WHAT|WHEN|WHERE|TICKETS|SCHEDULE|SPEAKERS
WHAT: The first blogging conference focused specifically on women bloggers in midlife.
WHEN: Beginning the afternoon of Friday, March 6, 2015 and continuing until the night of Saturday, March 7, 2015.
WHERE: Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, 2800 Opryland Drive, Nashville, Tennessee. A special room rate has been arranged. Accommodations can be booked through a link received after ticket purchase.
Questions? Email Anne Parris at anne@midlifeboulevard.com.
LIKE our Facebook page to get updates and info.
FOLLOW us on Twitter: @BAMConf15 #BAMC15
TICKETS: Tickets are $199. Click the “Buy Tickets” button below to purchase your ticket to BAM through Eventbrite.
SPONSORS
AGENDA
Click this link to see our lineup of panels, speakers and activities!
SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
ELISA CAMAHORT PAGE
We are thrilled to announce that Elisa Camahort Page, a co-founder of BlogHer, will be the keynote speaker at the first BAM Bloggers at Midlife Conference.
When talking about the business of women and blogging, it’s impossible to not discuss the enormous impact BlogHer, Inc. has had on the blogosphere.
Elisa Camahort Page co-founded BlogHer, Inc. in 2005, with Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, and served as the company’s COO. BlogHer was acquired by SheKnows Media in November 2014, and Elisa now serves as SheKnows Media’s Sr. VP of Community Content & Events, overseeing its events business, including the ongoing production of the BlogHer Annual Conference, the largest of its kind. In addition she manages community content, consumer insights and social media around the ongoing BlogHer.com website and social presence.
Together, BlogHer’s co-founders were named among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013, in the Ernst & Young Winning Women Class of 2011, and among the seven most powerful people in new media by Forbes Magazine. Elisa has also been honored as an National Center for Women In Technology Hero, an AlwaysOn Power Player, and as one of the AWM’s Sixty@60. Elisa is a founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and serves on the Board of Directors of the 42nd Street Moon Theatre in San Francisco, the programming advisory committee for SXSW Interactive and SXSW V2V, and the Board of Advisors for the Our Hen House animal rights non-profit.
Nordette Adams: Nordette N. Adams is a contributing editor at BlogHer.com. Her personal blog is Whose Shoes Are These Anyway. A poet, she is currently enrolled in the MFA program at the University of New Orleans.
Online since the 1990s when dial-up was cutting edge, webpages were static, and AOL was hot, she’s migrated through various incarnations of herself online, including having two successful blogs in New Jersey before returning to her hometown. Over the last twenty years, she’s watched women find their voices through blogging while old school journalism slips into twilight. She also recalls when her body was perkier and her memory sharper how the World Wide Web just moseyed along. Now that it spins much faster into more intricate tangles, she measures what’s worth saying in midlife. Her current message to herself is, “Get up and stop sitting through bad reruns of your past. Live!”
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Elaine Ambrose: Elaine Ambrose is an author, syndicated blogger, and humorist from Eagle, Idaho. Her writing is featured on several sites including The Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Midlife Boulevard. Her latest book, Midlife Cabernet, won two national humor awards and Publishers Weekly wrote that the book is “laugh-out-loud funny.” Elaine wrote Menopause Sucks under contract with Adams Media and six other books under her own company, Mill Park Publishing. Elaine’s most dubious claim to fame is that her Huffington Post essay “Don’t Fart During an MRI” received more than 678,000 hits from around the world. Preview her books and blogs at www.elaineambrose.com.
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Tracy Beckerman: Tracy Beckerman is an author, humorist, and a syndicated columnist. Her humor column Lost in Suburbia, is carried by more than 400 newspapers in 25 states and on 250 related websites to approximately 10 million readers.
She appears frequently on TV and radio and does stand-up comedy about how to be a cool mom in the suburbs. Yes, she knows that is an oxymoron. Tracy lives in the suburbs of New Jersey with her husband, two kids, and the world’s cutest dog, Monty.
