It seems like I may have been bit by the blogging event/conference bug.  After four years of not attending a single event and meeting a minimal amount of bloggers face-to-face, in one year I have met several bloggers at the NOW Foods event with Fitfluential, the Blend Retreat and this past weekend at FitBloggin‘!

FitBloggin’ 2015 was held in Denver, CO just about 1 mile and a half away from my apartment, so it would have been pretty silly for me NOT to attend this annual event.

I’ll be completely honest in saying that I was slightly nervous about attending because I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t think I would know many of the bloggers in attendance, but as soon as I arrived all of my reservations were put to the way side.

The atmosphere was extremely inviting and friendly!

FitBloggin’ was very different from Blend because there was large educational component to this conference.  Blend is very much a fun and relaxing “retreat.”  Both are great, but they are indeed different 🙂

Another thing I want to mention is that received so much wonderful swag from the sponsors of the FitBloggin’ event!! Thank you so much for the generous gifts!

In between the educational sessions there were snacks, workouts, opportunities to network, and a chances to explore Denver.  It was a great balance of fun and work.

Trying out the PostureFit bar…man did it feel good!

I loved meeting GiGi in person…finally!!

A BIG highlight of the weekend?  Getting to learn all about California Avocados and enjoy a delicious lunch full of the wonderful, fatty fruit 🙂 PS I realize avocado is not low FODMAP, so this weekend was a bit of an experiment.  I haven’t had avocado in so long (6 months!) and it tasted absolutely amazing.  

While there were many notes taken (what can I say…I’m addicted to my notebook!), connections made, and ideas that buzzed into my head there were 6 things that I learned during FitBloggin’ that I wanted to share with all of you.

1. Look in the clearance bin at craft stores for photo props.  This may seem like a no brainer, but I literally NEVER thought to do this before.  I’m so excited to start building my photo prop collection!
2. It’s more about engaging and providing quality content rather than the number of pageviews/uniques your blog has each month.  I have heard this many times before, and honestly I feel that I have experienced it with my own blog, but hearing other people in the field say this over and over throughout the weekend really made this idea resonate with me.  It’s about exceeding all expectations, providing quality content, developing and maintaining the relationship all while being true to yourself and having fun.
3. Keep track of all social media that you do for specific companies/campaigns in a google doc or word doc to share with the brand.  This was an idea that I am definitely going to take action on.  In the Sponsorship Savvy breakout session, Nellie of Brooklyn Active Mama shared this mind-blowing secret with us.  For each company she works with, she has an ongoing google doc of all social media shares, blog post links, etc so that she can share it with the brand when the campaign is over and she can show other brands what she can do when representing a company.  Such a genius idea!
4. You can sub avocado 1:1 for butter while baking.  Ummm yes! In our lunch hosted by California Avocado, we learned a ton about the health benefits of avocados and the amazing Chef Jen Jasinski shared that because of the fat content, structure, and fiber of the avocado it works excellent as a sub for butter in baking.  Can’t wait to try that out!
5. Create canned responses for e-mail inquiries to save time.  Katy Widrick hosted a session about attracting more readers and getting more done all while sleeping!! This was one of her million dollar tips that I plan on adopting.  Having a little template all ready to go for blog inquiries will save me lots of time and it will help me get to the details of the job much quicker!
6. Don’t make social media all about you!  When posting to twitter, facebook, pinterest, or instagram Katy recommends that it should be 80% about them (that means sharing other bloggers/experts’ content) and only 20% about you!  Sounds a bit crazy, but by sharing other people’s work it helps to make you look more like an authority.

As I mentioned above, there were MANY other things I took away from the wonderful conference, but these were the 6 items that stood out to me most.

Your Turn!

• What did you do this weekend?!
• Have you been to a conference for your field of business or a hobby?  What were some of your favorite take-aways?
• Were you at FitBloggin’!?