Last week, I traveled to Minnesota for BlogHer Handmade and The Creative Connection Event. This was a two-part event that stretched over the weekend. BlogHer Handmade was on Thursday, and the sessions were all about blogging, social media, and using your voice (much like the main BlogHer Conference.)
The Creative Connection took over on Friday and Saturday and there were classes on crafting and cooking, as well as business sessions. I was very excited to go to this! I went to the main BlogHer for the first time last year and it was AMAZING to be around so many people who are into what you’re into.
For example, on the first day of BlogHer Handmade, I had whipped out my camera at lunch to take a picture, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone thinking I was a weirdo. These people understand! They blog! They get it!
Being around so many people with creative energy is such a fantastic motivator. You just want to get home and work, work, work!
Aside from that, I was going to be rooming with my friend Rachel Johnson from Swap-Bot. I had known who she was for a while, and asked her to be on the Crafty Blogging Panel I had arranged for Etsy last year. We totally hit it off and stayed in touch. It was great to see her in person again – and we already have plans to hang out in New York City at BlogHer ’12 next year!
In addition to all of this, I had even more reason to be excited.
I was going to be speaking and moderating one of the BlogHer sessions!
My panel was on Using Content And Community To Grow Your Reach. You can read the transcript here, and see a list of the other transcripts here. (the Live Bloggers did a great job with getting so much of the panels into the transcripts. A few things are missing here and there – but remember – this was written by someone who was typing as we spoke.)
I had a fantastic time speaking at the session with my fellow panelists, Amy Turn Sharp and Becky Jorgenson.
In addition, I met some great people – and I recommend you follow them on Twitter ASAP: SwirlSpice, MizzJenny, TipJunkie, LooneyTunes, IvesT, Decor8, Chookooloonks, Spazzgirl, FaveCrafts, and CraftyChica. This is just the small list – I will be giving out more shout-outs, so keep an eye out for that!
I’m going to put up a couple more blog posts on the trip as well, one on the sights and fun stuff I did, and the other on the food!
Here are some photos of the things I talked about in this post:
You did awesome on your panel and I am so glad that we roomed together. I had a great time!
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Thanks, Rachel! I had so much fun with you! I’m glad we went together!
Love this post! You did a great job and St. Paul was such a good time! Thanks for the bloggity love. 🙂 xo
so glad I got to at least meet you, wanted so badly to find time to hang out! We can always hook up on the interwebs at least. Great recap.
Thank you for being a part of the panel! I thoroughly enjoyed hearing and learning from you!
Thanks for the twitter mention! It was great chatting at the conference. I’ll definitely be in touch 🙂
How exciting, Crissy. Kudo’s to you!
Janelle
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Thank you for all the comments, everyone!
Simone – I’m going to try to make it to Chicago before the snow falls. I’ll keep you updated. We’ll have a hang-out session there!
It’s gotta be great to go to a networking conference where no one thinks you are weird for whipping out your camera to take pics of food. LOL.
I didn’t realize you were speaking. But Kudos to you. I’ve been meaning to get on a panel. Its fun to listen to everyone’s suggestions to pertinent questions. 😉
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