Summarizing Blissdom

Remember my what me afraid? post where I confessed about my fear of flying? Well after taking off and landing 4 different times, I'm still afraid. And my little heart raced crazily at the slightest hint of turbulence. I grabbed Cathe's hand so hard that I'm surprised she flew with me on the trip home. She reached out to me when I wrote my fearful flying post by offering to travel and look after me. I gotta tell you that she was my anchor during the trip. I honestly don't know if I could have done it without her. She made flying bearable to me. She's the reason I made it to Blissdom. I guess I'll be bringing her to England if we visit Dave's family in the next year or two.

Cathe Holden and me.

The spirit behind the Blissdom Conference is community. It's belonging to a group of incredible women who share your own passion for blogging. I swear I have never seen so many teched up women in my life. You know how we bloggers have to discretely pull out our iphone or laptop to check out twitter account or email in the company of friends? At Blissdom it was just the social thing to do. If you were in a conversation with someone and their computer tweeted, it was okay to check that tweet. And even share about the tweet to who you were engaging in conversation with. I was so at home with these women.I found my community.

Lisa Leonard. Lisa is featured in this month's issue of Artful Blogging. More about her in a later post.

What did I gain most at Blissdom?

Well the delicious handshake with Harry Connick Junior was probably my favorite moment. What a gentleman he is. Please take a look at his Musicians' Village in New Orleans. He spoke to us before starting the concert and what I saw was this amazing human with so much compassion and kindness. It was so touching to hear him speak passionately about helping musicians and creating a community for them in New Orleans.

I arrived early in order to be in the front row. My heart just about stopped when he looked my direction.

But what I gained at Blissdom was the courage to go up to someone and say hello. Not only that but share with them who I am and what I do. In this setting, it was encouraged to walk up to anyone of the 500 women and introduce yourself. Where in our daily life do we have permission to do that?  Seriously. Not that I'm going to start going up to people in Wholefoods to say "hello here's my business card, please check out my blog" but I'm definitely going to interact differently when I meet strangers. 

The biggest perk about Blissdom was the pampering by all of the Blissful sponsors. I'll admit it, I'm frugal and I adore free things. We received a swag bag when we registered on Thursday afternoon. Is this a word many people use? I've never known that I have had a swag before let alone mumble the word before this week. Now I'm singing the word. I love Swag!

In the reception area where all the sponsors were set up, there was a continuous hot chocolate booth with 6 cans of Reddiwip on ice at all times. I can't begin to tell you nor probably should admit how often I sneaked out of a session to grab another cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream. Or maybe it was whipped cream with hot chocolate. I even told the girls running the booth that when I make my millions I'm going to have their whipped cream on ice 24/7.

The food was incredible. Most of our meals were included in the price of the ticket to Blissdom. From a frugal point of view between the meals and the swag and the workshops/panels, this conference is serious bang for your buck. They catered to allergies and often a gluten free meal would be waiting for me. When everyone else had a gluten rich desert, they would bring me a delectable chocolate mouse, the bowl decorated with hardened chocolate swirls and complete with three raspberries on top.

Snacks were always available out in the reception area. My favorite was the one sponsored by Orville Redenbacher's. Imagine walking into a room with a table filled with 8 different flavors of popcorn. On another table they had bottles of water and soda. I was in heaven. As many of you know, I'm all about the food.

What did I learn?

I learned so much that I'm going to spend the week figuring out all of this information. I'm a scanner, I love to learn, need to learn, but I have to stay focused. Otherwise everything that I learned will just dissipate when I focus on the next new thing that comes my way.I'm just hard wired that way.

I learned about

• Personal branding and thinking of Apron Thrift Girl as a business (without losing the heart of what I write about)
• Building my business
• Vlogging (video blogging-I'm going to add more of this into ATG. Remember this old thing from this post?)
• Getting published (from blog to book)
• Niche Blogging
• On-line Advertising (this session was absolutely G.O.L.D.E.N.)
• Media Training Workshop (what to say and what not to say to the Media)
• PR Marketing 101

Would I recommend Blissdom?

Absolutely. Even if you are a hobby blogger or a blogger wanting to step it up a notch, I would highly recommend heading to Nashville next year. Start saving now for Blissdom 11 today. Start crafting your pitch now in order to find a personal sponsor to pay for your trip to Blissdom. Or add another jar marked Blissdom when you are saving money. Just make it happen.

I want to end this post by saying thank you to every one of you. You are the reason that I got on that plane. You are the reason I get up in the morning and write a blog post. You inspire me and you encourage me both in my darkest times and my brightest of days. I truly wouldn't be doing what I am doing without you. Thank you so much!

