Last year I went to my first Blogtacular conference. I had been working on Blue Jay of Happiness for six months (and a previous blog for 8 years prior) and thought it was about time to immerse myself into the blogging community.
At that point it was still just a hobby for me. At the 2017 conference I had two epiphanies. One was in Sas Petherick’s self-doubt workshop where I realised I actually wanted my blog to be more than just a ‘hobby’ and the second was when Emma Gannon was giving her talk about blogs becoming platforms for other things.
I knew working with brands and being a professional ‘blogger’ wasn’t quite right for me, but the seed had been sown for something else…
Returning to Blogtacular this year made me realise how far I’ve come since last year.
I’ve reduced my hours at my day-job, I’m now working in a way that serves me both personally and professionally, I’ve launched a newsletter and am now training to become a coach.
A lot of shit has happened in a year.
Last year I was nervous and felt like I didn’t ‘network’ enough. This year I felt calm and collected. I was introducing people, approaching people and loving every second. I met some amazing people I’d seen/talked to online and made those oh so important real life connections.
I attended the Friday fringe events this year too, so went on a photowalk to the Portobello hotel and then out for dinner with a small group of fellow bloggers for tasty Vietnamese food.
A few picture from the hotel
On the day itself the conference was kicked off by Tiffany Han who got us all pepped up and ready for the day - she is a breath of fresh air and I am now officially a fan girl.
The first workshop for my was on finding your instagram style and was led by the incredible Dom Davis from All That is She. She encouraged us to make grids of our favourite and then least favourite Instagram pictures to analyse.
Here I noticed my penchant for simplicity, neutral colours and (for some reason) faceless self-portraits.
Left are my faves, right are my least faves
Next up was the incredible Natalie Lue who I was introduced to the year before (she opened the conference last year). She was leading a workshop on digital products, not something I’m thinking about right now, but definitely learnt some helpful tips if I decide to go down that route in the future.
The last workshop was the one I was suuuuper excited about, purely because it was led by Laura Jane Williams and Carrie Santana Da Silva both of whom I’m huge fans of. The workshop was about Instagram stories and they offered some really interesting insight from both the ‘rough and ready’ perspective and the more ‘polished’ perspective.
The closing keynote speech came from Anthony Burrill who took us through his creative journey, which was absolutely fascinating.
Just like last year, I came away from the weekend feeling inspired and excited. This year though there was definitely a greater feeling of ease and steadiness. Last year was like waking up and trying to figure out what was ahead for me, this year I see my destination and feel serene about it all.
Sadly the conference is taking a year off next year, but they have promised to come back - and I am so excited to see where I’ll be when they do.
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Really lovely summary of Blogtacular, especially liled reading what you learned from each part and the development from previous year.
Oh Kat it sounds AMAZING!! I’m hoping to go to one in the future when they bring it back. I’m so glad you found it useful and have that steady feeling of knowing what your doing.
Sending lots of love and cat cuddles your way,
Peta x