Hello! I made it back this week - cue round of applause! Those of you that saw my business goals for 2018 and last weeks related post will have seen that one of my goals was to grow my business through learning and investing in myself. The first action I took to do this was attending Blogtacular!!. Blogtacular for those of you that aren't familiar with it is a conference for bloggers and small business owners who want to grow their online presence and business. I thought this would be a perfect way for me to learn some new skills as well as meeting other people with similar aspirations to mine. (On a side note I totally forgot to take pictures during the workshops and Blogtacular kindly shared theirs with those that attended, photos that aren’t my own are credited to Blogtacular and the photographer)

On another side note, I stayed in London the Friday night so I could get a good night sleep between the fringe events and the conferences early start. If you are going to the conference in the future I would highly recommend the Premier Inn Hub hotel on Brick lane.  It was honestly the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in, it is right by Spitalfields market (couldn’t resist some shopping) and lots of other attendees stayed there so we could all walk to the venue together in the morning.

First up was Keynote speaker Tiffany Han who kicked off the conference spectacularly sharing with us the importance of sharing what you are truly passionate about and showing just how much you are passionate about it without being scared that it makes you look like a dork. Tiffany was such an amazing motivational speaker and as soon as I got home I downloaded her podcast ‘Raise Your Hand & Say Yes’ to hear more of her wisdom!

Next up I chose to sit in on an SEO workshop held by Elaine Malone of XOMisse as I had been meaning to explore this subject in more depth as I was aware my SEO knowledge was very basic. Whilst learning about SEO might sound like a dry subject Elaine explained it so simply and made available some fantastic resources so I now have no excuse not to have my website SEO up to scratch.

Between workshops I took the opportunity to speak to Leona Thrift-Ola founder of Lucky Dip Club for some one-to-one business advice. Leona was fantastic offering honest feedback and realistic advice for how to take the next step with my business – thank you again Leona!

The afternoon brought workshops with spokesperson Anna Neumann from Pinterest giving some real insight about how to make Pinterest work for your business along with some insider secrets about what new things to expect over the coming year on the platform. Also you should definitely check out Anna’s instagram account – her feed and style is gorgeous! The last workshop of the afternoon was run by author and creative writing coach Greta Solomon. Greta walked us through the anatomy of a blog post or article and then some exercises to get our creative juices flowing and help us look at how to build a captivating blog post. This was a really insightful session and I hope it will help me improve my writing (with practice!!).

The day was closed by keynote speaker Anthony Burrill, famous for his bold typographic art with a social conscience. Anthony shared with us his career journey that led him to the work he is so well known for and was an inspiring (and humorous) note to finish the day on. Before catching the train home the organiser Kat Molesworth brought everyone together for a group photo and gave out the phenomenal goodie bags, not pictured is the Lucky Dip avocado and toast socks – they were in the wash because I cant stop wearing them, they are literally my favourite socks ever!

This conference was EXHAUSING! All the workshops themes were totally relevant and captivating – it was so difficult to decide which to attend, you just don’t want to miss out on anything! There was also a hugely appreciated ‘introvert space’ to go and chill out for a few minutes when you just need a cuppa and a moment to empty your brain. Literally for a couple of days after I walked around in a daze while my brain processed and sorted all the information, looking back through my notes now I am positive this was a great investment and there is a lot I will take away from it.

Who else attended? Have you recovered?!