My favorite panel was "Is the Next Martha Stewart a Blogger?" Featuring Maggie Mason, Gayla Trail, Andrea Scher, Pim Techamuanvivit and Marnie MacLean, the women discussed how their business and blogging ventures (most of them run stores online for their goods, while the rest host well-known blogs) might be the next wave of the future for the creative, "do-it-yourself" entrepreneur and how to not only make the most of it, but protect their individual work.

"Whenever people recognize what you're doing and want to get a piece of it, it's a really hard road to navigate," Trail, author of You Grow Girl, said.

The women discussed the growing demand for bloggers, especially bloggers writing about entertainment, arts and lifestyle topics, and how blogging can lead to so many different avenues.

Techamuanvivit, of Chez Pim fame, talked about what she hopes to accomplish with her food blog. Chez Pim has been featured across the country in various media outlets.

"The way I see my blog is kind of like a launchpad. I want to take it somewhere, I want to see where I can run with it," she said.

In every session, the faint sound of keyboards clacking could be heard as participants worked on upcoming posts or created live blog entries on the spot. By the end of the first day thousands of photos had been tagged "blogher" on Flickr and the conference's name was a popular search on Technorati.

BlogHer provided the chance to hear from some of the blogosphere's biggest names. Day One featured a lunch discussion with Caterina Fake and Meg Hourihan, the driving forces behind Flickr and Blogger. The conference's closing keynote involved a panel featuring Grace Davis, Caroline Little, Mena Trott and the always-entertaining Arianna Huffington.

Overall, my favorite part of BlogHer was meeting people. The atmosphere was so relaxed that attendees who came by themselves left with a whole collection of new friends. People joined each other during breaks to talk about their blogs and what they'd just heard. I met some wonderful new people and, of course, I've got some great new blogs to subscribe to.