Remember your first day of school, first night out at a big club, first day at a new job, first time meeting......a room full of strangers! I had purchased a BlogPodium ticket quickly after they came out for sale. I was determined not to miss this day of learning and networking. A day to meet so many bloggers that I had been following along for some time now and understand how I can help my little space on the internet grow, be more engaging, and become more open to the opportunities that it can provide.
Don't get me wrong this blog will always stay true to me and why I am writing it. That is to have a memory of building our "Forever Home".
Breakfast started off by sitting with Lynne, Andrea, Casey, Robin and Alex. We had some morning chit chat got to know each other a little more. Sarah Richardson was the keynote speaker, she divulged into her personal journey into design and provided some inspiring tips. Once this was over we headed over to our first session.
Home Depot workshop! We learned how to use some Ryobi tools and how quickly a shelf can be built.
Andrea and Alex both won a Ryobi nail gun! Here is a blurry but stellar picture of the 2 of them! If you ladies didn't notice you were matching from head to toe including the tools and both of your names start with "A"!
We headed to our next session which allowed us to learn more about working with Agencies. This session was held by Andrew Kinnear and Jordana Wolch from Environics Communications. Andrew and Jordana had some great tips on the process between agency/company/blogger. I believe it was great for beginner bloggers to give them an idea of how blogs are selected to work with and also to help you learn how you can stand out. Home Depot I'm available if you need me!! We've been to Home Depot probably every Sat. Night from Dec. to July. We even started calling it our date night!
After this lunch was served, we all had a chance to listen to the Key Note panel speak about "Old media, new media, social media". Everybody on the panel had great input but I especially loved hearing Margot speak. Her knowledge on magazine history really had me listening. I still love my print copies! I even made a mad dash as she was trying to leave to introduce myself. Thanks for being so kind!
I apologize for my lack of good quality pictures.
The next session I attended was held by Brittany Stager, Neil Gazmen, and Meredith Heron about growing your business using social media. I have been following Brittany now for some time and had been looking forward to hearing her speak. She is so composed! Neil has such great compassion for his work and I love to see that. It makes we want to shop at West Elm even more so. Neil and Meredith had great input in regards to social media especially when it came to your personal life.
The last session was held by Karen Bertelsen about The Art of Monetization. Karen really nailed it in this session. She was engaging, fun, and most importantly she was just real. You could sense her honesty when she was speaking and how she just wanted people to grow from the knowledge she could provide.
The day ended off with some closing remarks and gift give away followed by a nice cocktail hour. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many people and also stepping out of my own comfort zone.
At the end of the day I may have even been a little overwhelmed with all of the information I took home with me but my over all experience at BlogPodium was absolutely amazing!
One last thing...we got a swag bag that contained some pretty cool stuff including a can of Para Paint white semi-gloss paint. Along with my piece of fabric from Tonic Living I have a DIY post coming up soon! If you want to see a sneak peak you can check out my Instagram feed here.
It was a pretty awesome day wasn't it? I am so glad I finally had the chance to meet you in person (even though it was only for a split second!). And I am glad I looked somewhat composed on that panel... I'll tell ya, I was pretty nervous!
ReplyDeleteYes, yes it was pretty great day!
Deletehey- it ate my comment :(
ReplyDeleteAnywho, it was super amazing to finally meet you (and your sister!). Thank you sooooo much for rescuing me from permanent lonerism at the beginning of the conference!!
It ate you comment!!! That's weird...actually both of your comments showed up..not sure why that happened. I just deleted one :) NP for the rescue I know I wouldn't wanted to be left alone either!
DeleteWasn't it such a rewarding day? There was so much energy in the Hyatt on Saturday! We learned from and we connected with one another - I'd say it was a success!
ReplyDeleteIt sure was!!!! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI was at Blogpodium too and really enjoyed the day. Your recap really captured the day. I loved Sarah Richardson's keynote address - it was a highlight for me. I posted a couple of recap posts too (after all I don't want to forget what I learned).
ReplyDeleteHi Grace, thank you for stopping by! Your re-cap was great as well! It def. was hard going into a room full a strangers, I was lucky enough to have my sister there and another person that I knew.
Deletegreat recap! I so wish I could have checked out all the presentations and met all the bloggettes in attendance, but as it was my voice was still shot on Sunday. xoxo
ReplyDeleteHi Saige! Thanks so much! I wish I had taken the opportunity to stop you and say "Hello" but you were a busy lady! So glad to hear you had a great trip.
DeleteHahaha! I love how it looks like Alex is aiming her gun at Andrea's head! Here's hoping she had her safety on! :)
ReplyDelete