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Sparkle (2)
Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet some great women at a small blogger meet up in Napa. After wine tasting and getting to know one another for a bit, we got down to business. We discussed where the real money is in blogging, what makes your blog unique, memorable, SELLABLE. And we also talked about conferences. Some of us are still newish bloggers, many of us blog conference virgins.
What I took from the conversation is that I have a lot of work to do before Blogher11.
I did attend a conference last fall and these were my notes after the event. While it is not exhaustive, it is a good place to start. I hope you find it helpful.
13 Things you MUST do if you plan on attending a blog boot camp or conference.
1. Prepare.
2. Prepare.
3. Prepare.
I can’t stress this enough. Put some thought into what you expect to get of the experience….set some goals!
4. Perfect your elevator pitch. Be ready to SELL your blog.
5. Print business cards. It should have your blog and twitter names. Try to put a pic of your smiling face from your blog on your card. It’ll refresh the memories of the other attendees when they go home and pour over all the cute cards they collected.
6. If you considering buying or upgrading things such as your phone to a smart phone, your notebook, buying that cute, so adorable IPad, do it before the event. You’ll want to be able to tweet, take notes, even blog during the event. If your laptop has a 12 hour battery and weighs as much as a small child, it may not be worth it. Take my word.
7. If you’re travelling to the event, plan on being there the night before and the night of… There is usually a social event to attend and you don’t want to miss it. Its a chance to meet some of the great bloggers that perhaps you didn’t meet during the day or to solidify the relationships you’ve just started. (Yep, I missed it that weekend and I regret it big time!)
8. Not only should all your gadgets be well charged (b/c outlets may be hard to find) but you should be too. You’ll want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for this event. If you’ve got an infant at home, ask the spouse to take late night duty for a few nights prior…don’t want to show up with bags under your eyes, do ya?
9. Take the time to review the work of the presenters. Know what their specialties are and prepare some questions that they can answer for you. They are valuable resources and you don’t want to miss this opportunity to milk them for all they’re worth!
10. You should also look for a list of other attendees. Try getting to know a few. It’s nice to have a familiar face or voice to hang with at these things. They may even become part of your posse. And every blogger needs their own posse!
11. If you don’t have a twitter account, leave this post this instance and go set it up. And then follow me.
12. If by now you are already overwhelmed, take a deep breath, let it out. Repeat. Do that a lot. Popping your conference cherry doesn’t have to be as rough as it was for
