How the Minnesota Blogger’s Conference Was like the First Day of School

If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen the flurry of tweets last Saturday while I was at the Minnesota Blogger’s Conference at Concordia University in St. Paul. It was like the first day of school all over again.

I picked out my clothes the night before. I thought my Banana Republic ‘Don’t Quit Your Daydream’ shirt was fitting for the occasion. A far cry from my flower dress with a white doily necklace.

I got a ride and a friendly send off from Sophie. (The conference went to 5:15 and we had a surprise birthday party in St. Paul at 6, so it made sense for Nolan to play chauffeur for the day.)

I made myself familiar with the campus (they had signs everywhere and even chalk on the sidewalk to help). It was a beautiful October day and I was tempted to ditch the blazer and play volleyball. Trouble maker.

I survived the “Who will I sit with at lunch?” first-day fear.

I left with a lot of “homework”, like getting Google Analytics set up, getting a better handle on my brand across all social media platforms, investigate other ways to drive traffic to my site, and start exploring ways to monetize my site.

All joking aside, the conference was really good. Jennifer Kane (@JenKaneCo) was the keynote and she did a fantastic job kicking off the day with her inspiring presentation encouraging us to be fierce and fearless bloggers. I learned a lot of good tips and exercises from Abbie Burgess’ (The Pink Paperdoll) session on writer’s block. The most entertaining presenter was Steve Slater’s Star Wars themed Google Analytics session.

I learned just as much chatting with other bloggers too. I was impressed by the variety of bloggers, from home brewing to mental health to co-ops, there were so many different types of bloggers. The benefits of the conference far outweigh the cost, I just wish I could have attended the afterparty! Next year folks. 🙂 #MNBlogCon