A couple of days ago I shared pictures of the family I got to visit while in Utah. Today I’m finally getting to the reason I went in the first place–the conference. I decided to just dump it all here in one post, instead of splitting it up into different days (it will be easier on me, and probably on you too!)
I think if you ask anyone what the best part about the conference was, they’d say it was the people they got to meet. And I agree! It was such a blast to have 300 people in a room who “get” why I like to blog.
My collection of business cards from the weekend–see yours, or anyone you recognize?
I wish I could have gotten a picture with every single person I met, but of course that wasn’t possible (and might have even seemed a little creepy 🙂 But I did get a few pictures with a few people that I really enjoyed talking to.
And really, I thought everyone was so nice. Honestly, I was kind of nervous going. I went totally by myself and worried a little about where I’d sit at dinner, and who I’d go to classes with. I never “buddied up” with a group of people. But as it turned out, it was kind of liberating to just sit down anywhere I wanted and meet whoever was sitting there! I even made myself go introduce myself to some “blogging celebs” that I recognized, even if all I did was tell them, “I recognize you from your blog and just wanted to come say ‘hi’.” And then almost couldn’t believe when I’d trade cards with someone and they’d say “Oh yeah, I know your blog.” Awesome 🙂
The next set of pictures are from the dance party on the last night. Not the most flattering light perhaps, but don’t we all look like we’re having fun? Someone even told me I was a good dancer–it must have been REALLY dark in there.
Phew! Now that my floor is littered with all the names I dropped, I’ll give you my super quick summary of what happened.
Tulip Festival
If I had to pick two main themes that I took away from the conference, it would be these.
1) My time is valuable. Someday this may mean that I really try to make some money from my little old blog here (more than a penny a day from Google AdSense 🙂 But that’s not really the direction I’m going right now. So, if I’m looking at my blog as a hobby, I need to make sure that I’m not spending job-like hours on it. My time is also valuable to my husband, my kids, and other responsibilities I have.
2) There are a lot of other people like me out there–they love making things, love sharing them, care about other people, have families they love, have things they struggle with, and maybe even get nervous and overwhelmed with having to meet a bunch of new people. But, no one laughed when I told them my blog name, no one walked away when I tried to talk to them, and after listening to all the speakers I ended up feeling like I really have something worth saying and I can do good.
Please know that I’m so happy when you take a few minutes out of your schedule to stop by and see what I’ve been up to. So thank you! And if you took time to talk to me at SNAP, thank you too!
(check out the link party if you want to see what everyone else had to say about the weekend)
