JBLOGGER - NBN My View

On a hot, Israeli summer day, I decided to take part in history, the First International JBloggers Convention, sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh and webads. It was held in the Nefesh B'Nefesh offices, Givat Shaul, Jerusalem.

I had planned on walking from the Central Bus Station, but the driver who took me, a tremp before the bus came, decided to do me a favor and drop me off in Givat Shaul. They really are close, as you can see from the picture.






I followed the directions NBN had sent, and then came across the first mistake. When we got to the office, we were sent out of the building, not to the offices. NBN has another entrance, which is to large rooms, where the convention was held. Now, this was an "anglo" event. Not only did many come on time, but quite a few of us were early and we weren't allowed to sign in.






But after that, things were better, besides running overtime. But that was no surprise considering that bloggers are communicators and love to ... communicate.

There was lots of food, salads, sliced meat and bread (which I resisted.) Actually, it would have had been much easier to eat sandwiches.




They even had a vegetarian section.




I can't begin to list all of the bloggers I finally met f2f.


Isramom, a friend who pre-dates blogging, internet, computers etc took this picture of me and Ya'akov, aka Dry Bones.




Here's some of the crowd/attendees at the first panel discussion.








Yes, Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu came and was very impressive, but I'll blog more extensively about him and what he said on Shiloh Musings.




Here's Rivka, who's an inspiration.




When I realized that there was a good chance I wouldn't get called on to comment and promote blog carnivals, I spoke to Steve of webads, who was very much in charge, and he told the moderator to call on me. I don't know if there are any pictures, but I got notes from fellow bloggers who were happy to hear my comment/question on the web broadcast. The "biggies" in the first panel were asked, by me, to at least mention when carnivals are posted and link to them to give more exposure. One panelist was very snobby about it and said that he didn't consider us a "community;" it was just his hobby. That was the low point of the entire day, since the entire point of the event was networking, community etc. The other panelists had davka used the term "community," which is why I did. He was very haughty and said some nasty stuff to another questioner who wanted advice on how to promote a blog. He said that he'd never seen it, but he knows that attractive blogs get more readers.

Frum Satire overcame his "under the weather" and performed. Afterwards he pulled out the name of the doorprize winner for a wafflemaker, admitting that he didn't understand why people were laughing--Jameel! Yes, that's my husband who won the wafflemaker. So, please send in lots of waffle recipes and tips.




There was an interruption during the Foreign Ministry's presentation about marketing Israel in a new way, like the "beach bimbo" idea of a few months ago and as "home of three religions." She was reminded that Israel's a Jewish Country!




And here's my husband speaking during his panel.



PS I understand that another blogger trashed my question in his report of the conference. Enough said about that. Since he "miss-heard" my request to put links to the jblog carnivals on blogs and to host jblog carnivals into some personal promotion for myself, I take that as a request not to be included in jblog carnivals. And therefore, when I next host a jblog carnival, I will try to remember that.