Women rule — especially in our private lives and household budgets.  Exhibitors at the 2010 BlogHer conference get it, maybe even more than women themselves.  BlogHer 2010 was a massive show of mommy/female blogger power with more than 2400 attendees including MAD founder Amy Oliver Cooke. If you want proof just check out these photos from the exhibition hall where no expense was spared. A few examples of the lengths to which some vendors went to appeal to the mommy/female blogger crowd:

• Jimmy Dean filmed an episode of the Rachel Ray show during the conference
• Pillsbury brought the doughboy
• Jimmy Dean brought “the sun”
• YAHOO taped interviews of with female bloggers on how they “reinvented” themselves.  All interviews will be available on YouTube.
• Walmart featured the sustainable yard/home, a 300 square foot exhibit made from all recycled materials
• Tropicana featured Bruce Jenner, 1976 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon and, more importantly, stepfather to the Kardashians
• Chevrolet featured the new $40,000-plus, much anticipated Volt and offered the Volt Recharge Lounge where bloggers could plug in everything from lap tops to cell phones

Exhibitors fell all over themselves catering to the BlogHer issue de jour – “sustainability.” No disposable water bottles were on hand.  The favorite gift was reusable shopping bags.  Attendees could pick up more than 20 different bags filled with everything from play dough to tampons to stress balls.  I left with an additional 15 pounds of luggage weight due to all the giveaways, and that’s after I left what didn’t fit in my bag in the hotel room.

The workshops about everything from social activism to search engine optimization were fascinating but the real networking occurred in the exhibition halls. It was capitalism at work with retailers trying to convince women and mommies to buy their products.

The point being women matter, and moms REALLY matter because we purchase for a family.  We talk and now we include our blogger communities in great big kitchen table conversations. Exhibitors know it and MAD plans to tap into it. Look for MAD to coin some new terms as a result of what we learned at BlogHer 2010.