Blog Conference, take two!
Remember when I went to Blissdom last year? Well, since they moved it all the way out to Texas this year, I was stuck looking for another {closer} conference to at which to hone my blogging skills. Enter, Bloggy Boot Camp Blog Conference, put on by the SITS Girls in Charlotte, NC.
When I first arrived at the Doubletree in Charlotte, I just took a minute {or an hour} to appreciate. In general. I appreciate my husband for being Mr. Mom this weekend. I appreciate the not-as-long-as-I-thought-it’d-be drive from Charleston, in which I listened to anything but Raffi. I appreciated my humungous hotel room and the ability to pee by myself. And I appreciated the SITS girls for giving me an excuse to hang out with 100 of my newest Bloggy Boot Camp friends.
Friday night, there was a cocktail hour sponsored by Collective Bias. Now, if you know me at all, you know that walking into a room full of women I don’t know is, well…pretty much my worst nightmare. But {after a big gulp of wine}, I got up the courage to introduce myself to a few of the ladies, and we ended up having a fabulous time getting to know each other! We even drove into the town for some late night snacks and cocktails!
Saturday morning started AWESOME. And that would be because of our Keurig Brew Over Ice sponsor. They had this amazing iced coffee set-up and provided all the mid-morning caffeine I could drink (including a few non-coffee drinks like Snapple flavors!). It was delish. And it gave me {many} chances to pee all by myself.
And I just may have to get one of these puppies since they sent us home with reusable Keurig mugs and K-cups!
And because of the coffee, I did actually learn a lot at Bloggy Boot Camp. Tiffany Romero, one of the SITS girls, was our host….or should I say MC? She cracked us all up while inspiring us to be creative, original, and ambitious. All while literally spewing out inspirational quotes left and right. Here are a few of my favorites! Feel free to pin!
There were also workshops on blog design, SEO, Google+, Social Media, and taking photos. It was exactly what I needed….a little bit of the basics regarding everything technical. I HIGHLY recommend this conference for newbie bloggers, or for any ‘ole blogger who doesn’t know her SEO from her meta data {I know what both of those things are now!!!}.
And we learned not to even bother using grainy cell phone photos on blog posts…terrible for SEO and pinnability. {is that a word?}
Ooops.
I remember being so stressed about what I should wear to Blissdom…it was my first conference and I had no idea what to expect from the 400 odd women there. Bloggy Boot Camp was different. There were only about 100 people there, and all of them were relatively new to the field…and extremely approachable. I didn’t even blink about attire….I didn’t even pack any extra in-case-that-shirt-wasn’t-cool-enough clothes.
Maybe I’m growing as a person and a {semi} confident blogger?
Either way, I made some great friends this weekend. I had a ton in common with these girls…and because they were all bitty-blogs too, we were ALL looking for some new networking and friends. In fact, I learned that close-knit groups of bloggers are called Tribes. 
Do you think all Tribes are a goofy as we are?
Laurel from heartofwander.com and I hung out most of the weekend. Future Tribe member perhaps? 
Who snuck that terrible awkward picture on my blog??!?!?! Collective Bias had us taking photos of “awkward” stretches with their pillow. And apparently I was the most awkward stretcher at the conference, because I won a $200 gift card for my pose! I think that deserves a badge for my sidebar, what do you think?
