Blissdom 2013 was my first Blissdom thanks to Dr. Smith’s who sponsored me as one of their Premium Parents. At the beginning of this conference, one of the Blissdom founders mentioned that while this conference had educational tracks about business, writing, photography and life development, it was really about LOVE. That is what I will share with you … what I LOVED about Blissdom. It won’t be all gushy and I’ll admit, there was a lot of LIKE but there was also plenty of LOVE.
First, Dr. Smith’s treated us to a breakfast where I met the other Premium Parent bloggers. The food was delicious and the conversation was even better. The group is wonderful and so welcoming. It’s hard to keep me away from great cafecito and easy conversations with fellow mamas. Thanks Dr. Smith’s for the welcome!
As sponsors, Dr. Smith’s didn’t just take care of us, they hosted an after noon SWEET RELIEF BREAK. They treated all the attendees to tasty cookies, hot coffee and sweet punch. Just the sugar pick me up you need after absorbing so much great information from all the speakers. What’s not to love about coffee and cookies?!
And then there was the candy bar on Day 2. It was lovely to get to spend more time with fellow San Antonio blogger and soon-to-be-mom, Faith from The Adventures of Faith. (Even if she did stop by just for the sweets!)
Two of my favorite speakers were Jon Acuff and Scott Stratten. I also came home with a book from each. We found Scott Stratten’s The Book of Business Awesome was in our swag bags and I had to line up to have him sign my copy! If you haven’t heard Scott Stratten, his presentation was how I prefer my preachers to present from the pulpit … I need them to yell at me just a bit. Only he was talking about branding and UNmarketing. He is a straight to the point, no non-sense kind of guy.
Jon Acuff closed the conference with a motivational talk and then surprised us all with a copy of his book START. Blissdom attendees received a copy before it was even released! I have plenty of reading to do.
Here are two of my favorite tweetable lines from Jon Acuff:
‘Ready’ is a myth.
It’s ok for your first time to be your worst time. You have permission to be horrible.
Thank God for those words. (and many more) It’s refreshing to hear from someone else that I you we don’t have to be perfect. What I really took away from both of these speakers is that the most powerful tool in blogging is HONESTY and the best time to blog is when you have something to say. <~ Now, that. I love.
Speaking of what I LOVE … what I love most about any conference is getting to meet people! Below are a few of the dear blogger friends from the conference. Somehow, I didn’t capture my own photo of Miss CandyPo, a new Texas Blogger BFF. There were more new friends to make … like Premium Parent Extraordinaire Traci from A Star in My Own Universe. I ‘met’ Brenda from Mejorando Mi Hogar while we were standing in line. I’ve followed her via social media and was happy to meet her in real life! Spending time with las blogueras from my Latism familia and Latina Bloggers Connect was a LOVE bonus!
Wait, there’s more … as a Premium Parent for Dr. Smith’s, I spent most of my days in their swanky lounge and had the pleasure of meeting some great mom bloggers. We shared kid stories, compared icky diaper rash experiences, gave out samples of the product, some moms let me hold their tiny babies and Dr. Smith’s gave away an entire nursery! A sweet (and pregnant) blogger from The View from Five Two won! It was so exciting!! I LOVED every moment of being a part of the Premium Parent group at Blissdom!
