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(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

While the sessions are informative and there’s always something to do, I attend BlogHer conferences for the people. And what people they are! I know that when I go, I will be inspired by the women — by who they are and what they do — and they never fail me. I have three examples of inspirational women that I’d like to share from this weekend. In no particular order:

Inspiring woman #1: Lisa Stone, one of the three founders of BlogHer

On Saturday night, I was reading my Twitter feed and saw that Sarah (a DC-area blogger that I’ve met on a number of occasions; she’s also a fellow BlogHer writer) had sent this Tweet:

Every time I talk to Lisa Stone I feel empowered.

I immediately responded that I’d had the same experience a few days before. I saw Lisa on Thursday night, and as she usually does when I see her, she gave me a hug, asked me how I was doing, and said something nice about my writing. But this particular time, in the few seconds we had to talk privately during a busy cocktail party, she gave me a compliment that I wasn’t expecting. She also made a suggestion about something she thinks I should do — or that she knows I’m at least capable of doing — which was completely unexpected. I don’t want to go into exactly what we talked about, but I was very close to getting teary-eyed.

It’s a pretty incredible feeling when someone recognizes that you’re capable of more than what you’re currently doing. It’s not that I would be content to stay in my current situation for months or years to come, but for someone to point out that I need to do more, be more, and take advantage of my strengths — that’s a massive motivator for me.

Inspiring woman #2: Kay Stewart

I went to dinner with a group of people on Friday night, and one of the attendees was Kay, a woman I met at the BlogHer ’08 conference in San Francisco. I was happy to see her; I had a great time talking to her last year and I was hoping she’d be a part of our group again this year. Kay’s in her early 60s and has five children, so it may not seem like we’d have a lot in common — but it’s definitely true that two people who don’t seem to be anything alike can have a great conversation and recognize common interests.

However, having a great conversation wasn’t the only good thing that happened that night. We’d all just heard the announcement that next year’s BlogHer ’10 conference will be taking place in New York City. I mentioned that it doesn’t take me very long to get to NYC from DC, and that I’d recently gone there with some friends to see a Broadway show. (I didn’t write very much on my personal blog about the specifics of seeing Wicked, but it was the most spectacular show I’ve ever seen. It absolutely floored me.)

After Kay listened to me rave about my experience for a few minutes, she issued me a challenge. She said that before she sees me next summer at BlogHer ’10, she wants me to have seen at least two more Broadway shows. I can see them both in the same weekend, or even on the same day, but I have to see at least two. Bonus points if I see more than two.

I love to be challenged. (Did Kay know that? I don’t know, but I think she could tell that I’m the type of person who’d be open to taking her up on it.) It’s not that I need people to tell me what to do before I initiate something in my life; I just see it as someone recognizing that I need a push.

As soon as she said what she did, I got excited. It’s one of those times where I immediately thought to myself, Of course. Why don’t I? Of course I should. She may have come up with the challenge out of the blue, but she said it with assurance. And you know what? I don’t want to let her down, but most importantly I don’t want to let me down. Whether I go alone or with someone else, I’m going to do it.

Inspiring woman #3: Siel from Green LA Girl

Siel is a fellow BlogHer writer, so I’ve been reading her posts for the past few years. I’ve also seen her at the last two BlogHer conferences, and last year in San Francisco we spoke for a few minutes on the final night we were there. This year was different, though. I don’t know if she sought me out at the Thursday night cocktail party with the intention of having a conversation or whether it just worked out that way, but when Siel came up to say hello, she didn’t just exchange a few pleasantries and move on. She stayed and we talked. And then we talked some more. Not only did I see her that night, but we ended up hanging out on Friday and Saturday night as well.

Why do I admire Siel? She’s a passionate environmental activist who leads by example. She’s the kind of person who makes you want to live a green life, but it’s not because she’s preachy about it — it’s because she’ll tell you if you ask and she can back up what she says. On top of all that, she has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature, she makes her living as a full-time freelance writer, and she’s only a year older than I am.

In other words, Siel has a lot of stuff going for her, and she’s making our world a better place by educating people about how they can be more responsible global citizens. But if you talk to her long enough, you’ll discover that she’s still searching for what her next step in life is going to be — like many of us, she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to “do with her life.” And knowing that makes her even more approachable and likable, because even though she may be searching you have a feeling that she’ll figure it out one day.

(I didn’t find this out until last year, so for those of you who think that “Siel” is pronounced “Seal,” you would be wrong. It’s pronounced as two syllables — like you’re saying the letters “C-L.”)

I can say with a lot of assurance that these three women didn’t say and do what they did knowing that it would have such an impact on me — and I think that’s the best part. My list of inspiring women is definitely longer than this one, but it’s not a huge list. I’m pretty selective.

Who inspires you?

Related Reading:

Kat from The Burb Blog wrote about how great it was to meet so many of her favorite bloggers at BlogHer ’09. (I spent some time talking to her last night during the final cocktail party, and I can confirm that Kat is a terrific lady.)

SoCal Mom won a free ticket to attend the BlogHer conference, but decided not to go due to the other expenses involved. Having attended a few of the conferences in the past, she said “I’m going to miss the inspirational boost I get each time I go to the sessions, during a year when I REALLY need that.”

Before Sassymonkey left to attend BlogHer ’09, she described what she expected to get out of it. “I’m expecting to go and learn. I’m expecting to be overwhelmed. I’m expecting to meet fantastic, inspirational women…”