Show Me the Blog

On Saturday I attended the first ever Show Me the Blog conference. I first heard of it through a posting on Twitter, appropriately enough. At the time there wasn't much information about the meeting on the internet, but as it was the last day to qualify for the early registration fee I went with my gut and signed up anyway. Am I ever glad that I did! Danyelle Little (thecubiclechick.com) put together a fantastic program. On Friday evening conference attendees and speakers gathered in the space of St. Louis Coworking on the 11th floor of the Shell Building downtown. Coworking is an interesting new concept, offering desk space (or just space to hang out) to entrepreneurs looking to get out of their home offices. It was great to be able to meet some people before the conference, and to be able to see what Coworking has to offer.

Saturday the room at the Maryland Heights Community Center was packed and humming with energy. Throughout the day we learned the secrets of successful bloggers on how to have a blog that is fun, profitable and interesting without sacrificing who we are as creators of the blog. The recurring theme seemed to be "Keep it real". The entire day was fantastic, and I very much enjoyed meeting all of the other bloggers and hearing about their stories. It was so odd to be in a room where everyone was constantly on their smart phones and/or laptops. What would normally seem rude in a conference was in fact encouraged. Attendees were tweeting about the speakers (and some awesome boots!) and the contacts they were making, so others who couldn't attend sort of felt like they were there. How cool is that?

So kudos to Danyelle and the other great people who helped her as she walked out on a limb to bring a conference of this magnitude to St. Louis. Can't wait for the next one!