The Blog Connect & What to Know for Your First Blog Conference

On Saturday, I went to my first blog conference! The Blog Connect was a blog conference hosted by PHLBloggers, an amazing blogging group in Philadelphia (if you’re a Philly blogger and aren’t a part of this group, you should definitely check them out!). I’ve been to a few of the PHLBloggers events since I started blogging in January, and this has been my favorite event! I met so many awesome people, including some bloggers that I’ve been looking up to since I moved to Philadelphia last August. The speakers were very informative, and it was really helpful for a newbie blogger like me! So if you get a chance to go to a blogging conference, you should definitely go! I’m already looking forward to next year’s Blog Connect!

If you’re a part of PHLBloggers and/or went to The Blog Connect, feel free to use any of my pictures, just include credit for me or my blog please! If you want to credit me on social media, on Twitter I’m @JuliaDentinator, on Instagram I’m @Dentinator, and on Facebook I’m Julia Dent Photography!

Without further ado, here are just some of the pictures I took at the conference! And at the end, I’ll talk about what I learned about going to a conference for the first time! 🙂

I sat next to Brigette, an awesome graphic designer, and I’m really envious of her hand lettering skills!

Sara from Smoorelovin and Melissa from Skinny Affair did a lot of work behind the scenes for the conference, and they opened the talks up with content organization

Tamara from Fancy Free Football Mom drove all the way up from Washington, D.C.!

Lisa from Lisli talked about brainstorming post ideas

Julie from The Storyologist talked about storytelling through blogging

Bekah from That’s Normal talked about monetizing your blog

Shout out to Chrystina from Chrystina Noel for spearheading an awesome conference!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the conference to give you a glimpse of behind the scenes of getting the perfect shot with letter balloons!

Kate and Jess from Philly PR Girl talked about building your blog into a business

Amber from Ember and March talked about shooting pictures for Instagram

Keyonna from Stellar Inc. Lifestyle talked about harnessing your creativity

This is the awesome panel on building your blogging community with (from left to right) Jessica from Jessica Lawlor, Bekah from That’s Normal, Rachel from The Crafted Life, and Emily from Her Philly, with Gabby from Beauty Babble moderating

So here are a few things I learned at my first blog conference! (And I might think of more later!)

1. Bring business cards! I had heard this tip before and came prepared with my business cards, and it was really helpful to be able to look at all the cards I received when I got home and make sure I connected with those people! It’s especially helpful if you meet a lot of people.
2. Don’t be afraid to wear something fun. I can’t tell you how many outfits I sorted through before deciding on the skirt I wore, but it was a great conversation piece! And there might be a lot of fashion bloggers at the conference (one of the main reasons I couldn’t decide on an outfit!), so wearing something fun or colorful could help you stand out and meet new people.
3. Take lots of notes. I got a TON of super helpful advice at all the talks I went to, and I would have forgotten half of them if I didn’t write them down!
4. Don’t be afraid to approach people. I am quite possibly the worst person at networking in the world (at my first networking event last summer, I had to be saved by a nun. True story!) and I used my camera as my excuse for awkwardly standing somewhere because I didn’t know what to do, but once I started talking to people, I felt much more at ease. Everyone there was so friendly and helpful (shout out to Rachel for answering my millions of questions!), and you’re probably not the only person at your first blog conference alone! Also, I was a total creeper and found two of my favorite bloggers when I was leaving and told them that I totally stalked their blogs and loved them, so you can’t be any weirder than me! (They were super friendly about it though!)
5. Photography tip: be prepared for any kind of lighting. I was pleasantly surprised that the Saxby’s Headquarters where we had The Blog Connect had nice lights and lots of natural lighting! But as you can see in some of my pictures, it was a very sunny day and taking pictures with the windows in the background didn’t turn out the best. Just take tons of pictures from different angles so you can pick out the best ones afterwards!

I also want to give a shout out to some of the bloggers that I hung out with but didn’t tag yet! Chelsea from Organized Mess, Kendall from Buttons and Blossoms, Sarah from Shades of Sarah, and Michael and Emma from Click Go Review! All of the bloggers at The Blog Connect are amazing, so you should definitely check out their work if you don’t follow them already!

I had an awesome time at the conference, and I can’t wait to go to more! 🙂 Comment below if you have any questions!

And if anyone is interested, I recently had two articles published for Acculturated: for Beverly Cleary’s 100th birthday, and why you should watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.