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Debbie Bookstaber: Debbie Bookstaber is the President of Element Associates, where she leads online marketing, affiliate marketing, search (SEO), blogger outreach, social media and strategic initiatives for her clients. Debbie is recognized in her field, and she frequently speaks at social media and interactive conferences such as SXSW, BlogHer, Affiliate Summit, Type-A Parent, ASTRA Marketplace and many more. In 2012, Debbie was recognized as one of the “Top 25 Parent Bloggers Who Are Changing the World” by Babble.com.
Debbie has over a dozen years of marketing experience at brands such as Expedia and Travelocity. She has managed online marketing programs responsible for several hundred million dollars in annual sales. She won both the Travelocity Enterprise Award and the Expedia Horizon Award for her job performance. Debbie has advised PR firms and Fortune 500 companies on blogger relations and effective social media strategies, and she serves as the Director of Social Media for Child’s Play Communications in New York, NY.
Prior to starting her agency, Debbie Bookstaber was the VP of Strategy and Business Development at The JAR Group, where she started an award-winning affiliate management group, bringing in clients such as Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, USGA, Tunecore, Dollar Days, Joy Berry Books, Greensbury Market, and many more. As a result of Debbie’s efforts, the agency was named to the Inc. 500 list in 2010.
Debbie graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with a simultaneous Bachelors and Masters in History. She is the co-founder of Bloganthropy.org and Mamanista.com. Bloganthropy.org empowers bloggers to become philanthropic leaders in their communities. Through their annual awards, Bloganthropy recognizes bloggers who effectively use social media for social good.
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Sara Broers: Sara started blogging in early 2009 and quickly embraced social media. She grew a social media business, Social Connections, LLC out of her two blogs, All In An Iowa Mom’s Day and Travel With Sara. In 2013, she embraced the word local and started a social media breakfast in her community. The impact she has made in social media in her community continues to evolve. Small businesses are using social media and new business connections are being made because of her local involvement. Sara will tell you, “Local Matters.”
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Martie Duncan: Martie Duncan is the Chief Party Thrower at MartieKnowsParties.com and was a finalist on Season 8 of Food Network Star. Martie was named the franchise’s “Fan Favorite” when she was brought back for the tenth anniversary edition of the show. A passionate cook, writer, party/wedding expert and Alabama girl, Martie wants to help people go back to a time when entertaining was fun.
Selected by Alton Brown for his team on Season 8 of Food Network Star, Martie was the only person in the cast that season with no formal culinary training or restaurant experience. Out of 15 contestants, Martie came in second to Team Alton teammate Justin Warner after an audience vote.
Her first gig as an expert party-thrower was for Microsoft in 2008 when she was tapped to create original party ideas for MSN.com. Her how-to videos and party ideas can now be found on MyRecipes.com, the recipe website for Southern Living, Real Simple, Cooking Light, Sunset, Coastal Living and All You magazines. Additionally, a collection of Martie’s recipes can be found on the new Microsoft Food & Drink App along with recipes from chefs Tom Colicchio, Michelle Bernstein, Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, Joel Robuchon, Marcus Samuelsson and others.
Martie’s experience includes working on the set of the film My Best Friend’s Wedding starring Julia Roberts. Martie made several appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and she’s been interviewed on a variety of food, party planning and wedding topics by the Food Network magazine, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, In Style Weddings, Smart Money, Wall Street Journal, The Birmingham News, Marie Claire along with other national and local publications. She has appeared on local television morning shows in Miami, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Dallas, Nashville, Tampa, Memphis as well as segments on nationally syndicated Daytime and BetterTV where her summer entertaining video is consistently a ‘most viewed’ favorite.
