Gracefully Searching: Blog Podium

This past weekend was really fantastic. I went to Blog Podium and had a really fantastic experience. Lots great advice and laughs, and even some familiar faces. It was a great opportunity to find out what it means to be a design blogger, how to do it, there was some talk about branding and receive some guidance and direction for something that really just began as an online portfolio.

I would have loved the opportunity to chit chat with the group a little more after the event, but we all had to clear the room for the next group! It was so strange to see all kinds of online personalities in person, knowing so much about their lives. I can't quite explain the situation ofmeeting another blogger you follow. You feel like you know them, so you almost can just pick up and be kind of familiar with their lives. Does that make sense? It is so weird, and yet okay because everyone is in the same boat... and it is acceptable because everyone has consciously allowed strangers to view their lives. (Unlike Facebook when you stalk from a far and it is weird if you tell them you know them- you've all done that right??)

Okay enough about that...

There was a really great group of speakers including Kimberley Seldon (who is utterly hilarious), Kate Moore (Cityline Producer), Margot Austin ( House & Home, formerly Style at Home), Jennifer Flores ( Rambling Renovators), moderating- Leigh-Ann Allaire Perrault (also of Cityline), and last but not least fab photographer Jason Hudson snapped shots throughout. The whole concept was thought up by Lindsay Stephenson & Jennifer Flores- Can't wait till the next one in May!

Also thank you so much to all of the sponsors who made this event happen, and the swag bags were really fabulous! So many great gifts! The whole experience was exciting and reaffirmed how much I love doing this blog!

Here is what I learnt:

- Always Stay on point. Do not deviate from your voice, stay on topic.

- The more about You the better. Share a lot of pictures, talk about your life. It really is true that I love really a blog that really takes me into their world. So I am going to attempt to show you more pictures of myself. They even said videos... But one step at a time, lets not get too ahead of ourselves!

- So important to have an original voice, who wants to see the same thing done repeatedly...

- Content is just as important as the entertainment value- I guess I need to really amp things up here!

- Editing is so very important... Should I delete all of the above?

- Some bloggers like to create editorial calendars. Truthfully this is a really good idea, and I love organization. However it is so time consuming to be that organized and I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal( Didn't Julia Roberts say that in Pretty Woman?)

- Great photos, I think mine are pretty good. I hope so! It all depends on how my lighting I get in the house- and the weather has been very grey lately!

- Post as often as possible. They said at least 3-4 times a week.

- Pin your own work on Pinterest. Okay working on that one.

- Get some guest posts in there. Who wants to be featured??

- There is two types of press. Press and no press! Ha!

And there was a lot more discussion, these were just some of the key points I took away from the event.

After I walked around the show with Gemma from The Sweetest Digs, it was great to talk to someone with so many things in common, especially on the note of blogs which unless you have one- it can be weird to discuss with someone else!!