To cut a long story short my position is … I’m not going. I don’t think.
{Anyone who has no idea what a BlogHer conference is can follow the link I left yesterday. Or not. Up to you. Or your could look at the lovely money box below before departing.}
This sticks in my craw a bit because I am rather a goal-orientated person and when last year’s conference was over I swore to myself I’d go in ’09 and left dozens of comments on the blogs of friends and idols saying, “Great you had a great time! See you next year! We’ll party!” (or something like that). It was at this time I became very interested in the above money box. It is Adam’s, he’s had it for years, but all that’s ever gone in there was piffling 5 cent coins, or bits of lint, or jigsaw puzzle pieces the kids thought would be funny to try seeing if they fit.
I took this baby, called it mine, and ever since, every day (well, most), have put in a gold coin.
This baby now weighs close to six kilos. I have no idea how much money is in there. It’s probably a lot, but nowhere near where it has to be. In order to get to this conference I need a return ticket to Chicago, a conference pass, plus accomodation. Plus money for incidentals (read: DUTY FREE WHISKY). Throw in the fact that our dollar is worth only about 66 cents US, that is where reality starts to sink in. Even when we had that lovely period last year when it was worth about 90 cents US it wasn’t much of a consolation. The whole thing is bloody expensive. Period.
So I vent my frustration on Twitter and people suggest that why don’t I try to get a sponsor? I have no problems at all with sponsorship generally – heck, I’ve even helped out one of my favourite all time bloggers who’s trying to get there. I just I have a problem soliciting it for myself.
Call it shyness, call it fear, call it a lack of self-confidence: I don’t know. Throw in a good dose of I-don’t-even-know-where-to-try-or-begin-with-corporate-sponsorship because, um, blogging in Australia? Not a huge deal yet, really. The newspapers are only just starting to talk about Twitter and it’s in a GUESS WHICH CELEBRITY TWEETS!? and the rest of us are like, fucking duh we’ve been following Stephen Fry for months.
I’m coming to the end of my little story. It’s not a pretty one, alas. Nor an important one, I suppose, in the grand scheme of life. It means, I think, having to suck up any disappointment for another year and at the end of July I’ll be writing in comments sections again, “Great you had a great time! See you next year! We’ll party!”
Thats if the money box gets any fuller. Or if it doesn’t disappear entirely.
You see, Adam’s taken it back off me. He smells opportunity. Apparently it’s his “New Computer Fund.”