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Sharon Greenthal
Sharon Greenthal: Sharon Greenthal is a co-founder of the BAM conference and the website Midlife Boulevard, where she is the editor-in-chief. Sharon has been writing for almost 4 years on her personal blog, Empty House Full Mind. Sharon is a contributor to the Huffington Post, Purple Clover and Scary Mommy, and appeared in June of 2014 on The Katie Show. Sharon was a stay-at-home mom for 20 years, but has found a passion for blogging, social media and connecting with others at midlife almost equal to the love she had for raising her children. Sharon has two grown children – a daughter who is 24 and a son who is 22. She lives in Los Alamitos, California with her husband of 25 years and their perfect dog, Lambeau.
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Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington, Grown and Flown: On Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington reflect on parenting high school, college kids and young adults. Lisa (UC San Diego and MIT) had a Wall Street career before becoming an author of three books including one that became a NYT Business Bestseller. Mary Dell (UT Austin and Harvard Business School) spent nearly two decades working in national media before becoming a school and hospital volunteer. She and Moose, her Labrador retriever, have volunteered as a pet therapy team for more than five years. Between their two families, they have a combined 92 years of parenting five children, now ages 18-24.
Since launching Grown and Flown in January, 2012, their work has appeared, among other places, in Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, New York Times Motherlode, Washington Post on parenting and ASPCA. Lisa can also be found on About.com writing as a Young Adults expert in the parenting section.
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Danyelle Little: Known as first as a Mom, and then as a Work/Life Management Professional and Careerist, Danyelle Little is a rising star amongst her peers. With over a decade of experience in Human Resources, Danyelle created TheCubicleChick.com to discuss topics important to working parents and entrepreneurs. Glamour Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Huffington Post Live have all tapped Danyelle to share her thoughts on newsworthy items relating to workplace issues and lifestyle trends.
Danyelle is also a mother of two (ages 20 and 11) and can be found during her “off” time relaxing with family and watching classic movies.
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Pamela Lutrell: It took one bad driver’s license picture to get Pamela Lutrell’s attention! A wake-up call in midlife put her on a journey through reinvention which would become logged in a blog called Over50 Feeling 40. The blog came to life in 2010 and now has a life of its own as Pamela has become a voice of encouragement and information for women 40+. She desires we all walk with strength, confidence, joy and understand the message, I MATTER….and, of course, head-turning personal style.
This is what she has brought to the Midlife Boulevard as a weekly fashion and style columnist. In San Antonio, TX, she is also known as a multi-tasking wife, mother, grandmother, high school journalism/speech teacher, freelance writer, public speaker, and editor. As a brand ambassador, she represents all walks of life from Goodwill Industries, to Jenny Craig, and on to IOMA-Paris Skincare. This is why KENS TV named her one of the nine most exciting over 50 citizens of the city in 2012; and, why she says, this is the most exciting time of life!
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Jodi Okun
Jodi Okun: Jodi Okun, founder of College Financial Aid Advisors (CFAA), has successfully helped thousands of families navigate the financial aid process. Her background includes ten years in the financial aid industry, working at Occidental and Pitzer College.
Every Thursday at 5pm PST, Jodi hosts #CollegeCash: a Twitter chat devoted to connecting college-bound families with higher education professionals. On average, #CollegeCash receives ten million impressions weekly.
Jodi is the ‘Paying for College’ expert on About.com and was recently ranked in the ‘Top 30 Social Influencers in Personal Finance & Wealth.’ She is a social media strategist, speaker, consultant and small business advocate.
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Rebecca E. Parsons
Rebecca E. Parsons: Rebecca E. Parsons is CEO of REP MEdia, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Cre8tive Compass Magazine and affiliated media: Radio Talk Shows, Live TV and blogs. Known for her pioneering efforts in Social Media, she is an award-winning artist and graphic designer, having won awards for design of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. From the meager beginnings of a little decorative painting company called ‘faux is me studios,’ her artwork landed in The White House, the Smithsonian, in numerous magazines and has opened the doors to appearances on HGTV, TLC, DIY and so much more. She is a regular columnist for The Balancing Act (Lifetime TV), Create Mixed Media, Inspirista blog, The Blogger Connection, Mom It Forward as well as several other food and decor blogs. She does regular interviews for VAV Broadcasting. She is an accomplished writer, motivational speaker and a Christian Spiritual Director. Ms. Parsons has a total of 25 years experience in design and publishing. Her clients have included Fortune 500 corporations, Kimberly-Clark, IBM, Prudential, Scientific Atlanta, Bell South, Peachtree Software, Ernst & Young, Siemens, GTE, and The US Olympic Committee. She teaches art and creativity workshops throughout the world and 2016 will see the launch of her spiritual creativity retreats for artists – Cre8Topia TM and The Artist as a Spiritual Explorer TM.
