Automatticians, the people who build WordPress.com, participate in events and projects around the world every day. Periodically, they report back on the exciting things they do when not in front of a computer. Today, Michelle Weber — one of a group of Automatticians offering real-life happiness engineering at BlogHer ’14 — reports back from the popular women bloggers conference.

BlogHer is an amazing organization created to support and lift up women bloggers. They’re home to blogging communities close to our hearts, like NaBloPoMo, and their conferences are among my favorite blogging events to attend.

Meeting the bloggers who take WordPress and infuse it with their words and images is rewarding, educational, and just fun. This year’s annual conference was no exception — the WordPress booth included a Happiness Bar for on-the-spot troubleshooting, ample hangout space, and, of course, a comfy couch for much-needed conference breaks and blogging tête-à-têtes.

This year, we also added a series of mini-workshops on the topics bloggers most often ask us about — domains, plugins, social media, copyright, and the different flavors of WordPress — along with mini-panels with some of the outstanding bloggers selected as BlogHer’s 2014 Voices of the Year.

Being at BlogHer isn’t just standing behind a counter talking about widgets. There was great discussion. There were hugs. There were selfies. There was a little crying, and a lot of laughing. After three days doing everything from having in-depth conversations on how to find your blogging voice to helping a new blogger learn to highlight text and create a hyperlink, I was a little tired and a little hoarse — but also full of ideas to take back to work, inspired to do some blogging of my own, and richer in friendship than I was three days before. What more could a blogger ask for?

Thanks to the Voices of the Year-winning bloggers behind Butterfly Confessions, C is for Crocodile, Girl Boner, Naptime Writing, The Life of Kylie, Hacker. Ninja. Hooker. Spy., Baddest Mother Ever, The Waiting, and Jamie Krug: Author for taking the time to sit down with me, and for everyone else who came by to get help, talk WordPress, or just say hello. I hope I see y’all in 2015!