Now this was a day I was looking forward to, its has to be my favourite Blogging conference. If you don’t know anything about Blog On here’s a little information.
Blog On is run by Laura of Tired Mummy of Two – I honestly don’t know how she does it, she has an awesome team behind her and an Alice, now I think that everyone should have an Alice in their life she’s jut so lovely. The event is held of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, it’s for bloggers all over the Uk. They run amazing sessions where you can learning things from photography to advanced blogging, beginners session if you are just starting out. To be honest they pretty much cover all the things you need to know. As well as the sessions, they also have lots of brand who attend that would love to work with bloggers.
The best thing is you get to choose which sessions that you want to attend. Plus they do amazing goody bags too and when they say you will need a suitcase they aren’t joking. Not only did I come home with 3 goody bags but also lots of bits from the PR brands that were there. The suitcase was needed!
On to the day it’s self
I was pretty nervous about attending this time, I have no reason why really. It could have been the fact that I was driving into Manchester for the first time and one thing I hate it not knowing where I’m going. Silly me missed the entrance to the car park too.
I arrived at the Museum of Science and Industry with Lewis from A Dad who Blogs we had to wait outside as they weren’t quite ready to let us all inside.
Once we were let in we were greeting by the lovely team who directed us to where we could leave our suitcases, now the first this I headed for was not the coffee but for some juice I needed a little sugar boost, I headed in the main room to get ready for the welcome and the Keynote, on the tables we were greeting with some supper notebooks and diary’s from Dodo Pad
It was great to see so many people there, there were lots of faces I knew and some new faces but everyone seemed to be smiling and happy. I went off the first session which was working with brands it was run by Laura Seaton, Ruth Jackson and Duncan Murray. The session was great and I seemed to have written about 3/4 pages of notes.
Then there was lunch which was a grab a bag, it was good just being able to grab it and have a bit of everything in it. I headed for the air-conditioned room where the Board Gaming Club were, I sat and had a chat and ate my lunch even played a few games while in there.
After lunch I skipped a session and took the time to chat with some brands, with a stop off at the swizzles stand in between for a Drumstick pick me up. This is also the time where my confidence started to dip and I felt my anxiety levels building. It’s hard to just go up to people who don’t know you and start talking, I told myself off but I just couldn’t help it, looking around the room at everyone having a good time, while I stood on my own. Luckily it was time to head to the next session where I just sat with my headphones and music waiting for it to start.
To be honest I really didn’t enjoy that session but I hate being rude and didn’t just want to get up and leave. After a while I did and just stood near the toilets with my music on for a while.
The last break included wine and cake to go along with the raffle, now I didn’t even go for some cake, possibly due to the huge headache that was looming and I skipped the wine as I was driving bit it sounded delicious – Strawberry Bon bon flavour.
The last session I went to was the accounting for blogging and this is something I have been meaning to do/look into for a while. In this session I learned a lot, but I was also suffering from a headache.
And with that the day was over, Laura who was loosing her voice thanked us all for attending. There was just one thing left the goody bags, now this has taken me a while to even look properly at due to work and everything else, this pictures doesn’t have everything I came home with as I really struggled to get a picture with it all so there’s a whole other bag that is full of things.
Goody Bags
I would like to say a huge thank you to Laura again for hosting another great conference,I am already looking forward to September’s BlogON and a group hug to all those who help and those who were speakers and made the day so enjoyable.
Awww it’s always lovely to read a post from someone who was nervous and may be could have even backed out of going, but did it and had fun. I’m very glad you came and that you took so much from the day – its a lovely write up. Hopefully see you at the next one! Jenny – commenting on behalf of myself and the BlogOn team 🙂