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Hey all-
Ok, I believe in always being honest and giving the best review of events as possible because I would hate for anyone to waste their time or money. I apologize for my bluntness but besides the networking and photo opps, the IFB Conference this past week was TO ME, pointless. I can find the good in almost all things but had difficulty with the few panels that I viewed. I am a new blogger and was so excited to learn about blog layouts, stat tracking, branding and how to reach out to designers and companies but yeah, um, didn’t really get anything insightful past things I could easily google myself. My other gripe was the panelist themselves. YES you want successful bloggers speaking because they are supposed to have the recipe for a kick ass blog but I am so sorry to say, do they have to be SO BORING to listen to. I am talking NO PERSONALITY when speaking and absolutely no inflection in their voices. We were in MONOTONE-VILLE and I was so ready to stop at another exit. If you are going to talk about boring blogger toolkit, pretty please make it somehow fun for me to have to listen to. I understand that not everyone is a public speaker and that not everyone has a great personality but…. it would be nice to mix it up a little bit. Maybe add some newbie bloggers as well as the veterans to the panels. I was perusing the crowd and I have never seen so many yawns and bored facial expressions… Then they kept having to HUSSSSHHH the crowd, why, because we all would much rather talk to each other and learn from each other than listen to “twitter vs facebook”lol. I honestly thought I was in one of my big MSU hall classes instead of a fashion bloggers conference. I also spoke to bloggers afterward and heard the same thing. NOTHING GROUNDBREAKING spoken or learned. I did watch the conference in February and I was crazily taking notes and I couldnt tear my eyes from the screen.. now what was the difference, was it the content or the bloggers chosen?!?! I can say that I think the content is ALWAYS going to be the same, you really cannot reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing but its all in the delivery. It would have been great to have more crowd engagement maybe… I mean they talk about reader engagement so maybe get us more involved. Don’t talk AT us, talk WITH us. It may be a tad childish/schoolish but possibly asking the audience questions and having us raise our hands or randomly calling out people in the crowd to say what their inspiration is and what they do with their blog. Not all of us have 5k+ pageviews a day or have licensing deals with major brands and better yet most o fus dont have the moolah for designer duds but remember that the fashion business is successful because of the small shops and less expensive stores. I personally wanted to be busier desperately trying to keep up with taking notes rather than hearing “twitter vs facebook” LOL… you know exactly what I am saying right Sade?
I ended up leaving around 2pm with Nadia Aboulhosn (amazing blog by the way) and Sade of 9toFly. We ended up having some kick ass photo shoots in the city instead. I did hear that the late afternoon panels were amazing and much more fun to sit through so I will have to check out the videos to see what I missed. I was bummed to miss Claire from Fashion Bomb Daily but I couldn’t sit through 1.5 more hours of it. Please also remember that this is MY OPINION only. My last gripe…. you provide me with lunch and yet give me nothing to wash my food down with… so um am I supposed to drink this with my saliva??? I wish they would have said this was BYOB. Overall, no I don’t think I would go back to it and I would much rather attend the Lucky FABB Conference as I heard NOTHING but “FABB” things about it. I heard the speakers were inspiring, revolutionary, and fun to listen to. All in all, I am glad that I was there for the priceless networking but unfortunately I didn’t learn anything except… get a tumblr and stumble upon account (which I did), so…..check me out comme-coco.tumblr.com
The positives, because there are ALWAYS positives in ANY sitch: free Magnum Ice Cream, the double caramel is ORGASMIC, meeting Monroe Steele of FashionSteeleNYC, fun goodies like the Bobble bottles, seeing the fashionable people, meeting and hanging out with Nadia, the mini flat iron and nail polishes we got, meeting my fellow Spartan and fashionista Christen from Divas and Dorks and oh yeah MAGNUM DOUBLE CARAMEL ice cream bars lol
So… what did you guys think of the conference??? (am I too harsh)
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| Christen from Divas and Dorks moderating a panel |
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| Coco Rocha is sooo DARN pretty!!! |
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| the super huge Missoni robot |
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| who can tell me where this shot was taken?? |
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| Dancing in the Street |
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this is so spot on <3 I tried to watch online and was so bored but I loved the Lucky Fabb one
Thanks for sharing. Also what was the importance in having tumblr in assisting your blog? Is it similar to facebook or twitter?
