My first blogger conference!

So this past weekend (March 28-30) was the 4th annual Lifestyle Blogger conference in Los Angeles. I won a scholarship to attend free of charge so of course I had to go :)

This was my first blogger conference; I had been to many other types of conferences before but I had no idea what to expect for this one.

First off I do not have a car or drive. Having lived in NYC my entire life I had no need to learn how to drive. I took a bus from downtown San Diego to downtown LA with gotobus.com. The roundtrip ticket was only $45. Unfortunately I could not find a friend to crash with, and the hotels were really expensive. Airbnb had some decent options but I found a great deal with Stay on Main. It's a hostel which has different rooming options. I chose a private bedroom with bath. The total for my stay including all taxes was $141. It is located right in downtown by trains and bus stops, and tons of restaurants and shops. I stayed on the 10th floor (room 1009) which was quiet. The room was small, comfortable for 1 person, and clean. I was a little worried based on some of the reviews I read, that it would be a horrible experience but a) it's an economical option and b) I could see how things could get weird if you share a room or bathroom, which is why I chose not to deal with that. If you can afford it, get a private room and bath; I think it'll save you a headache. They include towels and toiletries, as well as daily cleaning (if you'd like). They also have cable TV, free wifi (do not depend on the wifi though, it's very unreliable), computer stations, movies, games, and free breakfast every morning. I really feel I got a great deal, especially for the area. I took the metro blue line (which was about a 10 minute walk from the hostel) and took it to LA mart where the conference was to be held.

I was only able to attend the conference on Saturday.  They had a kickoff party on Thursday in Burbank, then the conference started on Friday the 28th until Saturday. I got to meet a lot of established bloggers and network with them. I even met one of my blogger heroes, Marie Denee of The Curvy Fashionista, who was on one of the panels. It was so interesting to see the business side of blogging. I'm still not really blogging for business; I'm a writer and just love to share my experiences and knowledge. I'm not sure yet in what direction I'll go with this blog, but it was informative to learn what others have done with theirs. I actually had a chance meeting with a friend of a friend, who also happened to be attending the conference. We had an instant connection and I can totally see us working together in the future.

I will say this about the conference - I don't plan on paying if I decide to go in the future.  Had I paid for this one, I would have been very disappointed.  I won't get into too many specifics but I thought the organizers could have been much more organized as far as informing the attendees of the programming and expectations.  There was really no "introduction" for first time attendees.  I felt like it was geared more for established bloggers and also bloggers who have attended their conferences in the past.  

As far as programming, while all of the workshops and panels had value in some ways, I think they were a little all over the place. I only attended on Saturday; the keynote was given by someone who is not a blogger. She had great advice for life in general but the conference is for bloggers. Same thing with the closing; the speaker is a great person but not a blogger. I think for the most part, bloggers aspire to have successful blogs. We want to hear and learn from the experts who will get us to that level, and also hear from the people who are at that level. If I wanted life advice, I could have read a self-help book.  I'm on the fence about attending future LALLBLOG conferences.  I am glad I had that experience though.

I want to mention that before I even headed out to LA I was presented with some self-created obstacles, the main one being not seeing myself as an "established" blogger. I felt like, "what am I gonna be there for?", as if to say I'm not good enough to be a part of the conference. I had a mini freak out moment the night before I left thinking about whether or not I would benefit from going. I went over the pros and cons, as if this wasn't a great opportunity. Thankfully I decided to just show up, free of expectations. I was also a little hesitant about going by myself, but in the end I refuse to miss out something because I don't have a companion to feel "comfortable" with. I learned a long time ago from Laura Yamin to just show up. All I have to do is show up, and that's it, nothing else. I remembered many moments when I felt like quitting before even trying and how just showing up made a world of difference. Every time I've showed up, I've never regretted it. This time I made an amazing connection, and learned more about myself as a blogger and writer. I also made myself proud by pushing myself to do something that felt initially uncomfortable; I think that's one of the secrets to success.

By the way, there were 2 earthquakes while I was in LA!!  Thankfully they weren't bad by where I was.  They were "rolling earthquakes", so it felt like I was on a boat.  It was BANANAS!  The first one I felt was Friday night, and then the second one was during the conference on Saturday.  It was a little scary.  I guess I was definitely shaking things up this weekend ;)


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