my first blog conference…

I had been looking forward to Bloggy Boot Camp since I got those tickets inside a beautiful birthday card from 3 of the most lovely people who I know along with a note that said “to the next Carrie Bradshaw”. The time finally arrived on Saturday and I think it might have changed my life.

The blog conference was held at the Doubletree Hotel and lasted all day. It was an early 9am until 6pm day filled with incredible presentations, wonderful food, amazing sponsors ready to talk to bloggers and wonderful people from all stages of their blog careers from newbie to established.

The night before there was a welcome reception sponsored by Kroger which I was unable to attend (damn work, I swear you and I will have words one of these days). I was able to attend the dessert party later on that night sponsored by King’s Hawaiian who brought delicious bread pudding made with their bread, white chocolate chips and caramel sauce (my mouth is watering already, recipe here). I loved getting to meet some of the girls and getting the chance to gauge the temperature of the room (I immediately had to do a wardrobe change for the next day. My cute little dress wasn’t going to cut it unless I wanted to shiver all day).

So on a Saturday morning I set my alarm, got up, got dressed and made it to the hotel. There was breakfast from Petit Jean Meats (they had bacon, Justin would’ve been proud) and soon after the presentations of the day started.

I collected about 10 pages worth of notes from incredible presentations about the anatomy of a blog (tipjunkie), blog design ( @napwarden), traffic (@tiffanyrom), content writing (@mamakatslosinit and @sitsgirls), ebooks (@angengland), local blogging (@texasholly) and finally how to be your authentic blog self (@noshoppingliz). The day ended with a cocktail party from Mirassou Wines and some cheese (the Moscato was amazing).

I have to say I don’t think I have soaked up this much information since my first year of my MBA education. I now want to go to a TON of these conferences and get as much information as I can. I have also put bugging my husband about my blog design and layout into full gear and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. Being in the room with all these creative and supportive ladies assured me I was in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time. I have a lot to learn and I’m excited to be on this journey.

This lovely birthday present from my sisters couldn’t have come at a better time and I thank them so much for their loving insight and creative mind to think of this as a present. You girls rock 🙂