Saturday 28 February 2015

BLOGCONF BRISTOL 21ST FEBRUARY


Hi everyone!

Today's post is all about the series of events I help organise, BlogConf. We do a series of BlogConf events around the UK and this time we took BlogConf to Bristol! The next one is on May 9th in Glasgow, so if you're around that area, pop along as we'd love you to join!

The whole ethos for BlogConf is to put on something which people want. It's pretty simple. We love seeing bloggers meet other bloggers for the first time & also catch up with bloggers they met at our last event. We always aim to make it a super relaxed, informal kind of event where people are happy to raise a hand and ask a question to one of our speakers without feeling intimidated! There is no judgement at BlogConf! The main goal is for bloggers to leave BlogConf feeling like they've gained invaluable information, advice, motivation, inspiration and not to forget new friends which they've got something great in common with!

So, onto the actual day. Myself, Emma and Kristy left Swansea around 7am and got to Racks Bar & Kitchen (in Clifton) around 8.45! We started setting up which went super quick and at around 9.30am our first guests arrived! Every single person who came through the door was so lovely and chatty - which is what we love! I'm quite shy at times so it brings me out of my shell a bit to go and talk to guests; which is great for me!

The day began with Emma (the main organiser of BlogConf!) giving a little welcome talk (which was lovely & super helpful!) and an insight into her background of running her own online boutique for the past 7 years and also about Adlet, where I also work, which is all about monetising your blog - so do check Adlet out if you fancy monetising your blog (it's super quick, easy, no hassle, no sign up fee, no contract - I have a post all about Adlet here!)

After Emma's warm and welcoming talk, we had a great session from Joe Stutter who runs Webpal, a website design and online marketing business. Joe was great and so helpful and informative. His talk was valid for all types of bloggers, whether you knew about the importance of blog design and SEO or not, Joe gave great tips about how you can improve your blog design and online presence in order to boost your SEO and website traffic. Questions were asked from the audience and Joe did a wonderful job in answering!

After Joe, we were lucky enough to have Lottie Storey, who talked to us about taking a huge step where she quit her job to pursue a career she was most passionate about. Lottie also creates features for Mollie Makes, an amazing craft magazine. This is where Lara Watson comes in. Lara is the editor of Mollie Makes and spoke to us all about how you would go about contacting a brand you'd like to work with! Both Lottie and Lara shared their views on working with magazines and told us all about how to approach magazines if you want to contribute. They advised us to learn how to pitch ourselves and really sell ourselves to whoever we're contacting because they and everyone else (brands) get hundreds of emails a day from bloggers wanting to work with them. 

We then had some scrummy lunch which was delicious! This also allowed us to network and make friends! 





Next up, we have photographer, Danny T! Unfortunately I missed parts of his talk as myself and Kristy were in the back room putting the finishing touches on the goody bags! And we were jealous, I might add - at both the goody bags and the fact that everyone was listening to an amazing photographer talk about how we can all improve our blog photos. Even though I missed parts, I could hear the whole thing, and I learnt so much just by listening so I know everyone would have really benefited from Danny's talk! At one point, I could see Danny picking members of the audience to come and pose for a photo so he could show us all in real time how to adjust the settings to make it look amazing! If anyone is on the hunt for a wedding photographer and you live in Bristol, definitely check out his work because it's truly wonderful.

We also had a superb panel session held by Gemma from Hello It's Gemma blog and Mel from Trunki. This session was fantastic because it felt more like a discussion between Gemma and Mel as well as the attendees. It was amazing to see guests raise their hand to ask questions and put their experience forward which is exactly what we want. We love when bloggers actually get involved because everyone can learn from what that blogger did right or maybe did wrong once or twice! It's all about the learning (not always the bass!).


We were so lucky to arrange Will Guyatt who is the Communications Manager at Instagram to come in and talk to us all about how Instagram works for bloggers and which way we can all use Instagram to benefit us the most. Will explained to have specific hashtags rather than a whole lot of unnecessary ones in order for people to see it. Rather than hashtagging #London for example, think of something more specific as your post might get lost in the thousands of photos uploaded every minute with the #London hashtag! 

Now nearing the end of the day, we had Olivia from Just Olivia TV who told us all about getting into the world of YouTube. This is fascinating to me as it's something I would love to do but always thought I would never have the actual confidence to. In fact, Olivia even spoke about confidence and how everyone who puts a YouTube video out there is just a normal person at the end of the day - no one is above anyone else, we all have opinions and we have the right to share them! Olivia also spoke about how you do not need a huge budget to make YouTube videos. She even spoke about making thumbnails for her videos using Paint which I find so refreshing as usually everyone advises Photoshop or something similar!

Last of all we had the creator of the amazing blog Pale Girl Blogs, Sophie. I love this blog name, as being a pale girl myself, I automatically feel we have a lot in common! Sophie talked about her blogging experience and how she changed blog names a couple of times until she found the name that suited her best. This just proves that re-branding your blog doesn't have to be that horror story you assume and imagine it to be, it can actually be super successful, as Sophie proves! Sophie also talked about where and who she gets her blog inspiration from. After the event, I had the chance to chat with Sophie which was really lovely as she's so nice and down to earth! 

I love being one third of the BlogConf team. It's so rewarding to see everything come together and know it all paid off. I loved being able to catch up with bloggers like Rosa, who I made friends with when she came to our last event in Swansea! Myself and Rosa now keep in touch regularly so it's lovely to know that you'll make friends for life because of attending an event like BlogConf! 

We even put some (if I don't mind saying so myself) amazing goody bags together with products and vouchers sent from some awesome brands such as Lush, Mollie Makes, Salcura, Kettle Chips, Bounce Energy Balls, Benefit, Instagram, Your Tea, Ji Ji Kiki and more!



The next BlogConf event will take place in Glasgow on May 9th, but we're heading all around the UK this year! There's a mailing list on the website where you can be contacted prior to when the early bird tickets go on sale!

If you're a little hesitant about attending your first BlogConf event because you're planning on coming alone, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll be happy to reassure you and give you many examples of how the majority of our attendees come alone and leave making a heap of friends who they share something in common with. You can either get me on Twitter, email or my BlogConf email which is Chloe@blogconf.com. Also, being a blogger myself, I'd be happy to chat with you before the event and obviously at the event if you're still unsure about coming yourself - sometimes it's safety in numbers but I assure you with BlogConf, it can be just as safe and rewarding coming alone! As well as these contact details, you can also contact us on hello@blogconf.com! 

Here are a few reviews from our Twitter hashtag #BlogConf!










If you'd like to see some more photos from BlogConf Bristol, check this out!

Thank you for reading and hope to see you at a future event!




Get in touch! 



Email: ChloesConcept@gmail.com / TakeBackWhatsYours@gmail.com


Instagram : @ChloesConcept



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