#TBSCon Recap

My summer travels have officially come to an end as I returned from this past weekends TBScon. This was my first time attending any sort of blog conference and I loved it! Leading up to the event I was so excited for all I was going to learn and all the people I was going to meet. Blogging and the internet is a strange little thing we all have going on. I make friends with people all over the world and some I interact with and talk to very often, yet I’ve never met them in person before. That was the case with a few people who were attending this years conference and I couldn’t wait to meet my friends in real life! It was so great getting to hang with them for the weekend and getting to meet so many other amazing women who are all connected by this thing called blogging.

So what is The Blog Societies?

It is a “cultivated community for influencers to unlock the resources, connections, and tools necessary to grow their blogs.” Founded in 2013 by two fashion bloggers, Cathy Peshek of Poor Little It Girl, and Jessica Camerata of My Style Vita. As a member of The Blog Societies I get the chance to attend the conference (#tbscon) that they put on every year. Sadly, this was my first year and having now attended I am kicking myself for not attending sooner!

This years conference was in Alpharetta, GA at the Hotel at Avalon. It wasn’t as close to Atlanta as I first thought, but honestly I wouldn’t have had time to explore anyway. I was way too busy learning stuff and meeting new people! The hotel was super cute and had the most amazing lobby. Where it was located was like at the end of an outdoor shopping mall which was so perfect because food and anything else we needed was within walking distance.

Night One

The conference started Thursday night with an amazing welcome party. My roomie Rachel and I had some trouble getting there with the rain, but we made it just a little late!

There were tons of amazing brands there who you could get swag from. Vera Bradley, Kendra Scott, Yankee Candle, Dress Up, LaCroix, Dry Bar, and Goody just to name a few. Vera Bradley and LaCroix had fun photo booths, Dry Bar was touching up every ones hair, and Goody had a calligrapher writing on brushes. This first party was the moment I got to meet a lot of my blogger friends, and meet others for the first time. After the party a group of us went out to grab dinner since we had been traveling to get there most of the day.

Day One

Now was the time when we all got to the nitty gritty. We started with breakfast from the hotel and then each broke up into our workshops. Everyone attended four workshops out of six offered. You were assigned them ahead of time based on what you said you were interested in. The workshops I took were SEO and blog design, Accounting, Social Media Advertising, and Travel Blogging. There was so much good information from each class! This first day was a little overwhelming, but a whole lot of good!

Lunch was hosted by MudPie and Goody. The tables were decorated so cute, and Goody had a braid bar there as well. To end the day we met some more brands; Colleen Rothschild, Mary Kay, Ball, Waiting on Martha Home, Crock Pot, L’Occitane, aerie, Sharpie, Paper Mate, Calphalon, Rubbermaid, Pureology, and Rachel Parcell; and took even more swag home!

Being around so many other bloggers was seriously inspiring. It’s just a massive group of my people. We all relate and understand each other so much. After each day a bunch of people would shoot their outfits. Rachel and I were also able to learn so much from each other as we worked at night too.

Day Two

This was the last full day of TBScon starting with a breakfast from LaCroix and Ball. It was decorated so cute (my little event planners heart loved every detail)! Afterward everyone filed into one big room to here from our key note speaker Grace Atwood from The Stripe. I thought she did such an amazing job and her speech was by far one of my favorite parts of the conference. She even recorded herself so if you want to listen go here. She touched on just about every part of blogging and gave some useful tips. Once the speeches were over our founders got up with a few other bloggers, Alicia Tenise, Rach Martino, and Noelle Downing, to host a panel. Everyone got to ask whatever questions they wanted. It was a great opportunity to pick the brains of well seasoned bloggers. After we had lunch hosted by Joules and ended building flower crowns.

Overall #TBSCon was such an incredible experience. I walked away with a mile long to do list but that’s why I went, to learn and to grow. Being apart of a community like The Blog Societies is so worth it and I am extremely grateful for all the friendships I made this weekend.