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Dr. Margaret Rutherford: Dr. Margaret Rutherford is a clinical psychologist who has practiced for over 20 years in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (Dallas, Texas) in 1992, where she served as the Chief Intern in Psychology at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
In 2009, she received the Arkansas Psychological Association Private Practitioner Award for establishing a mental health network for the Northwest Arkansas Free Health Center, where she currently volunteers as Mental Health Coordinator. She has served as President of numerous volunteer boards and is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Margaret began blogging in 2012 with the website “NestAche”, writing about her experience of empty nest after her son left for college. She launched Dr. Margaret Rutherford: Helping You Believe In Yourself in April of 2014, which focuses more on mental health, as well as relationships and midlife issues. She is a featured blogger for Midlife Boulevard, Boomeon, BetterAfter50, The Huffington Post and others. A recent blog on marriage was liked by over 200,000 Facebook readers! Her first eBook appears on her website for download, Seven Commandments Of Good Therapy, which is a primer on evaluating therapeutic practices for those in therapy or those considering that option. She can be reached as well on Twitter: @doctor_margaret.
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Melissa T. Shultz: Melissa T. Shultz is an essayist and journalist who contributes to newspapers and magazines, and is an editor with Jim Donovan Literary, a literary agency in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1993, they have sold hundreds of books for dozens of writers, negotiating publishing contracts with major New York publishers, including: Bantam, Broadway, Crown, HarperCollins, Morrow, NAL, Henry Holt, Putnam, Random House, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s, Viking Penguin, Warner Books, Grand Central, and many others. The agency handles both fiction (chiefly mysteries and thrillers) and nonfiction (American history, biography, military, sports, popular culture, and general narrative nonfiction).
Prior to freelance work, Ms. Shultz was Director of Creative Services for a trade association in Washington, D.C. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Ladies’ Home Journal, The L.A. Times, Newsweek.com, scarymommy.com, BetterAfter50.com,goodmenproject.com, The New York Times, and has aired on Mother Earth News (formerly CNN Radio). Ms. Shultz is currently at work on a book about transitioning to the empty nest (Sourcebooks, Spring/2016). Follow her on Twitter: @MelissaTShultz and visit her blog: www.sisterhoodofmothers.com
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Walker Thornton: Walker Thornton is a writer, sex educator and public speaker, with a Masters in Educational Psychology and over 10 years experience in the field of sexual violence against women. She is a strong advocate for midlife women’s sexuality, encouraging women to ‘step into their desire’. Kinkly.com ranked her blog, WalkerThornton.com, #5 in their top 100 Sex Blogging Superheroes of 2014.
Walker is the Sexual Health columnist for Midlife Boulevard and writes about sex and the older adult for Kinkly.com and Boomeon. You can connect with her on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
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Wendy Walker Cushing: Wendy Walker Cushing likes to be known as just a girl in a hat. She’s been blogging since 2009 at Wendys Hat where she shares her creative views with the world. She has too many interests to list and blogs about all things Home, Garden, Food, Life, Style related and more. She’s active in more social media sites than she has time for, and although she loves them all, one look at her Pinterest account (38,500 followers and growing!) will show you where her talents lie. Wendy comes from a Home Economics and Interior Design background. Helping others is a hobby of hers and that’s what she spends most of her time doing. Wendy is a self proclaimed adventurer and loves to go on spontaneous road trips at the drop of a hat. Her favorite thing is to be happy and to Laugh out Loud! She is one of the rare 5th generation Las Vegas locals, where she was born and raised. She still lives in Las Vegas today with her long time husband and three young adult children. She has a passion for making new friends and collects them like some people collect tea cups, and can’t wait to meet and hug all of you at BAM!
