Blogtacular 2014 ::

This past weekend was finally time for the event I've been so anxiously looking forward to it since it was announced last year-Blogtacular.
I've admired both Kat and Kat's blogs and work in general for a long time and it seemed so apparent from the beginning that this was going to be a truly great event.  I certainly wasn't wrong!

I roomed with the lovely Joanne of NotSoGranny, we headed down to London early on Friday to meet up at the Victoria and Albert Museum for lunch and browsing.  After that we checked ourselves into out hotel and after a few small errors in map reading on my part, arrived at the Blogtacular venue (the beautiful Royal Insititute) just a few minutes late, for registration, goodie bag collecting, drinks, and chatting before the opening keynote speaker. The venue itself was so beautiful and absolutely perfect for this event.

Joy Cho of Oh Joy opened the event with an incredibly inspiring talk on how she made her way to where she is today.  She was so personable, positive and knowledgeable in her field.  Her talk really left me with a head full of ideas and goals for the future of my blog and business.

Joanne and I headed off for some dinner, after a little more exploring on foot, before attempting to get some sleep.  My mind was so preoccupied with ideas and I was so excited about what the following day would entail that I managed very little!

Saturday kicked off with a video interview with Will Taylor of Bright Bizarre.  One of the things I most enjoyed about all the talks was hearing how these wonderfully successful bloggers had come to find themselves doing what they do.  Something that really struck a chord with me from Will's interview were his points on doing what's right for you as a blogger and retaining your own voice and the original feeling of your blog, ignoring what everyone else doing and sticking to what feels right for you.

Anne Ditmeyer of Pret a Voyager followed with a really great talk on values and the importance of getting paid.  Something that is often so underdone in the creative industries.  Her blog is fabulous and her skillshare courses and vayable tours also look really interesting.

After a short break for coffee and a chance to browse the workshops and market place and sample some super delicious meringues from the meringue girls (gin and tonic meringues are basically everything I love in one amazing mouthful!),  Joanne and I headed to Tilly Walnes and Vicky Orchard's talk on turning your blog into a book.
Joanne and I had met Tilly the evening before, where Joanne showed off the beautiful Coco dress she had expertly made from Tilly's pattern and purchased her new book.  So inspired by Joanne's success at sewing I ordered a copy of said book from amazon as soon as I got home!

As writing a book of some kind or other has been on my mind forever, I found these ladies opinions on the matter super interesting.  I imagine impending baby will probably put any plans of book writing on hold for a while but I cannot wait to attempt to put some of this advice into practice in the future.

Next was Hands on Styling with Ellie Tennant.  I'm so useless at this kind of thing, so it was really great to hear some of Ellie's tips and have a go at styling ourselves with the wonderful array of props that had been provided.

After lunch it was the Blog Business Panel with Courtney Adamo, Annabel Beeforth, Joy Cho and Allison Sadler.  I think this was one of my favourite talks of the day.  Hearing how these women have made incredibly successful careers for themselves through blogging was just so inspiring.

Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire of Mini Moderns did a really interesting talk on branding, I was really torn between this and the Social Media with Intention with Cathy James that clashed, but I'm so pleased I choose as I did.  Keith and Mark were great, so funny and interesting on a topic I generally find a bit daunting.

The last part of the day was, Secrets of the Editors wtih Kate Carter, Caroline Rowland, Lara Watson and Heather Young.  It was so interesting to hear from magazine editors about the way in which they choose content, structure articles and build reader loyalty and definitely some key points to keep in mind when blogging.

The closing keynote speaker was Natalie Lue of Baggage Reclaim and Bambino Goodies.  Her talk was so wonderfully empowering and full of great advice for life in general as well as blogging!  So many of her words are still ringing in my head as I go through my day, but something that I'm sure will stick with me for a very long time to come was 'you will always have more ideas than time and that is OK'.

The whole weekend was just so wonderful, despite being incredibly exhausted I'm so full of ideas and inspiration I just cannot wait to put into practice.  I'm so thankful to all the speakers who attended and especially to Kat and Kat for putting it on.  I cannot wait for next year!

If you missed the event, fear not, the whole weekend was filmed by CTV and you will be able to purchase access to the talks at some point in the future, sign up to the Blogtacular mailing list to be the first to know when this service becomes available.

Some of the photos used in this post are the official Blogtacular photos taken by Will Ireland and are provided courtesy of Mollie Makes