So most of you know that we are posting our conference tips, to make it easier for you to decide where you want to go and which one you want to put your time and money into.   Last week I talked about Turks and Caicos for Social Media on the Sand, while Paula talked about Izeafest and even held a live-stream.  

This week, I just returned home from BlogHerFood.  I was invited to go there on behalf of Bounty (I am an ambassador of Bounty and they are GREAT to work for, if you get the chance!).

The world’s largest event for food bloggers.  BlogHer Food is a two-day conference including interactive panels, keynotes, and sponsor networking.  The audience comprised of top food and lifestyle bloggers, writers, authors and photographers.

There were 4 of us representing Bounty: Brian (below), Dayna (in the gray sweater), Jillian (white scarf) and myself (we made the perfect little group because we are all pretty laid-back and fun, if I do say so myself).

Here are 10 take-aways from BlogHerFood:

1).  You can go even if you aren’t a Food Blogger.  I rarely blog about food (well- maybe once a week, which means one out of about 10 posts), but I still learned a lot!

2). SWAG!   You wouldn’t believe how much stuff came home in my suitcase!  I  would have brought home more, but I ran out of room (seriously!).   Kitchen tools, cookbooks, travel mugs…

3). Photo Tips – I learned some really cool tips, like taking your Bounty Paper towels or a cloth napkin and making an “s” around your plate – it kind of “leads” to other things on the table & creates dimension.

4). YouTube notes.  I learned a lot about YouTube.  I have been attempting some videos, but after this class, I am ready to go for it.  The only issue is that they did say is that each video takes around 2 hours to edit.  I had a feeling about this already, from my friend, Judy.

5).  Tax Tips- if you want to write off your “food”, you will need to use it ONLY for your blog, so you need to keep it in a separate pantry in your house.

6).  There is a lot of time to meet and connect with brands.   I walked away with several companies that I plan on working with in the future.  I emailed most of them right there, on the spot.   I participated in their activities and connected with them:

7).  Have business cards.  I will say that at a lot of the conferences, you won’t use them (at BeachesMoms, I never saw anyone using them…  at my Kelly Ripa commercial shoot, none of us had them either… but at certain ones, everyone is handing the to you.)  I didn’t take mine, because I just rarely take them – I am a “let me tweet/e-mail/facebook you right now” type of girl.  Instant connections are better, in my opinion.  Business cards get thrown into a pile and I didn’t want to be one of those.  HOWEVER… you might want to have them for this conference, as a LOT of bloggers had theirs out & ready.

8). Tweet for your favorite brands!   If you look up the hashtag #QuickerPickerUpper and #BlogHerFood15 – you will see a lot of tweets from me.  I was proud to be there on their behalf and wanted to share my appreciation for the brand.

9).  Make connections.   This is my goal at conferences.  Make this your goal, too.  Making connections is huge (with both brands & bloggers) – you can walk away with some great friendships! 🙂

10).  Implement something that you learn RIGHT away.  With BlogHer, we had time to go back to our rooms several times a day, so I would go back and e-mail brands that I had met or put some of the YouTube tips into play.   I even made my husband a big slideshow of tips that I had learned for YouTube (he edits my videos).  🙂

I hope that was helpful.  Overall, this was a great conference with great speakers… like Sarah Michelle Gellar. 😉