The bathroom blogfest was cooked up on a let's-get-acquainted phone call between me and San Diego blogger Stephanie Weaver (Experienceology) a little over a year ago. We wanted a blogfest topic that related to customer experience but not in a specialized way … we tagged it ladiesrooms. I don't think it changed the world, but people seemed to enjoy the event, so we are hosting it again, this time with the addition of the able organizational skills of C.B. Whittemore (Flooring the Consumer) as part of the organization team.
What's the point of this? Well, every human being has to use the bathroom. But most organizations act like the bathroom is just a nuisance. They tend to be hard to find, tucked away into a corner and often unsatisfactory in a number of ways. In a public place, we are at our most vulnerable in the bathroom, conducting our private ablutions in front of perfect strangers. For a night at the theatre or an afternoon at a ballgame, and many other situations, we ladies can usually count on losing out on some fun by having to wait in line.
As human beings ourselves, we bloggers would like to see some improvement. And we want to celebrate the improvements we do see.
Along the way, we'll all be using this approach to illustrate the ways of deconstructing, innovating and generally doing a better job on the ladiesroom. Gents are certainly allowed, even encouraged to join in. It's a big tent, after all, an issue shared by the largest group imaginable – all of humanity.
Like all such grassroots projects, this thing has taken on a life of its own. There are a total of 20 bloggers taking the plunge, and more are welcome to join in. I've listed the group below, but for the duration, I'm going to add a category to the blogroll. We're also trying a Facebook group, to see if that helps us stay connected. [So far, it doesn't seem to be working. Personally, I don't think the group application is all that useful yet, but stay tuned.] There is a consolidated blogfest blog planned to host all the posts – a one-stop shop for all your bathroom blogfesting needs. And we have two new logos this year. That's my fault, as I am the chief logo-designer, and I didn't like the first one – a pixellated pansy – so I built a second one. But there are pansies sprouting everywhere, so others clearly like it.
There will be posts on this topic throughout the week of Oct. 29th – Halloween week, appropriate for a scary topic such as this. So grab your miniature chocolate bars and candy kisses, and join in the infotainment. Or just pass by the posts with this logo, and we'll talk again when our regular programming resumes.
Here's the list of bloggers and blogs:
- Anna Farmery—The Engaging Brand
- Becky Carroll—Customers Rock!
- C.B. Whittemore—Flooring the Consumer
- Carolyn Townes—Spirit Women
- Claudia Schiepers—Life and its little pleasures
- Dee McCrorey—The Ultimate Corporate Entrepreneur
- Ed Pell—K+B DeltaVee
- Helene Blowers—Library Bytes
- Iris Shreve Garrott—checking out and checking in
- Kate Rutter—Adaptive Path
- Katia S. Adams—Transcultural
- Katie Clark—Practical Katie
- Laurence Helene Borel—Blog Till You Drop
- Linda Tischler—Fast Company Now
- Maria Palma—Customers Are Always
- Marianna Hayes—Results Revolution
- Reshma Anand—Qualitative Research
- Sandra Renshaw—Purple Wren
- Sara Cantor—The Curious Shopper
- Stephanie Weaver—Experienceology
- Toby Bloomberg—Diva Marketing
You can also keep up by scanning technorati or del.icio.us or flickr using the tag, ladiesrooms.
