Losing my blog conference virginity

Last month I had the absolute pleasure of going to my first ever blogging conference Connecting Bloggers & Brands, not only as a blogger, but as a conference ambassador. Many months ago, I was approached by Kerry of Crunchy Carpets to see if I was interested in helping promote and spread the love for this 1st annual blogging conference. Being relatively new to the blogging scene, I was excited about the opportunity to take part in such a long awaited event in Vancouver, nevermind get the chance to put faces to the blogs that I’ve been reading for so long.

Schmoozing with the beautiful @PinkChai

The main sponsors for the event were TELUS, Canada Beef, Maple Leaf Foods, Microsoft and Chicken Farmers of Canada. The conference kicked off with a beautiful breakfast spread and networking time between us bloggers and the reps from the brands in attendance. This was also the time to share cards and meet & greet our fellow bloggers. Let me tell you, the talent in this room was through the roof! Smiles and laughter were abound and the buzz (literally) in the room was amazing. Many cards were exchanged and tweets tweeted, before we moved into the auditorium for the brand presentations. 

TELUS gave a moving presentation focusing primarily on their corporate giving program. Let me tell you, I’ve been a TELUS customer my whole life, and while they haven’t always been in my good books, they sure are now. Their presentation on all the great things that TELUS and their employees do to give back was truly inspiring and really touched the philanthropist in me. All new respect for TELUS right here!

Heather from Canada Beef had a great chat about bloggers connecting with brands, and what brands are looking for from bloggers. As a blogger who is relatively new to working with brands there was some great take away information here.

Janice from 5MinutesForMom had an upbeat and action packed presentation touching on many important blogging tips including monetization, but the biggest take away for me was the piece on Media Kits. Excellent info that every blogger who is looking to monetize should check out.

The last piece was a panel discussion with some of the conference ambassadors. This was such a fun and interactive discussion. Inspiring to hear the stories of how each blogger got to where they are, and have some reassurance that it is possible to live your passion.

Exhausted, I returned home that night with a huge smile on my face, and hoards of new blogger friends, ideas, inspiration, and opportunity over flowing.

This was my first blogger conference, but definitely not my last.