Saturday 21 April 2012

Return from Blog Camp

Today I attended Blog Camp which was held in the centre of Birmingham in a very smart city centre building, not in a field with billy cans, damper and welly boots, sadly. Maybe next time.

Blog Camp is an amazing event which is free to independent bloggers and an opportunity to eat cake catch up with bloggers old and new and learn more about the diverse world of blogging.

What I love about Blog Camp is that it gets away entirely from definitions of bloggers. All sorts of bloggers attend Blog Camp, the omnipresent mummy bloggers, of which I am one, but food, gardening, craft and more. The first talk was given by the inspirational Bangs and a Bun. I've heard her speak before at the MAD blog awares. Bangs (Muireann Campbell) tells it like it is. Today's talk was about making our blog a brand and getting ourselves out there and heard, which was a really powerful message.

The remainder of the day was split into three sessions with various options. The first session I attended was "How to be Snark and Dealing with Online Negativity" presented by Stuart Heritage which I found fascinating. Stuart is a very experienced blogger/journalist and his presentation was very interesting. It still went over my head a bit, being Australian our take on sarcasm is very different, and we don't have the same way of dealing with things, but all the same, it was a great insight, and really funny. His Luv and Hat blog co-written with Robyn Wilder looks hilarious!


The next session was with Susannah Conway, all about ecourses, designing and presenting them. I have to confess I hadn't come across ecourses before, and what Susannah shared was extremely interesting. Her blog, and her insightful photography is just amazing, and she's certainly sparked an interest in me in learning more about providing ecourses and whether that's something I could do on Not Even A Bag of Sugar.

The third session I attended was about follow and nofollow links, which I won't go into here, but if you want to know more let me know! There's plenty of information out there and it was great to get clarity on it.

The last session brought us all back together and was about the relationship between bloggers and PR. I've only just started dealing more with PR as my rankings have improved and I've been seeking out more opportunities, and I've had nothing but good experiences. It was really interesting to hear the lovely panel of PRs discussing the relationship, and giving tips on how to deal with PR requests.

For me, though, blogging conferences are all about meeting people, old and new. I was delighted to be sat next to Louise who writes a wonderful blog The Girl Behind. I loved her blog post about Toasmasters and am considering joining. I met Carie who blogs at the beautifully named Space for the Butterflies. I got chatting to Carie because she was wearing the most gorgeous cardigan that she knitted. Knitting being my next favourite thing to blogging! I have asked her to do a blog post for me about her favourite knitting patterns for children. Make sure you check out her Pinterest boards too.

Last but certainly not least, it was great to meet up with Angela again from Angela - This is Life, the subject one of my only photos of the day!

It was a great day, and I'd highly recommend Blog Camp for any blogger old or new.

5 comments:

  1. It sounds like a really useful day. I think I'll keep my eye out for future ones.

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  2. lol Thank you for the pic, had a fantastic day with you! x

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  3. Oh! And we must meet up for lunch one day! xxx

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  4. was great to see you again! You have made me want a Clippy bag!

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  5. So pleased you made the trip Kylie, and glad you enjoyed the day. Can't believe I took so few photos - too busy talking!

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