Whimsical September

A Family + Lifestyle Blog

Blogging 0 Comments

12 Tips For Your Next Blog Conference

When I rebranded my blog and started giving it more serious attention a year ago, attending a blogging conference was something I was interested in doing sooner than later. When a ticket to the largest blogging conference in the country (BlogHer) fell in my lap a few months ago, I had to pinch myself that I was finally getting a chance to learn how to take my hobby blog to the next level.
After being home a little over a week and assessing the take-aways, I can confidently say that every dime spent on attending the conference was well, well, well worth it!
Before you head to your first or next blogging conference, here are 12 tips to maximize your experience.
12 Tips to Help You Enjoy and Succeed At Your Next Blogging Conference
 
Before the conference
 
1. Plan outfits that you feel comfortable and confident in. You’ll see other attendees wearing outfit styles that are all across the board. At BlogHer I saw a woman wearing long jean shorts with a fitted t-shirt and the same day saw another woman wearing a red lace cocktail dress. Both outfits were totally acceptable because it’s all about representing your true self to other bloggers and brands.

2. Bring business cards and lots of them! I handed out about 100 cards during my four day trip. My blog designer Elizabeth from Chantilly Designs designed mine for me and I ordered them cheap from Vistaprint.com. I’d read a few suggestions ahead of time that it’s important to print on thick, high-quality paper because supposedly it shows others that you take your blog seriously, but I personally don’t buy that; everyone had thin, typical cards. As long as you have a beautiful, simple design with the necessary info, you’ll be good to go.

3. Find out if your upcoming conference has a Facebook group, and if so, keep up with it! It should have lots of good info and discussion groups to help with prep!
4. Once you receive the conference schedule and list of sessions, make a tentative day-to-day schedule. I didn’t do this until the night before I left for NYC, but I’m so thankfully that I did; I was way too tired at the end of each conference day to read through session descriptions and make good choices about where to spend my time. The only thing I wanted to look at by the time I crawled in bed was the back of my eyelids!
5. Find a roommate. Not only did splitting a room with another blogger make the trip much more financially feasible, but having someone to talk with at the beginning and end of each day made the conference much more enjoyable. I also made a fun new friend, so that’s always a plus. 🙂

6. If your conference is taking place at a hotel, book your room at the same place. Some of the best conversations I had were with bloggers and brand reps in the hallways of the hotel and in elevators. Best of all, being able to drop things off in my room and freshen up between events was obviously super great.

7. Consider traveling without your spouse. Though Jamie could’ve made the trip with me thanks to our Southwest Companion Pass, we decided that I’d be too tempted to hang out with him during breaks and at night instead of taking the time to mingle and network with other attendees. I’m really glad we made this decision because it forced me to get out of my hotel room and meet other bloggers.
During the conference
 
8. Keep track of the business cards you receive and start making connections via email and social media at the end of each day because that’s when specific faces and conversations will be freshest. Extra tip: I kept all of the business cards I handed out behind my badge in my lanyard for easy access.
 
9. Even if you’re tired, take advantage of attending as many events as you can. You never know where you’ll strike up a conversation that leads to a great opportunity.
After the conference
 
10. Begin supporting and reading other blogs of those you met during the conference. So important for obvious reasons!
11. Consider following up with brands a time-sensitive issue, so make phone calls and send emails quickly!
12. Give yourself time to fully measure the benefits you received from attending the conference. As all bloggers know, growing your site is more of a marathon than a sprint, and the same advice should be applied to conference take-aways. Though you may not walk away with a life-changing deal or connection, you very well may walk away with many new contacts, readers, and potential brand opportunities. Use the high you leave the conference with to hustle as long as that high lasts. 🙂
Have more questions about the blogging conference I attended? Have more great tips before attending a conference? I’d love to hear all of it!
Pop over to my blogging section to read the recaps from all three days at BlogHer!

[jetpack_subscription_form title=”SUBSCRIBE” subscribe_text=”Keep up with Erica & Whimsical September by receiving new post notifications in your inbox. This is the easiest way to never miss a new post! What they’re eating, what they’re doing, where they’re going… she shares it all!”]