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Robyn Wright: Robyn Wright has been online since 1992 and has been blogging at RobynsOnlineWorld.com since 2008. She is an avid Twitter fan and social media user. Along with blogging full-time she also consults with small businesses on increasing their social media presence in an organic manner and is a program director at Online Mom Media. Robyn has formed long term relationships with several brands including Microsoft and Verizon. Her success is attributed to her willingness to share her personal life and her authenticity. Self-proclaimed geek, foodie, optimist and garlic lover, a champion for ending hunger, education, and eliminating the stigma of mental illness. Robyn is a St. Louis, Missouri native and lives in the suburbs with her husband of 23 years, 3 cats, 1 dog, and her 20 year old son who moved back in along with his girlfriend.
MODERATORS:
Susan Maccarelli: Susan Maccarelli is the creator of Beyond Your Blog, a resource site that focuses on helping bloggers and writers successfully submit their writing to websites and anthologies. Beyond Your Blog offers tips and tricks for submitting writing aswell as submission opportunities and a weekly podcast interview with an editor, sharing tips for getting published on their site. Susan also has a humor blog called Pecked To Death By Chickens and feeds her sttention-seeking behavior by submitting and being featured on such sites as Blogher, Scary Mommy, HuffPost, In The Powder Room, Mamapedia and more. Follow BYB on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
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Lori Moreno: Lori Moreno, a major force in the Twitter universe, is a pioneer in social media. She has an extensive business background, with degrees in psychology, film and law. She created films, practiced law and traveled extensively. Ms. Moreno has chosen to help many, through Social Media, sharing Love, Inspiration, Motivation and Self-Help via her blog and weekly video releases and several online venues. Ms. Moreno is a speaker and author and has a book Love in the Digital World, being released soon. She is a Social Media Spokesperson for the Entertainment, Food, Travel, Lifestyle, Relationship and Beauty industries. Follow her at: http://LoriMoreno.com and Lori Moreno (LoriMoreno) on about.me.
The BAM conference is brought to you by Sharon Greenthal and Anne Parris of Midlife Boulevard, Teresa Kindred of NanaHood, and Beth Rosen of Boomfluent Media. They’ve come together to create the first event just for female content creators: writers, bloggers, and social media pros. The event brings together this special demographic to learn more about publishing, blogging, and social media. Also, it will be an opportunity to interact with very special brands.
Teresa Kindred: Teresa is the author of several books including The Knot at the End of
Your Rope; Ten Ways to Hold on When You are Stressed Out and Mom: PhD-A
Simple 6 Step course on Leadership for Moms. She was a major contributor
to Humor for a Teacher’s Heart and Cup of Comfort Devotional: Daily
Reminders of God’s Love and Grace. She also authored four Precious Moments
books that were illustrated by Sam Butcher.
She started her blog, NanaHood.com, in 2009 to celebrate the joy of
grandchildren and the Baby Boomer lifestyle. Last year NanaHood was
selected as one of the Top Ten Grandparent Blogs by GRAND Magazine.
Teresa has a M.A. in Secondary Education and has taught 7th graders, high
school students and college classes. She lives in Kentucky with her husband, Bill (aka Poppa), her twin sons
who she can always tell apart (if she has her glasses on) and their seven
dogs.
For more information about attending or working with BAM, please contact anne@midlifeboulevard.com
Anne Parris
Anne Parris is a managing partner Midlife Boulevard. Her personal blog, Not A Supermom, is your typical mommy blog that her kids say used to be funnier. Anne has a business degree and a dusty résumé from a top accounting firm and a Fortune 500 company, which she reminds herself of every time she is washing underpants. She lives with her family in Virginia and blogs mostly to support her coffee habit.
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