Comments

[Nicole]

Loved your video post - now that is very brave. I can get on to an airplane but to record myself - that to me is scary.

I am happy for you that you enjoyed your trip.

Namaste,
Nicole

[Tracy]

looks and sounds absolutely....BLISSFUL!! What a great getaway...and so right up your alley! Congrats on making the trip and having such an amazing time! Love the blk and wht of you and Cathe..adorable!

[Van]

Wow, I missed out! I'm totally saving up and finding a way to next year's Blissdom. You can't beat interacting with like-minded bloggers, good food, and glances from hunky musicians (Nice picture!)

[This Thrifted Life]

Blissdom sounds like the perfect name for this conference, because everything sounds wonderful! And WOW that's some fun swag.

Glad you had such a great time, even with your fear of flying.

[rachel]

I truly enjoyed talking with you and watching you engage with others -) You are a doll and I'm so glad you had so much fun!!
I love seeing Blissdom through others' eyes ;-)

[Cassandra]

What a great experience! Thanks for sharing...

[Rachel (Hounds in the Kitchen)]

Nice recap! One of my favorite parts of the conference was meeting you!

[Anne aka La Vie en Rose]

Very inspirational, thank you doll. I need to look farther than my nose.

[Mama Laundry]

Hey Selena! I have no doubt I was meant to meet you - I saw you at every turn! I loved it!

I can totally relate to the hard part about introducing yourself. Over and over and over. It was so hard initially, but became easier (thankfully!).

I am definitely saving NOW for Blissdom '11 and I hope to see you even more there! :)

-Lauren

[laura]

Wow that sounds like a great conference! And a really awesome re-cap, they can be so hard to write.
I'd love to go but the plane tickets from Alaska are so expensive so I found your link to their sponsorship post VERY helpful. Thanks!

Keep up the great work on your blog, you are very inspirational.

You are in the SF area? I'll be in town early October for BlogHer Food we should meet up and hit a goodwill!

[Cath]

Thanks for sharing, it looks like you had a blast in between and during all the great workshops and seminars. Jealous!

[A Twitter User]

You look terrific in the pictures! I too love swag & that looked like some good swag. Cannot wait to hear more.

[Nancy S]

You've made a great sales pitch -it sounds fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation. I'm so glad you had a safe trip and such a great experience.

[Sandy]

YOU are amazing. I am so proud of you. First step ... signing up and believing that you could do it! I'm disappointed that we did not have more time together or even a pix :( I thought about that on the way home, although I never pulled my camera out once! Sounds like it was very fruitful for you, and I can't wait to see what all happens from here on out ... YAY! I also wanted to get to know Cathe more ... next year!

Hugs to one of my favorite people! xo

[Carla]

Looks like a fabulous time!! Thanks for sharing the pics! :) And Harry Connick Jr!! YUM!! You lucky girl! I'm green with envy here! lol!!!

[Katie]

So glad you had a good time (and were brave enough to fly!) If you ever come to Idaho, you can go for a ride in the two-seater plane my brother built, or my dad can take you aerobatic flying in an open cockpit bi-plane! :) Yep...it's not for me either! Sadly, by nine year old is in love with planes. Sigh.

On a serious note...can't wait to hear more about your trip and all you learned. Thanks for sharing with us!
Katie

[Sonya Dime Store Thrift]

Sounds like a WONDERFUL trip!!

[Angel Funk]

I am so sorry I missed this conference! Like I mentioned before, I live in Nashville and could have easily gone if not for my six month old baby! Were there many mamas with babies around? I had quite a few friends there, I told them to look out for you!

[Joy]

I imagine I see a wonderful change in your photos...just in the time of being in your newly "found community"! I see you filling up and coming alive, even more! I love seeing you! For me, an inspiring lesson in the benefits of real risk-taking and having the courage to stay on one's path!

BTW...the canvas bag and stainless water bottle...swag-a-licious!

[amy zimmer]

Phew. So proud of you. Sorry I got behind, I don't know why your posts don't load here. xoA

[Jessica Star]

Wow. Sounds amazing. I'm definitely jealous of your Harry Connick Jr. connection. Makes me want to go next year! So glad you had a great time.

[Mandy]

Congratulations on facingyour fear of flying - it would be a serious shame to miss out on Blissdom because of that. Enjoyed reading your perspective - great photos of Harry.

[hollywood housewife]

What a fabulous recap post! You took many of the words right out of my mouth.

I got to meet you briefly, so I'm stopping by to say hi. It's much easier to do on blogs than it was for me in person. I'm still shy about introducing myself to people, but Blissdom did help a little.

[Selena Cate]

It's funny but because of your blog name I felt a little shy about meeting you. Isn't that silly? It was lovely to meet even in that brief time when we met other west coast bloggers.