Today is my first day home after three weeks of traveling and being home only a few days in those three weeks. Atlanta, Florida and then Atlanta again for Bloggy Boot Camp. I have to be honest with you and tell you that I am way behind in all things blogging and now I have a ton of new information to process. Today I plan to do a lot of creating and photographing to get new things to share with you but it may be a slow week. But I wanted to share with you My First Blog Conference.
I drove down to Atlanta on Wednesday because my friend Teresa from Crafty Wife was coming down early so we could hang out and do all things Vampire Diaries. We are both big fans of the show and bonded over our love for the show. When we bought our tickets we decided we would come down early and go see the filming sites. It was so exciting to finally meet in person! Ironically she lives about 30 minutes from where we used to live. We are pretty much the same person and we had so much fun finally hanging out. She got a good dose of my family and we got to go see all of the filming spots and eat lunch at the Mystic Grill! If you’re a Vampire Diaries fan then you understand!
Saturday was the big conference day! I got up at the crack of dawn to arrive for a fun day of learning. I was excited to meet Madison from The Wetherills Say I Do and Hayley from A Beautiful Exchange. Madison made my media kits and does such great work so you should check out her out at Grace + Vine Studios if you’re in need of photography, business cards, media kits and more.
The day got started off with all kinds of tips about how to better use social media for your blog. Since Francesca couldn’t be there Tiffany took over for her. The next session was Making the Most of Affiliate Marketing with Kayla Aimee. Kayla did such a great job despite having a cold. I got to sit by her during the afternoon session and she was so sweet willing to answer my questions. They had a great expert panel that helped give us a better understanding of how to reach out to brands to work with our blogs.
A few of the other great sessions were the session on Mastering Pinterest with Anna Luther from My Life and Kids. This was the session I was most looking forward to and especially with all of the changes in Pinterest lately I was excited for this. I felt like I learned a lot and I am excited to put it into action.
The highlight of the trip for me was probably meeting Teresa, Madison and Hayley. We all bonded and had so much fun. After the conference ended we went to the Mirassou Wine Tasting Party and then headed out to The OK Cafe for dinner. If you’re ever in Atlanta I highly recommend eating there. It was so delicious! We went to get frozen yogurt after and talked for a couple hours about all things life and blogging.
All in all it was a great first conference experience. Not all of the sessions applied to me but I felt like I learned a lot and I loved getting to meet fellow blog friends. We’re already planning which conference we want to go to next. Have you been to a blog conference before?

Love this! I’m impressed you got this post turned around so quickly. Thank you so much for the shout out 🙂 And it was so fun getting to meet you! Orlando Food Forum next?!
Sounds like a good plan to me 🙂
Emily
I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk more at Bloggy Boot Camp. I knew from your business cards and blog name that I would love your website, and I was right! All of the fabulous speakers and bloggers have inspired me to get to work on my personal blog. I’m off to check out your recipes. 🙂
Thank you Laura! I will have to check out your blog too!
Emily
Great post! Now I’m researching events like this in my area. Started following you on Google + 🙂
I hope you can find one!
Emily