-Shakiyla
they said tumblr was great because it was a one stop shop… you can add text, quotes, pics, video etc in one button. I have found that I like it so far. But basically it really is just ANOTHER way to market yourself and get your name out on the internet
Oh my, so sorry to hear this-but at least you were able to network and have some fab pictures taken.
~Bobbie
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First off, beautiful pictures Jen! Werk!
Now, as a brand new blogger (April 2011) I was so excited about attending the conference. After Jen recounted watching last year and learning how Monroe Steele’s brand shot to the top in no time flat after receiving valuable insight from the previous conference I just knew this would be a great next step.
I arrived bright-eyed and bushy tailed, back straight, pen in hand and ready to pocket golden nuggets of information. It was all less how-to and more self-indulgent discourse with cliche, motivational quotes sprinkled throughout.
Don’t get me wrong though, the session on Business & Blogging revived my interest and gave me some things to ponder for when I get to that point in my site. But don’t spend an hour and a half talking about the power of social media only to negate it with questioning the future of it in the next panel. Social media isn’t even the heart of the matter; yes it is free but no one is trying to profit from social media. We are trying to use social media as a springboard to bigger things…but we didn’t learn how to even do that much.
I put my energy into networking and meeting other great fashion bloggers; the conference was a great help in bringing a portion of the community together and that is appreciated. The swag bags were awesome and the sponsors were great.
As an event coordinator for a media company I know a conference is a business first, but there is no conference if you can’t give attendees a production worth their time. Maybe my expectations were too high…shame on me for my delusions of grandeur, but I thought the conference would be more and maybe it was and it just wasn’t for me. Back to the drawing board.
dang girl… well said, well written.. Loves it
You are everywhere Jen!
I’m sorry to hear that the conference wasn’t what you’d hoped. I went the first year and had a great time. It was free then, however. Smaller venue, but just as many bloggers crammed into the tiny space. So, I understand them having to move to a larger venue and charging a fee. The first year, the panel was much shorter, and it sounds as though they are talking about the same things. The event was focused on networking and meeting other bloggers. Understanding that things evolve, perhaps they should stick with the shorter panels for quick updates and go back to focusing on what we do best–networking!
Did you end up doing FNODC with all of the rain?
that pic was definitely taken in MONROE’S WINDOW. 🙂
I’m glad you posted this. I didn’t go to the conference (even though I would have loved to) and I didn’t know what would be the topics of discussion, but I definitely wanted to mingle and meet other bloggers. You made me feel a little better now that I didn’t make it.
xo,Cortnie
http://stylelustpages.com
First things first… I didn’t know you went to MSU! Hello there, fellow Spartan! 🙂
Okay, on to more pressing matters… BahHumbug! I was really bummed that I couldn’t make the conference this year… Though now I’m semi relieved because I keep hearing the same tragic story about the panels…. I really hope the coordinators take note and adjust accordingly for next year. Anywho, you looked fab… Which is quite important in itself. lol…
I will not speak bad because I understand the point of the conference and what they are trying to do. I will agree about the “dryness” of it all.
LuckyFABB is so much greater but, ssshh don’t tell anyone I said that.
At least you learned a few new things.
I didn’t attend, but I definitely listened via the livestream….and you’re absolutely right IMO. I’ve been casually blogging for a while but I just recently started to get serious about branding myself (after talking with a fellow blogger who encouraged me) and I honestly was not motivated by the panels. They had some one-liners that were “inspiring” but no concrete advice on how to accomplish what they were saying. I got more input from FNO in NYC. Oh well, I just hope some one was inspired.
Your outfit is super HAUTE! I LOVE those pants….so gimme, LOL!
http://www.fashionpad.blogspot.com
Twitter – @fashionpad
Fabulous neckpiece you have on…thas all am saying:)
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