Bloggy Boot Camp Denver

I was very excited, if a little anxious the morning of, for the opportunity to attend this conference.  (Thanks Desiree!)  The 1 day event was put on by SITS Girls and they did an amazing job.  The atmosphere was great, the speakers were both knowledgeable and entertaining, plus there was great food (REAL food, not just a sandwich), giveaways, and swag!  The room was set up with many tables that allowed us to meet and talk with a variety of other bloggers.  We were also assigned a different table for each speaker, allowing us to meet even more of the other attendees.  I’m excited to look through the blogs of the women I met.  The event was sponsored by SONY, Mirassou, invisalign, collectivebias and blogfrog.  Sony gave away THREE Bloggie cameras!!  I didn’t win, but I’m okay with that since I couldn’t figure out what to do with the thing when I was playing with it, even if it was really cool.  I was excited to learn about invisalign since we are already on the orthodontic road with Adam.  It’s neat that he will not be limited to the gray, metal, hardness of traditional braces when the time comes.

The morning session was broken into 3 topics; Authentic Branding, Mastering the Creative Process, and Blog Design Basics: Cleaning Up Your Act.  I didn’t even know what Branding was before Saturday!  I am determined now though to find my “Brand”.  My creative process definitely needed a jump start and this was just the event to do it.  In my opinion I’m doing fairly well in the “Design Basics” part, but I didn’t know that going in.  I think that’s due to pure chance and luck.

For the “Break Out” session in the afternoon we were given the choice of attending either Business of Blogging or Writers Workshop.  I went with the Writers Workshop and was not disappointed.  Kathy Bouska (@Mamakatslosinit) and Francesca Banducci (@SITSGirls) were great at teaching Mind Mapping, Storytelling, and SEO (search engine optimization).  I have already implemented some of what I learned.  I’m excited to finish the “Where I’m From” poem and post it for you all to see.

I started this blog a few years ago as a way to keep our friends and family up to date on our lives.  We have a lot of family that either lives out of state or far enough away that we don’t get to see each other very often.  I also wanted it to be a way for me to look back when I am scrap booking and remember what we were up to, check dates, and that kind of thing.  Although I still want this blog to serve those two purposes I would love to take it a little further and find a “focus”.  I hope you will stay for all the changing and fine tuning to come!!