Sisterhood
Community
Authenticity
Integrity
Karma
Pay It Forward
These words saturated the spoken and unspoken conversations during the Type A Mom Conference.
Meeting women I've spoken with online in person for the first time and being embraced in a warm and enthusiastic hug.
Meeting women I had never seen before on Thursday, and being hugged goodbye by them on Saturday. And the best part? Being around women who are as motivated and immersed in social media as I am! I've never been around a group of women who understood and identified with why I spend time interacting with "people I don't know" and who are more transparent on their blogs than they could ever be in person.
Meeting some of these women behind the beauty, the sadness, the passion, the stories.. They have let others online in their communities into their private thoughts. In meeting in person, there is not fear or judgment, only acceptance and gratefulness. Having shared journeys together on their blogs, they have supported one another and know one anothers' hearts. It's a beautiful thing.
Katja Presnal did a great recap of her thoughts on the conference, and the words to the HSM song "We're All In This Together" kept resonating in her head. I find it resonating in mine as well. Jessica Smith's recap contained the lyrics to "Dreams" by the Cranberries. Both are uplifting songs about community and sharing and support.
I have not been blogging long. I have been tweeting for only a few weeks longer than I have been blogging. But I was thrilled to meet many of the women I converse withon twitter and on my/their blogs. I was even more excited when I realized that my chatterbox nature had been noticed by a lot of women who I had not ever interacted with. It is rather surreal to be encouraged and lauded for my talkativeness, my microblogging emotion dumping, my #followfriday posting.
I could get used to being encouraged because I talk a lot. Seriously.
I came up with an idea for business while at the conference, and my network of "internet friends" have been insightful, supportive, interested, and full of suggestions as I make decisions about pursuing this business. I would never have had any idea who to talk to or bounce ideas off of were it not for these PR savvy ladies. Ladies who are just like me. Ladies who enjoy social media, who love to connect with others, who write for themselves and others, and who know how to guide a new blogger and pay it forward.
While I learned a lot from the conference, the biggest impression it left me with was that I had found my social media sisterhood. So many women, so many stories, journeys we are on, so many different ideas about how to use social media... but all of us having the same foundation.
Here are some pictures of my social media sisterhood!
I attended the Inaugural Type-A-Mom Conference this past weekend in Asheville, NC. There are other blogging conferences, some that have been going on for years, such as BlogHer, Blissdom, SITScation, and Blogalicious, in case you have ever heard of those. You might be wondering, "what do you do at a blogging conference?" Because this is my first one, I can only tell you what this one was like, but I would imagine that it has the same general format. General sessions, keynote speakers, receptions, dinners, events surrounding the conference like tours, etc.
The schedule of events at the Type-A-Mom conference was something like this:
Thursday Evening
Sign in, meet people, get your conference "swag bag" full of sponsor freebies, and your nametag. Look around nervously for people you know. Or if you are brave, start introducing yourself.
Photo courtesy of Mishelle Lane
If you're me, drop your four little kids off at Kid Con, the children's conference, sponsored by iRobot! ($35 per child for the one evening and 12-14 hour full days of conference!!) As an aside, all 4 of my kids LOVEd KidCon and can't wait to go back!
Participate in blogger to company speed dating (LOVED this. It was a time where you had about 20 minutes to go around your table, share about your website or business, and get and give business cards. You got up and changed tables about 6 times, and met loads of people!)
Photo courtesy of @paperfans and tinyprints
visible are: @jenniferjames, @mutheringheights, @resourcefulmom, and @marybabysteps
Welcome Reception - time to meet and chat, drink some Biltmore Estate Merlot or Reisling, munch on the appetizers and finger food desserts.. I made some new friends there! I also got to talk about the ways I have found to grow my readership and find new blogging friends. I love the SITSgirls website - The Secret is in the Sauce. We check in on the SITSgirls site, follow the link to the featured blogger of the day, and are invited to read and coment on three of her spotlighted posts. Generally, if you visit a featured blogger, she will come visit you as she weeds through all of her comments on her feature day. And sometimes you find someone that really resonates with you! (Hi MutheringHeights!) I also try to participate in some Blog Carnivals and BlogHops if I see buttons on sites or links from Twitter that mention that there's a blog hop or carnival happening, especially if its for something like homeschooling. I participate in Wordless Wednesday on my website, I participate in FollowFriday on Twitter, and I share on "Your Life, Your Blog" each week when Sarah puts up a MckLinky to list your site. Any other random time there is a MckLinky on a site I visit, I will leave a link to a recent post too.
A yummy breakfast burrito and fruit were served just after at 8 am with a fashion show courtesy of Dress Barn. About a dozen lovely women from the blogging panels were taken and treated to new outfits from Dress Barn, and strutted their stuff on the playform while Dress Barn talked about what they were wearing. It was so much fun to see them enjoy being in the spotlight!!!
Photos courtesy of Mishelle Lane
Visible in the fashion show picture are @katjapresnal, @shash, @mrsflinger, @jenminer, @reneejross @geekmommy, @vdog, and @mamaspohr
Speaker Sessions and Panels
To kick things off, there was a general speaker panel discussing Collaborative Blogging after breakfast, and I learned a LOT of things from these fine women. The schedule, posted at TypeAMomConference said of this panel:
"Blogging as part of a collaborative or social group on a multi-author blog has many benefits beyond getting your work posted, ranging from a fierce social network with other power mom bloggers to simply being seen as more of a force with marketers and boosting your social reach. For marketers, learn how you can reach a large group of influencers in these mom blogging communities."
