Well, I’m back. I’ve been to BlogHer, and I returned without a scratch on me. No, really. I didn’t even cry.

As you may recall from my terrified, pre-BlogHer post a couple of weeks ago, I was a little bit nervous about being the only guy in a sea of 3,000 women. Normally, that sounds ideal (Am I right?), but when hundreds of these women are writing about your client, it’s a little scary. Fortunately, whoever was supposed to bring the guillotine must’ve missed their plane, and they had no choice but to accept me in all my manly glory.

On a large scale, not a single person noticed I was a dude. No, I wasn’t dressed up as a lady like the Wayans brothers in that one movie. There just happened to be quite a few dudes present. Between the brand representatives, husbands and dad bloggers, nobody took a second glance.

On a small scale, tons of bloggers wanted to know what it was like to be a guy at the conference. In fact, the first conversation I had in the registration line was about my dudage and its implications at BlogHer.

Apart from those face-to-face instances, I felt right at home. In fact, I even wore a bow tie on the first full day of the conference so people would talk to me—and it worked. I got a couple of tweets about it too! Of course, it helped that I was representing an awesome client who the bloggers were happy to talk with me about. Still, I like to think I had something to do with it.

I also had the opportunity to attend a couple of conference sessions—one moderated by bloggers and one by PR folks. I didn’t find them particularly groundbreaking, but they did confirm many of the practices and processes my team and I have in place when working with bloggers. Of course, the sessions weren’t meant for me, so I’m sure they were much more valuable for the bloggers attending.

All-in-all, I felt that the trip was a massive success, and I was extremely sad to hop on the plane back to what may soon be a record heat streak in Texas. Here are a few of my favorite and least-favorite things about my trip to San Diego:

Faves

  • My first trip to the beach
  • A blogger recognizing my face’s profile from my pre-BlogHer blog
  • The food … My God, the food.
  • Awkward, dude-on-dude, coworker man hug
  • Guitar Hero
  • Free stuff
  • Meeting several hundred of the coolest ladies online

Fails

  • Only getting to see the beach for 10-15 minutes before the Jeep people kicked us off
  • Not getting to meet the Pine-Sol lady
  • Being too exhausted to party with bloggers

Now, now, I had plenty of help preparing for this trip, and I feel it only appropriate to return the favor by outlining a few musts for my fellow men:

  1. Relax. Don’t try so hard to fit in with the ladies. You don’t need to.
  2. Invest in a bow tie … just in case #1 was wrong … maybe a pink shirt, too.
  3. Take advantage of the parties. Some of them are invitation-only, but whether you’re a blog or a brand, there’s no better way to really get to know the women of BlogHer than to party with them.
  4. Tweet often. Twitter is sort of the lifeline of the entire conference.
  5. Wear comfortable shoes. You’re basically going to be standing for three days.
  6. Bring a big man-purse (e.g., a laptop bag). You’ll need somewhere to keep oodles of business cards and free swag.
  7. Bring all your business cards. I went through about 200.
  8. Do the prep work. Start interacting with conference hashtags well in advance so you’ve got a few friends when you get there.

If you’re still nervous, you can always go buy a dress and talk in a high voice, but take it from me—it will be completely worth it if you just man up and get your girl on!