"We've got a thing going on...."
If someone said to you, "give me £50 and I'll give you a great day out, let you see and hear many expert, inspirational people in the flesh, feed you gorgeous fodder and then ply you with Prosecco at the end" would you cough up?
Well I did. And it was one of the best £50 I've ever spent. Mumsnet Blogfest happened on Saturday and kicked off with the refreshingly normal (and irritatingly beautiful) Miriam Gonzalez Durantez or - for the politically illiterate - Mrs Nick Clegg. She spoke at length in her endearing Spanish lilt about being a mother - the trials and tribulations and admitted that she often used Mumsnet for some "teeps" for staying sane.
Breakout sessions with the likes of Tanya Byron (full of good sense, obviously brilliantly clever but I wouldn't want to meet her down a dark alley), Cath Elliott, journalists Eleanor Mills, Suzanne Moore and Liz Fraser tackled the issue of trolls. Other sessions covered 'Finding your Voice' with the unexpectedly hilarious Zoe Williams amongst others, SEO techniques, Social Media, Photography and more.
Then came a Keynote Panel featuring the much-anticipated Liz Jones of the Daily Mail. To say she was a damp squib would be a massive understatement. She is deaf on one side but chose not to sit on the correct side of the Chair so she couldn't hear anything. This is the woman who reacted to the news of her husband's infidelity by thinking "oh good, I can get a couple of columns out of this" although, on Saturday, she claimed to regret ever having spilled the beans on friends and family because now she has "no relationships". She followed up her unsmiling appearance (she might have tried once or twice but I think her face was too tight) with a typically snarky article in the Mail on Sunday the following day, littered with inaccuracies and fallacies. There was something familiar about her appearance too - the heavy eye makeup, the orange tan....
If someone said to you, "give me £50 and I'll give you a great day out, let you see and hear many expert, inspirational people in the flesh, feed you gorgeous fodder and then ply you with Prosecco at the end" would you cough up?
Well I did. And it was one of the best £50 I've ever spent. Mumsnet Blogfest happened on Saturday and kicked off with the refreshingly normal (and irritatingly beautiful) Miriam Gonzalez Durantez or - for the politically illiterate - Mrs Nick Clegg. She spoke at length in her endearing Spanish lilt about being a mother - the trials and tribulations and admitted that she often used Mumsnet for some "teeps" for staying sane.
 |
| courtesy of Mumsnet |
 |
| Zoes Strimpel and Williams courtesy of Mumsnet |
 |
| Eleanor Mills, Prof Tanya Byron & Liz Fraser courtesy of Mumsnet |
 |
| Liz Jones |
 |
| Tutankhamun |
Ironically, the closing keynote speaker was the delightful Caitlin Moran who was hilarious to listen to and forecast that the future of journalism would see the end of snarkiness, so maybe someone should tell Liz. She responded to one star-struck questioner (who came over all giggly like a 10 year old girl) with "would you like to have sex with me? I accept!" She was the perfect choice to end the day.
Then it was upstairs for a few buckets of Prosecco before staggering off in search of a taxi, weighed down by a very generous goody bag. Well done Mumsnet. Sign me up for next year, but maybe we could avoid that thing with Mrs Jones...?
 |
| Courtesy of Mumsnet |