I attended the Personal Blogging session, listening to the women in question talk about the instances on their blogs where they have been personally attacked by people they don't know, how they handled one time instances versus repeat offenders and borderline stalkers. How their community of bloggers defended them in those situations, the opportunities they have had to make peace and even educate some of those trolls who have visited their blogs. They also discussed the varying levels of security and anonymity they have had with their blogs and answered questions from those of us who were in the session.
Lunch Session
During lunch, there was a panel discussing Working with Companies. The schedule for the conference said:
"Companies want to work with bloggers, and most bloggers want to work with companies. From reviews to spokesblogging to direct blog advertising, there are many ways for the two worlds to collide. At the same time, there are questions about how to do it right. Experts from both the corporate/marketing side and the blogging side share their experiences and insights.
photo courtesy of Kris Cain
pictured are Stephanie Smirnov, Dave Binkowski, and Nancy Martira
Having never worked with a company, and not knowing much about networking with companies, this session was chock full of good information. Christine at CutestKidEver has this synopsis.
Saturday morning began with a fantastic Mom Market, and some great breakfast finger foods and coffee. The Mom Market room was lined with fantastic information, goodies, clothing, baby toys, wall decor, books, software, you name it! I restrained myself and bought $10 worth of wall decor, but took lots of business cards and information home. I got a free shirt from Kika Paprika too! Dawn Camp, fromMy Home Sweet Home Online was taking free profile pictures, too!
photo courtesy of @reallifesarah I think.
@amberrunsamuck and @pensiverobin pictured
I am particularly partial to Robin Dance at Pensieve for a variety of reasons. She was the first person from twitter to reach out to me and meet me in person, she has been a blogger for Compassion International, she shares my faith in God, her writing is emotive, filled with bold and italic and exclamation points. She loves fiercely, and is a genuine person, generous with compliments, and ready to share her heart with you. Her writing really resonates with me. She had these thoughts to share during the session:
"The purpose many of us have in blogging is to share our hearts. Brevity is usually not our strong suit, we write to remember, we give voice to causes, and because blogging is fun and creative. You can get lost in the matrix, so to speak, and it can negatively affect your family and your relationships.". These things all resonated with me, and the getting lost in the matrix part, too. One of my favorite things about being at the TypeAMom conference was finding other people who understand, are attracted to, and have trouble pulling themselves away from online interaction through message boards, twitter, and blogging. Robin also shared that you need to be living it to be able to write it, so you need to be out there living your life, too.
Balance!!
You are the only one with your particular sphere of influence, people read your blog for a reason.
You sway people with your words, so speak up about things that you love and get you enthusiastic.
Think about who inspires you and what you get from the community around you.
The way to have authenticity when writing about brands is to be yourself and don't write like you are someone else. Don't be other than your style, your readers will know!
Here is a picture of @shash in her stunning blue dress with her unique laptop skin, probably prepping for our very small session on Special Needs Blogging.
Our Special Needs Blogging session was very intimate, it was held around one table, actually. Two women were there for just the first 10 or 15 minutes, and then the only ones left were Holly from IlikeitFrantic, me, and our speakers, Astacia and Shari. Shari and Astacia told us about the journey they had each had with their children with special needs, the advocacy they have done for their children, the laws in various states, professionals to contact relating to getting diagnoses and a lot of validation of our feelings. Shari and I started talking, and she gave me what was quite possibly the most important advice I'd gotten all weekend. "JUst because she sits stoic in a classroom for 6 hours a day doesn't prove that she doesn't need special services, and they must provide it by law.". So the signing of the IEP from August, we might have to overrrule that. Astacia also suggested that we get a developmental pediatrician to back up the psychiatrist's diagnosis with a medical diagnosis as well. A very important session for me to have attended, and I am so grateful for their perparation and support!
Town Hall Meeting
The schedule for the conference said this about the purpose of a town hall meeting: "Blogging ethics, spokesblogging, reviews (paid or not), whether companies should pay more, pay less or not pay bloggers for representation and consultation… Let’s get it all out there and make sense of this brave new world of mommy blogging. With leaders in blogging, PR and advertising and the whole audience participating, we take all those sticky blogging topics and talk them through to come up with best practices and some consensus." The notes from this event were taken by Christine from CutestKidEver and they can be found here.
Keynote Address - Breaking the Mommy Blogging Mold
The schedule for the conference had this to say about the purpose behind the keynote address: "There is no such thing as a cookie cutter mommy blogger. Moms who blog cover the entire spectrum of political beliefs, religious beliefs, ethnic background, areas of expertise, topics of interest. No two moms who blog are alike, despite a general view that mommy bloggers just write about parenting. In that spirit, the Type-A Mom keynote attempts to reflect the amazing and wonderful diversity of the momblogosphere."
photo courtesy of Kris Cain
speakers were, from left to right: Renee J. Ross, Cecily Kellogg, Megan Jordan, Allison Worthington (moderating), Anne Fitten Glenn, and Julie Roads. Here is a great synopsis of the Keynote from Christine at CutestKidEver.
After the speaking was all done, some attenders left, some got dressed up for the reception, some went and played Rock Band at Mulligans, and some went back to their rooms and packed and put their feet up after a long long day. I had some dinner, listened to @angengland and @reallifesarah sing about our weekend, and circled between the front lobby, the bar, and the reception. I did not play rock band, but I sure enjoyed watching these ladies! And in the lower picture, we are dancing down the hall to Michael Jackson's Beat It.
photo of Deb and Anissa courtesy of Cindy 
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