I’ve talked here before about the relative importance of attending conferences when you’re a solopreneur. In fact, the last time I talked about it, I was busy justifying the cost of such an excursion when balanced against the potential advantages. And I mentioned that last year I was a volunteer, which meant that my conference registration was comped—that’s a great way to keep costs down.

You know another good way to keep costs down? Find a way to get yourself invited to attend. That works well, too. Oh, um, hey! Guess what! I’m speaking at BlogHer Business this year. Because I’m incredibly cheap. Because I have important things to say.

The panel I’m on is called Improve This Pitch and is designed to help the folks who do blogger outreach to do it better. So, you’re probably reading this now and thinking, “Um, well, that’s nice and all, Mir, but I don’t do blogger outreach. In fact, I’m a blogger myself, and so this is of no interest to me whatsoever.” But that’s where you need to stop and think it through a little more.

Who’s going to be in the room during that session? That’s right—a captive, interested audience who wants to connect with bloggers. Savvy bloggers. Bloggers who can help them. If you’re someone who blogs for a living (or wants to!) imagine what you could do in such a room. Imagine whom you might meet, and what insight you might gain from listening to these folks ask questions. I’m really, really excited about this session; I think it’s not only going to prove eye-opening for the attendees, I think it will give those of us who work with those people a unique bit of insight into their process and goals. This is the sort of thing for which conferences are made. You can’t get this sort of experience through swapping emails or browsing around on LinkedIn.

If you’re on the fence about attending BlogHer Business, I’d encourage you to browse the agenda and take stock of what your business goals are for the coming year. If you are a business blogger or if you work with business bloggers, I cannot think of a better venue in which to meet up and discuss work, strategies, etc.

Also keep in mind that this is not a giant sorority gathering; last year there were plenty of men in attendance. The emphasis on women is useful for a variety of reasons (not the least of which is that, from a marketing perspective, women control more dollars than men), but this is by no means a girls-only event.

Still not convinced? Well, I can also tell you that in addition to yours truly, I hear that Work It, Mom!’s own Nataly will be there… and rumor has it that Susan Wagner and Chris Jordan will be in attendance as well. And that means that we can have an entire contingent of Work It, Mom-ers talking shop, or at least comparing shoes. That’s worth the trip right there, no?

I can’t wait, and I hope to see many of you at the Affinia in April!

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