This past weekend I went to Go Blog Social for my first blog conference. I knew that it was going to be a small conference since it was the first year and that was really appealing to my introverted self. Secondly, my best friend Kaki had agreed to attend the conference with me. Now that we have both gotten married, have kids and live 4 states away, we don’t get big chunks of time together. We had so much fun getting to shop and enjoy meals together. It’s the most time we’ve had together since college. Somehow we did not get one single picture together even though we talked about it on multiple occasions. But I promise, we were there together! The weekend was wonderful and I’m so glad that I attended this conference.
For starters, we stayed at Hotel Phillips. If you are ever headed to Kansas City, I can’t recommend this hotel enough. It was right in the middle of downtown and made accessing the city a breeze. My favorite meal of the trip was at Reserve. We randomly stumbled upon this gem and I’m so glad that we did. I had baked mac and cheese and shrimp corn dogs. You can guarantee that I’ll recreate those shrimp corn dogs in the near future. They were unbelievable. I also enjoyed my first latte art at Latteland, a local coffee chain. Good coffee is a lovely start to any day!
Since this was my first conference I really had no idea what to expect. The first session was by Tracie Forbes from Penny Pinchin’ Mom. After her presentation, Kaki and I felt like we’d already gotten our money’s worth for the whole weekend. And the amazing speakers just continued! (Check out the complete list of speakers here.) While I learned lots of information about branding, SEO, how to get my blog noticed and partner with brands, the greatest take away for me was endless encouragement about blogging. There were so many helpful pointers shared as well as wisdom from women who have turned their blogs into businesses. I’ll admit that sometimes I feel discouraged and wonder why in the world I spend so much time and energy on this blog. I felt affirmed that if I love what I’m doing, it’s worth the time and energy.
Although their topics differed, each speaker seemed to agree that if you work really hard and you are passionate about your blog topic, some form of success will come. Sure, no one promised cookbook deals or sponsorship by your favorite brand but all the speakers shared the success they’ve had with their blog. Essentially by hearing story after story about how hard work paid off for them, I was encouraged that my hard work might also be fruitful one day. At this point, my dreams for this blog are modest. I’m loving the process and I’m excited about whatever possibilities are in store. It was so fun to be in a room full of people that are dreaming and creating fantastic content for their blogs. I’m already looking forward to the next time I get to attend another blog conference!