I’m attending a lot of conferences this year. From Blissdom to BlogHer and a bunch in between, I’m hitting the blog conference circuit hard in order to build current relationships with fellow bloggers and meet Social Fabric community members that I haven’t yet met.
I just got back from one of the best blogging conferences , Blissdom. I give props to Barbara and Alli, this is their 5th year hosting Blissdom and they did a great job! It is the first of many blogging conferences I will attend this year and has set the bar high as far as events and education are concerned. The highlights included private concerts from Joe Jonas, Rascal Flatts and Chris Mann. We also got to see a new show Oprah will be airing on her OWN network called Oprah’s Next Chapter that airs Sundays starting March 4. We laughed, cried, hugged, danced, sang , high-fived and bonded over the 3 day event in Nashville, TN.
I focused on the photography track the entire weekend. Not only did I want to learn how to take better photos with my Sony Alpha a33 DSLR, but I also wanted to learn how I can teach my community to take better photos for their blogs. Educating our members to be better bloggers will only help them get more opportunities as Social Fabric members. I learned so much from Me Ra Koh and Diane Cu that I’ve already implemented into my photo taking and have seen a notable difference in the quality of my photos! I’m learning how to tell a story with photos and it’s not easy.
Speaking of stories…Oprah’s new show, Oprah’s Next Chapter, was hilarious! She had Paula Dean on the show and Paula made me laugh so hard that tears were flowing from my eyes during most of the show. If you get a chance and you need a good laugh, I suggest you watch the episode on March 4! The last day of the event, Chris Mann stole my heart when he sang a new song, Roads, during a private lunch hosted by Centrum.
Chris Mann from The Voice is by far one of the sweetest, most genuine and humble celebrities I have ever met in my life. I met Chris 2 years ago at BlogHer when he sang Happy Birthday to me in a hotel room of about 10 other bloggers. When I saw him this past weekend at Blissdom, he remembered me and actually spent about 20 minutes chatting with me and Kim Janocko on some stairs in the hotel. It was nice to hear all of the things he has been working on and all of the exciting things he has coming up. He’s got my support in whatever he does!
All in all I had an amazing time where I made new friends, re-kindled old relationships, made some wonderful memories and learned new things. You can bet I’ll be back next year for Blissdom 2013!
