A Sneak Peek at My Bloggy Boot Camp Experience

Over the weekend, I attended Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George, Utah.  Since I couldn't get away until Saturday morning, I had to get an early start, leaving Provo at 4:00 a.m. (yes, it does exist).  My blood was about 95% caffeine by the time I reached St. George!  Staying awake didn't become a problem until after lunch, but I made it through the whole thing without a single head nod (I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it on Twitter if I did).  Even though there was fun and great conversations after the conference ended, I found out that the activities the night before (which I missed) were the best ones.  Next time, I'm showing up early!

There were so many great experiences at this blog conference that I can't do it justice in just one post.  Attending events like this can be expensive, so I hope that my advice helps you gain something without the expense and helps you decided if a blog conference is right for you if you're interested in attending.  A lot of what I learned can be applied to doing business online, whether you blog or not.

I loved that the very first presentation was about blogging etiquette and Twitter etiquette.  Although I was really intimidated about being in a room full of bloggers in the beginning, this presentation by Stephanie of The Daily Blarg and Kristina Pulsipher of Pulsipher Predilections had me laughing right away and feeling right at home.  I'll be sharing those tips with you, but you won't get to experience them the way I did with the highly unicorned fake blog examples and the most talk of Bump-Its and Snuggies that I have ever experienced.

We had table assignments for the first half of the day to help us mingle.  There was a different table assignment for each presentation and for lunch.  That allowed us to exchange business cards, although the lack of time led to more of card exchange popcorn with business cards flying across the table here and there.  Sad moments were experienced by several bloggers who forgot to bring their cards, missing an opportunity to promote themselves.  I soon discovered that there were quite a few other bloggers there who were as new (or newer) to blogging than me and even some who were feeling more lost.

I plan to also tell you about the wonderful sponsors for Bloggy Boot Camp.  The first to make an appearance was The UPS Store.  They had their new luggage boxes and they were filled with mystery swag (free stuff) that would be shipped to the homes of those who were selected.  It launched a Twitter frenzy as we all let the Twitterverse know how much we loved UPS Store and their support.  As one of the lucky winners, I can't wait to see what my package contains when it arrives on Tuesday.  As for the other sponsors, I will be talking about Diaper Buds, Seagate, and OpenSky in future posts.

My advice in this first post:

• Bring business cards! Also, make sure you bring enough business cards so you don't run out.
• There's no need to be scared. Others have been where you are now and chances are pretty good that some in the room are just as scared as you are.
• Fun and blogging definitely go together.  In fact, I learned that it's required to have fun while blogging.
• Driving four hours to attend a conference so you don't have to pay for a hotel room leads to caffeine overload and difficulty making it through the conference without a nap.