There’s not much that will get me up at 5:15am on a Saturday morning. A holiday? Yes. Baby Lighty? More than likely. But a blogging conference? Well, having signed up and paid for my spot at #BML17 earlier on this year, it had to be done. The 5:15am start was probably not helped by the fact that I hadn’t gone to bed before 11pm the night before, mostly because I was bouncing off the walls of Twitter with excitement. But there I was, on a cold Saturday morning at the end of September, up bright and early, with a new bag, a carefully chosen outfit and my friend Abi from Something About Baby for company.
Abi and I selfie-ing it up before the conference began!
They were indeed bloggers, and as our numbers swelled, we managed to find the entrance to BritMums Live, or #BML17, and make our way up to registration. I can say that what greeted us upon arrival was not at all what I was expecting! I didn’t realise that so much food would be laid on, and we were greeted by a beautifully arranged breakfast buffet. We stood there nervously, supping our tea, waiting to see what happened next, before it became the moment for us all to diverge off and attend our first sessions.
The gorgeous breakfast buffet!
Finally getting to share some real fizz in real life with one of my best virtual friends!
With regards to the conference itself, I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t been in a learning environment since Uni. Considering this year marks 15 years since I started university, that was a bloody long time ago! I did worry in advance that I’d be out of my depth, but actually I think I chose the sessions I attended well in relation to my bloggy needs. Having said that, I think these are Mrs Lighty’s main lessons from #BML17:
- If you do the blog redesign session when you work for a graphic design agency, you will come away from it thinking, “yeah, I’m never going to do redesign my blog myself when I have five excellent designers on hand to bribe with chocolate to do it for me…”
- You’ll be chuffed to attend a Facebook session run by an accredited Facebook trainer, as I always maintain that no one knows the ins and outs of Facebook and Instagram apart from Facebook and Instagram themselves.
- The organisers are never going to please everyone at such an event. There were some sessions that I feel like I learnt loads from, and others where I felt I didn’t learn anything new at all.
- You’ll feel like a bit of a diva when you have to wait to one side for your gluten free lunch, but you’ll risk it for the pretty dessert.
The gorgeous dessert!
- Aside from the learning aspect, a massive part of the day, for you, will be catching up with friends both new, old and virtual. Aside from the lovely bloggers mentioned above, later on in the day I also managed to meet the fabulous Talya from Motherhood the Real Deal, Claire from The Pramshed and Prabs from Absolutely Prabulous.
- Having said that, you’ll still feel like a little fish in a big pond, and will be too intimidated to go up to many of the bigger bloggers that you read regularly and admire lots.
With some virtual-turned-real-life blogging besties! Apologies for the weird pink light!!
- You won’t be ashamed to cry – and laugh – in a packed room and feel incredibly proud of your friends (go Dawn!) and the blogging community at large during the keynote speeches.
- You’ll feel even more pride again when one of your friends goes and wins the Fresh Voice award at the BiBs (congrats again Bridget!)
- Two glasses of fizz on an empty stomach is never a good idea!
- In fact, two glasses of fizz on an empty stomach on board a boat is a recipe for feeling sick the whole of the next day!
- All that learning will leave you completely shattered! An 8pm bedtime on the Sunday after #BML17 it is…
A week and a bit on, these are definitely my biggest observations from the day. Obviously I learnt lots more besides from the actual sessions, and have a notebook full to prove it! I had a really fabulous day, with highlights being the Facebook session from Avocado Social and the photography session from Rachel Riley Photography, as well as the really relaxing session after lunch with Jennie Maizel’s Sketchbook Club.
Sending many thanks therefore to all of you lovelies in this little blogging community bubble that we’ve created. Same time next year, anyone?!
Three quarters of the #DreamTeam!
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Love this Nic! It was so fantastic to finally meet you and Dawn – I only wish we’d had more time together 🙂 It was a fab day xx
Just popping back from #dreamteam – love love this post! We’ll have to arrange another meetup with all of us soon xxx
Mrs L!! Ok so I’m supposed to be going into work but instead I’m stood in the middle of Leeds station with about a zillion people marching past me and I have tears of happy reading your lovely post! I was so incredibly excited (Bouncing both on Twitter and on the bed in the room I shared with Gemma!) to meet you after all this time and so much virtual cake. I recognised you from the back of your head no less! (Which was quite a relief as I pounced on you in a bear hug begore even seeing your face haha. Good job it was you!) You are every bit as gorgeous as I knew you would be. Big hugs and more virtual cake xxx
Ah it was so lovely to finally meet you at #BML17, and it was such a great day too. Hopefully we will meet again in soon, but in the meantime we can stay virtual friends. Claire x
It was lovely to meet you too! Really enjoyed the day, hope you did too! xxx
Awww thanks for the mention. We met so briefly that we’ll have to address that next time. Well my uni days are 30 years behind me (ahem) so this might be the reason why I didn’t come away with loads of notes and have to read other people’s posts and ask close blog friends if I can copy their notes!! Some things never change…
Haha!! Well I’ve swapped notes with people too, so it’s all good! I know, all day I was saying I must say hello to Prabs! Next time we’ll get to chat about Mr Slighty for longer!! 😉 xxx
It was so lovely to meet you – so much to take in I have only just about recovered thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub lovely xoxo
It was lovely to meet you too! Really enjoyed chatting to you! xxx
It sounds like you had such a great time!! I’m 100% there next year, big fail on my part not getting a ticket this year! #coolmumclub
I’d definitely say book for one of the conferences next year, I really enjoyed it! Would be lovely to meet you too! #coolmumclub
How lovely to meet up with your friend there. One of the best things that has come out of my blog and YT channel is the friends that I have made along the way. One if my next milestones for me is to brave getting out to one of these meet ups! #coolmumclub
Yes definitely try to get to one of the conferences! I really enjoyed it! Great to meet all of our blogging friends too 🙂 #coolmumclub
For me the learning and people you meet are definitely highlights. Great to read you came away with a notebook full. #coolmumclub
Ah yes same here. It was a really good day. #coolmumclub
Ahh I’m glad your first blogging conference went well and that you got to meet up with friends and drink fizz! Sounds like a good day and a break from the norm to me!! #CoolMumClub x
It was indeed! We missed you though! Hope you can make one of the conferences next year! #coolmumclub xxx