What a whirlwind of a day! This year, the Florida Blogger and Social Media Conference was held at the perfect location, Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. Last year I worked for the venue (my museum!) and this year even though they changed locations, I knew I wanted to be involved in any way that I could! I volunteered my time to the event planner, Bess Auer. I started the day with some last minute tasks and then manned the registration table. It was great because I got to greet bloggers whose names I recognized like Milynn and Nicole, and meet new blogger friends like Diana.
The conference had a fabulous group of sponsors including Bahama Breeze, Ford, and Barnies Coffee to name a few. After picking up lanyards and name tags at the registration desk, attendees were able to take their seats and grab a coffee, or head to the recharge lounge for a little breakfast by Florida Dairy.
The recharge lounge was equipped with furniture to relax on, a yogurt bar by Florida Dairy, a portrait area by MacBeth Photography, and a masseuse as well!
Lunch was sponsored by Bahama Breeze, just like last year. This year the lunch area was in Full Sail's back lot which looked like building store fronts from a city. It was the perfect back drop for an afternoon break.
Not only did Bahama Breeze supply salad, shrimp grits, and green beans, but they were giving out their latest cocktail called the Curly Tail which made with rum. Being in the sun, it was the perfect refreshment with lunch.
I buddied up with Milynn of Love and Whimsy. We attended some breakout sessions together, and some we split up to see on our own. The first session that I attended was Blogging 101 which was a very beginner course, but I really wanted to see Bess Auer speak being that she planned this event. Next session Milynn and I attended together called How Bloggers Make Money with Jeanette of J's Everyday Fashion blog. She was so very informative and covered all of the bases of making money through blogging. Although monetizing my blog isn't something I'm interested in right now, it was a great class to attend. Jeanette was one of the bloggers that was on the planning team for Fl Blog Con!
Among the other sessions included a session about Taking My Blog Full-Time with Julie of The Little Kitchen. She was the sweetest and was so lovable! She was so easy to relate to and had great story about her journey. My favorite session by far was Transparency Through Blogging with Adam Avitable, which was about being vulnerable and honest through your blog. Some of my favorite blogs are written by the most honest and relative writers. He had great tips on how to be honest and open and being that he is a comedian, made a serious topic extremely enjoyable (and memorable with some graphic photos!). And as you can see, we took advantage of every opportunity to try out Google Glass! There were 5 Google Glass explorers attending the conference so we had to have a photo together exploring "through Glass".
At the after party was sponsored by Sysco foods and served by a caterer I work with all the time, Arthurs Catering. There was a delicious combination of antipasto platters of meat and cheese (my favorite!) and a pasta station. Attendees were greeted by the local folk band Mud Flappers which was lovely. I always enjoy live music and to have a little concert at the end of the day kept our tired minds and bodies energetic.
Gigi's cupcakes provided mini cupcakes with great flavors! My favorite was the smores and the double chocolate. There was also a wedding cake flavor, a pumpkin cake, and a salted caramel chocolate which sounded great in theory, but definitely did not live up to the other amazing flavors.
There was also a photobooth with a great assortment of props and I even caught Bess and her family and friends snap a pic. The Ford After Party was a great time to mingle with some bloggers that I hadn't had a chance to meet with yet. In the beginning of the day I was a little timid to swap business cards, but after taking a cue from Milynn, it became easier and easier. By the end of the day it was second nature to swap cards with fellow bloggers that we chatted with.
It was a fun, informative, and exhausting day. There was enough going on to keep interested through out the day without getting bored. Each session was quick and full of information, keeping us from getting too stir crazy. In the end, I am amazed with the amazing quantity and quality of sponsors that participated in this event. It was better than last year and I can only imagine that it will continue to improve even next year!
:D I'm so glad we got to meet in person and buddied up! I had such a great time there with you, learning and meeting new people. I'll definitely recommend attendance for anyone who is a blogger, in social media, Internet marketing or someone who just likes to learn about it. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, especially hunting down Google Glass. :)
Deletei had the same fun time too! the highlight was networking with others with you by my side - it's always more comforting with a buddy system :) and i would definitely consider us seasoned google glass explorers at this point!
DeleteI'd have gone just for those s'mores and salted caramel cupcakes alone! What a fun day it looked like for you, and you got to try on Google Glass(es?)! How neat! xo
ReplyDeleteit was so much fun, and informative at the same time! and the smores cupcakes were amazing (i definitely ate two).
Deleteanother amazing event you attended! i love that you admitted you were a bit nervous to swap cards, i would be too! but just proves sometimes it's worth it to go outside of your comfort zone. that antipasto bar is making me hungry! yum.
ReplyDeleteat first, i definitely felt a little out of my element when swapping cards at first. but you hear "bring your blog business cards" and when you get there, everyone really is swapping! i have a healthy stack of other's cards now :)
DeleteI'm so happy you and Milynn were able to enjoy FL Blog Con together! I'm super bummed I missed it but it looked amazing. Those cupcakes have definitely caught my attention.
ReplyDeletewish both you and kristyn could have come! we would have been a quad that would have so much fun together!
DeleteIt was so great meeting you at Fl Blog Con!! I love this recap on it :) Hope to see you next year!
ReplyDeletekelly it was great meeting you as well! definitely will be following along on your blog and i hope to see you next year too!
DeleteYea!! Such a fun day. I'm SO glad I met you...and first thing in the morning :D Great write up.
ReplyDeletenicole it was so great to put a face to a name that i always see! next time we should get together through out the day!
DeleteI was considering attending this event but life has gotten in the way of everything lately, including blogging, so I figured I'd put it off until next year. Now I'm regretting that decision!
ReplyDeleteMud Flappers are so good! I saw them last year at The Social and they're so fun. Oh and fun fact, did you know MacBeth Photography is the brainchild of Jim Hobart? He's an Ad/PR prof at UCF and I've taken two classes with him. Every so often he does $20 head shot Fridays, for those interested!
definitely make a point to go next year (and i'll meet up with you!). i have never seen mud flappers live before but i've definitely heard of them. they were so good that i wanted them to perform longer! as for macbeth photography - i had no idea! and he was offering that head shot deal at the conference too!
DeleteThis is totally the best recap of all, and not because you said my session was your favorite. It was great meeting you, and I hope to see you around at local blogger gatherings in the future!
ReplyDeletethanks adam! glad you think it was the best - you owe me that after the scar-ing images you included in your slides. ;)
DeleteI am SO JEALOUS you got to try the google glass! You should write a review!!
ReplyDeleteit was definitely something to get used to! it felt a little different having a tiny screen in the upper right corner, but having the frames on were super comfy! could be that i'm just used to wearing glass(es)!
DeleteLooks like you had a great time! And I can't believe you got to have a go on google glass!
ReplyDeleteit was really great! when all of the google glass explorers had their glass on, i felt for a split second that i was in the future.
DeleteI'm so glad you and Milynn had the chance to meet! Isn't she great?! Can't wait till all of us can get together. It looks like you guys had such a fun time! I enjoyed tagging along vicariously through Instagram ;)
ReplyDeleteShe's so great! no we just need to get us all together!
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