scenes planning, I did not even get that much of a chance to look at all of the giveaways out there. I’m sure there was some amazing stuff. If I know anything, it is that bloggers are insanely generous.
This year’s Armchair BEA theme was old versus new. It was our goal to celebrate all bloggers, while focusing on topics pertinent to both old and new bloggers. The rest of the week’s topics were designed to do just that with daily topics regarding networking, looking beyond one’s blog, and sharing blogging tips. I shared my experiences with networking, which are minimal but still rewarding. I also discussed how important it is to move beyond the blog and made various suggestions for happy blogging. I would never count myself an expert on any of these things, so take them for what they are worth.
Overall, I think it was another insanely successful event and truly hope you enjoyed everything we had to offer. Some of the event’s founders were finally able to visit the real deal in NYC, but after hearing them talk, I am very glad to have stayed home and participated in Armchair BEA. I know without a doubt that I would never find such excitement and graciousness in NYC as I do online celebrating with everyone.
Please remember to link up your own wrap-up posts and/or complete our end-of-event survey. We do look at everyone’s responses when planning for the next year’s event and use that as our starting point for volunteers. Thank you to everyone for making Armchair BEA 2012 so much fun!!
Thanks! I'm glad you had fun!
I know! We keep adding about 150 new participants each year. Insane, isn't it?
I know what you mean, Florinda. When BEA comes to Chicago, I will most likely go, but I will want to keep participating in Armchair BEA as well!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the week. It is so important to me that people realize that NYC is not necessarily the place to be. 😉
The interviews are always overwhelming for everyone, but it is such a wonderful way to meet new bloggers. Good luck getting through them all!
Thanks so much for all of your hard work. It was a great week!
I enjoyed the self-interviews the most too. And wow on 600 participants! That is fantastic!
I'm catching up on reading Armchair BEA posts this weekend! And really enjoying the self-interviews–they seem to have been a successful twist on a popular theme!
I'd go back to BEA next year, mostly because of the people I only get to see during that week, but I have NO intention of giving up Armchair BEA ð. Thanks for all your great work, Michelle!
The self-interviews were fun and it was great to have a variety of questions to choose from so that you got different things on different blogs. A huge thanks to you and the other organizers for all of your hard work. You have so much going on in your life right now, it was extremely generous of you to share your time with the rest of us!
I agree that the self interviews were the best this year, I found 2 new blogs so far, trying to go through the 600 list :-0
I didn't post for the rest of the week actually.
My recent post Armchair bea Introductions………