That was the weekend that was Mumsnet Blogfest.

I started this post, some hours agoyesterday… sitting in the car outside Big’s bassoon lesson. Tigerboy is sleeping in his carseat next to me. The laptop is perched precariously on my knee, just enough room to tilt the screen back, and I’m tethered to the wifi hotspot on my phone.

And I’ve got 28 minutes of battery left. Hm. Just as well we’ve only got 7 minutes of lesson left really isn’t it?

What a weekend I had. MumsnetBlogfest – my first blogging conference as an expert. Featuring in the program was an incredible buzz. I was rather nervous that no one would want to talk to me, and that I’d sit alone in the blog clinic while all the other experts beat off bloggers with a stick. When it came down to it, my appointment board was full, I spoke to 20 different people for 10 minutes apiece and was really really glad I’d gone to the loo before we started 😉

I had a tremendous time. I loved the challenge of not knowing what someone was going to ask me, and I loved even more being able to answer questions.

Top tip that I repeated time and again? Back up your blog. Doesn’t matter where you are hosting it, YOU should have a copy of the data, regularly updated. You put your heart and soul into that blog, do you really want to lose it?

My laptop lied. It’s now saying we’re out of charge, so I guess I’ll be finishing this later. Toodlepip!

It’s now later, much later. A day later.

I’ve read lots of posts about the day. I’ve even been mentioned in some of them 😉 I didn’t get to go to many sessions, just the opening and closing ones. They were great though, I loved Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (there’s no such thing as a part time mum), the Bloggess (you only get to call me Mommy if you came out of my vagina) and Caitlin Moran (walking round the table) and I liked the cheese and alcohol session. Could have done with more chairs and less music by that point, but that is a very minor quibble.

The day to me seemed very business like and well organised. A very smooth experience, with great attention to detail. I was particularly impressed with the arm chair I was supplied with for my session, given that I was bringing a breastfeeding baby with me.

He was fabulous as always. And no one batted an eyelid at me feeding him during consultations. My Bibee dress stood me in good stead, and was much complimented.

My notes to myself? It was great to share a glass of wine with Anya the night before. My thanks to her for dealing with The Bag when we arrived. I loved being recognised and spoken to by name by a variety of Mumsnet people, who had obviously put a huge amount of thought into the day. It had a different feel to other conferences I’ve been to and seemed to have attracted a slightly different profile of blogger. I’d say there were more people just moving into blogging than is usual at these things, but the energy, the vibe, the camaraderie, those were much the same.

I don’t have a clue what That Woman was talking about. I don’t think I saw a single pram, possibly one pushchair. There were several carriers about, I was using a sling, there was a very little baby in an Ergo with a newborn insert. The babies were very well behaved, I’d invite them back any time, in preference to certain journalists that I don’t want to name or link to.

As is ever the case, I didn’t get to spend enough time with anyone. I was ever so pleased to bump briefly into Sandy, as well as Rachel and it was great to put faces to Lynn Schreiber and MmeGuillotine. There were so many other people that I met too, but it’s late and I’m not going to spend the next half hour trying to build a post full of links. I am going to be following up on some of the issues that were raised with me in the blog clinic and writing a series of posts over at Technology Solved. I hope you find them helpful.