By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Notes on conferences current and future:

BlogHer

BlogHer is holding forth today and tomorrow at the San Jose Hyatt. What was a nice little chickcon last year has blown up into a sold-out monster this year (more proof that SV is in full swing). "How could we expect it to turn into this?" the Chronicle quotes Elisa Camahort, BlogHer's president of marketing and events. With 700 attendees this year, "We can all agree now, women are the power of Web 2.0," founder Lisa Stone told News.com. Arianna speaks tomorrow.

But, hey, is these heady Web 2.0 days, BlogHer isn't just about female power - or maybe it is, as in purchasing power.

Camahort then told the group that based on demographic studies that BlogHer has conducted, the for-profit organization has an audience that's very attractive to advertisers.
She said that more than 80 percent of BlogHer readers make more than $50,000 a year, 90 percent have at least a college education and half write their own blogs.

Real Estate Connect

Today concludes Real Estate Connect, where some real money is floating around. The searing hot real estate buzz is on Zillow, which just picked up $25 mil and Reply!, which got $17 million. But the big story really is that Realtors (mustn't forget the capital R) are finally embracing tech in a big way, the Mercury's Sue McAllister reports.

``There's a feeding frenzy,'' said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, a Seattle-based online brokerage now operating in the Bay Area, as businesses attempt to add more features to their sites.

But is this frenzy truly bubble behavior? "How much of it is good for the consumer and how much of it is just smart technology people doing what they did in the late '90s, is a question," pondered Mark Brandemuehl of online brokerage Movoto.com.

SES San Jose