#BlogJam2015

Normally, I would not include a hashtag in my title – but it just seems so fitting! When you spend the day with bloggers, who also seem to have social media down to a science, hashtags in the title is the way to roll!

Where did I manage to collect all these bloggers to hang out with, you ask?  I meet them on the waterfront, you know the one in the city, in that hotel there….where we were all summoned with the promise of networking, laughter and a yummy brown bagged lunch! { Bloggers may not match examples in the photo…. }

I wasn’t let down either.  In fact, I hated to leave.  There were more people to meet, more conversations to have and more tweets to share.  But, let me back up a bit….

I didn’t happen across this event by some fluke.  I got a random-seeming email in my inbox, asking if I’d like to speak at a blogging conference from a complete stranger.  I’m not much of a speaker, I do it on occasion and usually end up leaving my prep until the last minute, like I do nearly everything.  But – a blogging conference in Atlantic Canada?? I was all in!

They wanted to know what I was going to speak on.  Dead stop.  They even asked that WEEEEEKS before the event! What?? How would I know? It isn’t the night before or anything…..sheesh, its obvious they are strangers!  If you know me, besides being a procrastinator, I’m also not a techy person nor am I much of a researcher so it had to be about something else.  Since it was Atlantic based and we are, generally speaking, ‘rural’ I thought I would talk about blogging in rural Nova Scotia.

Fast forward to Sunday morning at 5am, when my alarm went off so I could hit the road for 6am and I woke the chickens up going out to feed them.  It struck me as ironic that I was city-bound to talk about living rurally and I was up before the chickens to do so!  I arrived with enough time to stand in the Starbucks line-up for a Pumpkin Spice Latte – a treat for this country girl! { #nostarbuckshandy } Then I went to register at BlogJam and start meeting people.  I had to assume that most people wouldn’t know each other and so I walked up to a stranger and started chatting.  { Hi Amy!! }  It’s scary to just put yourself out there and hope you engage people and in some ways, that never goes away….  Then Amy introduced me to Mike…. and so the day went!

{ Sorry for the close up of me….but isn’t Debbie a cutie!?!?! }

When it was time for the first session, I sat with a firecracker who lives in Sackville but was from Newfoundland { Hi Debbie, er, was it Denise!?!?! } who kept me in stitches all day long!  The first keynote speaker was Vicki from the blog Mother Fumbler….well, she sure brought things to life pretty quickly!  There was so much laughter and only one or two people in the crowd who didn’t seem to appreciate her humour….

The rest of the day was divided into break-out sessions and a few panel discussions.  It was hard to pick the different sessions to go to, I wanted to hear what everyone said!  But, I learned a lot from the sessions I did attend and was happy to hear bits and pieces from other people who went to different ones.

{ Totally stole your picture @DanMurray_CR }

After I ate my lunch, I found a quiet corner to review my notes and add a bit here and there and get myself settled down and ready to present.  My presentation was pretty low key and more about my blogging story and life in rural Nova Scotia.  But it was a little intimidating when I started and there was only 6 people in the room……thankfully lots more people filtered in and seemed to enjoy my speech.  I think the best review was from Jennifer when she told me that she even got a little teary at spots!!  I’m a sap, so that spoke to me, I was glad that my heart and soul was evident in my presentation, to me, that is success.  It was neat to see the tweets about it after the fact, I appreciate the positive feedback and the quotes that struck people enough to record and share via Twitter.

One highlight for me was getting to finally meet Virginia Fynes of Fynes Designs!  Like, in person, for reals!! I’ve been following her for a bit on social media, and she truly is as sweet in real life as online!  When I grow up, I want to be just like her…. 😉 { regardless of the fact I’m already older…sheesh…. }

After the day wrapped up with one last firecracker speech, we hung out at the reception for a bit and then headed off in our own separate directions, maybe with a few donut holes stashed for the journey.  The day ended too quickly, but the drive home was spent with the wheels in my head turning faster than the wheels of my car…and if you know me……

The gals that pulled off BlogJam2015 have tons of reasons to be pretty proud of themselves!  For a first time event, it was so seamless and well-run, kudos to you!  You guys blew it out of the park!!! And I look forward to #BlogJam2016!!

To be continued,

Lori

Here’s a link to the CTV video of BlogJam