About a week ago I ventured to west Georgia to attend my first blog conference. I was a little nervous going into the conference because I hadn't really hung out with a lot of bloggers and I didn't really know what to expect. It wasn't too long before I started meeting people and started getting comfortable within my surroundings. The conference was held at Barnsley Resort, which is located in NW Georgia, not too far from Adairsville. Barnsley Resort is probably the most gorgeous place I've been in North Georgia. If you are looking for a weekend away, definitely add Barnsley to your list of places to go!
Before we dive into the daily events, I have been asked by a few people about The Blog Societies, so I wanted to share some of their information first. The Blog Societies is a cultivated community for influencers to unlock resources, connections, and tools necessary to grow their blogs. I found them after their conference last year and immediately applied to be a member. I also received some questions about if the conference was worth it and I will tell you 100% YES! I learned so many things that I wouldn't of had access to if it wasn't for this conference. The conference is affordable and it capped to 75 participants. I feel like this makes the learning a little more one on one with the brands and the presenters!
Day One:
After everyone arrived and checked into the resort, we celebrated our first night with a welcome reception. All of the conference sponsors were at the reception, which was amazing because we were able to interact with all of these amazing brands! Each brand gifted us with some amazing pieces for us to share and I will tell you that I loved every single item I received. One of the brands, Ink + Alloy, actually told a group of us that they went through each bloggers Instagram profile and picked a specific piece based on their style. (Hello dream job!) This may have been my favorite part of the conference because you are able to interact with these brands, that as a blogger, seem unreachable! To name a few of the sponsors we had this year: Marc Fisher, My Kind of Lovely, Ink + Alloy, LaCroix, Grayson, Kendra Scott, Joules, DryBar, Yankee Candle, Essie and Cosmedix!
Day Two:
After an amazing first night, we were all up early for our breakfast with LaCroix! The breakfast was hosted at the Barnsley Resort Ruins, which is the old manor house on the property. It was a buffet style breakfast and all of the food was so good! On top of your normal breakfast drinks, you also had your choice of LaCroix water, which was so good! Beyond the delicious breakfast, the views in the manor house were just amazing! I did a video tour on my Instagram, so go view it on my TBSCon highlight!
After breakfast, we all headed over to a few of the cottages to start our day of sessions. We were all sent a questionnaire before the conference, so we were all placed in sessions based on our responses. My classes were:
1. Pricing Yourself for Profitability with Kate Gremillion (Work Well With Kate)
2. Perfecting the Art of the Pitch with Erica Ligenza (Coming Up Roses)
3. Defining and Refining Your Brand with Abby (Wayfarer Design Studio)
4. Reading and Creating Contracts for Your Blog with Ashlee Hightower (Contracts for Creatives)
All of these classes were so amazing and I learned so much! There were other sessions at the conference, which I did not attend and they were: Instagram Photography, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Organization. I wish I could've taken all of the courses, but they will be providing us all of the powerpoint presentations, from all of the sessions, so I will be able to take it all in! In between our sessions, we were treated to a delicious lunch with Marc Fisher. The lunch was delicious and seeing the fall line of their shoes was amazing! I literally want all of the shoes!
There were two breakout sessions, one was floral arrangement and the other was instagram worthy cookie decorating. You picked one in your questionnaire and I was lucky enough to get cookie decorating! Not only were my cookies pretty, but they were super delicious! If you are local to the Atlanta area and want to learn how to decorate cookies, let me know and I will give you the contact information for High Waisted Cookies!
After all of our sessions, and break out sessions, we all had a few hours to do whatever we wanted to do! Since Mom tagged along on this trip, I went and grabbed her from the room and we explored the property! Mom and I headed over to the barnyard and decided to hang out with all of the animals! As we were walking over we stumbled upon some pretty lakes, which led us to the horses, puppies, goats and flowers! We had so much fun walking around, but it was so hot, so we weren't able to stay out as long as we wanted to!
After cooling off for our exploring, it was time for me to get ready for our dinner with Yankee Candle. We started the evening with a reception at the Town Hall, where Yankee Candle displayed their new Farmer's Market Collection. They had some speciality drinks and the prettiest setup to display their candles. After the reception, we headed over to the dinner where we all had a sit down dinner with candles displayed again. After the dinner, we all headed out to the fire pits to roast marshmallows! It was a great night and we all had the best time!
Day Three:
I woke up far earlier than I wanted to on the last day because I had a mini photo shoot with our conference photographer, Hannah Lozano. After the shoot I changed my clothes and headed over to start our final day. We started the day with another delicious breakfast and headed right into our three speakers:
1. Manu, from Your Social Team, discussed connecting with your audience on Instagram.
2. Matt, from Podia, shared how we can use our platform to offer our audiences classes and workshops through Podia.
3. Brittany, from The Lawyer Lookbook, took us through FTC Guidelines and everything we need to know, legal wise, when it comes to blogging.
When the last speaker was done, it was time for all of us to pack our bags and head home. We all said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.
Making New Friends:
I expected to learn a lot coming out of the conference, but what I didn't expect was to come out with so many amazing new friends. I previously mentioned that the Blog Societies is a cultivated community for influencers and that is exactly what it is. We all are part of the same, unique community, so we all empower each other to grow and succeed. Here are just a few of the amazing women I met during the conference.
What I Wore:
Now, let's get to the most important part of the post, what I wore during the conference. I tried not to overpack, but I think I packed more for a three day conference than I did for the whole week I was in Florida! If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen all of these looks, but I wanted to post them in order and provide the links again!
The hardest part of this conference for me, being a first time participant, was leaving. From everything I learned, to the people I met, let's not forget the gorgeous resort, I had a really hard time leaving. What was worse was trying to come back to work the next day. I enjoyed being in the same room as people who share the same vision as me, so it was hard to come back to reality. I've gotten this question a lot since the conference, "Will you go back again?" And my answer is always the same, 100% yes! I can't wait for the conference next year so I can connect and grow as a influencer!
If you have any other questions about the conference, or Barnsley Resort, leave them in the comments and I will answer you! I hope y'all have a great day!
***Some of the photographs are mine, but some are also from our blog photographer Hannah Lozano.***