BlogOn Conference 2019 #BlogOnToys

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since a posted on here! Last weekend I attended my first EVER blogging conference and I thought I’d share my experience with a little run through of my day before I forget anything!

📸 – Liz Murray www.thatlizandthoseboys.com

I’d been umming and arring over it for a while before I finally purchased my ticket. I’d seen a few of the bloggers who I follow on Instagram had attended the previous conference and I have to say I was kind of jealous as it looked great! If I’d not have faffed around so much I could have got an early bird ticket which was cheaper but the day itself was well worth what I paid for and so much more.

My mum looked after the girls for the day but she was too nervous to drive me there and back. After a last minute plea on the BlogOn group a few people had offered me a lift – there are some really lovely people in the world.[wpvideo WsvnnpTW ]

I ended up getting a lift with Lucinda and we clicked straight away, we honestly had such a laugh and we spent a good part of the day together. She even offered to give me a lift home and gave me some really valuable tips and advice.

On arrival to the venue – Coppid Beech hotel, we were given our name badges which had our blog names and our real names. (You’ll spend a lot of time staring at people’s badges to see if you recognise them)

We then picked up our #blogongoodybags and wow they weren’t messing around when they told us to bring a large empty suitcase! 📸 taken by me – missing a few bits that the girls had taken and I’d eaten! (Huge thank you to all of the brands who added to the goodybag and of course the people who put the goody bags together that must have taken forever)

I can’t believe how much stuff was in there, I’m still going through it all now! We were given 2 goody bags to pack away in our suitcases and another during the welcome speech which included pen and paper, a cold defence spray and a soda stream water bottle which we could use to fill up our drinks with the soda stream machines.

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We had the opportunity to mingle and chat to other bloggers over breakfast and they served bacon butties with tea or coffee. There were bloggers decorating Christmas trees for a competition before the welcome speech and a huge blown up snow globe from Awesome Bloss’ems where you could win some prizes!

📸 – Michelle Hasslet www.whatmummythinks.co.uk

For the welcome speech we were all sat in one of the conference rooms with a big projector and had various speeches. One from one of the organisers Laura Seaton who wrote her speech after a couple of gins (we all had a little giggle) and a guide on what to do on your first blog on which was also funny.[wpvideo v7oMUDFS ]📸 sneaky little elves

We were given a map and a timetable as there quite a few different guest speakers at set times. We needed to choose which ones to go to.

I decided to go to the brand den to see what toys there were and on the way they had a huge corridor lined up with toys so that we could vote for them in the #BlogOnToyAwards which we were given a link to so that we could choose our favourites out of each category. These toys were also going to be given away in the raffle later on.

📸 – Michelle Hasslet www.whatmummythinks.co.uk

I ended up missing two of the presentations that I wanted to see as I got carried away chatting to everyone in the brand den!

Everyone was so friendly and easy to get along with. It was so good to put names to faces especially with people who we’ve already worked with (Wire PR) and to meet some really knowledgable people in the toy industry as well as some really friendly PR companies. Some of the toys I’d never seen before and I got lots of Christmas present inspo for the girls.

There was a huge variety of brands from Hotter Shoes to Qualatex balloons. Playmobil and DC comics. 📸 – Rosie Dutton www.muminthemoment.com

There was also Paladone who were hosting the Christmas party which I sadly couldn’t attend as I had to get home. My bag was slowly starting to fill up with goodies too.

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There were loads of competitions throughout the day to win prizes, from retweeting pictures to leaving your details with brands. Have to give a mention to Prince Charming who was taking photos with everyone for Hotter Shoes #myhotterfit OH MY GOD. He was beautiful 😂 sorry roobs!

I absolutely fell in love with everything at the Sylvanian Families stall. Their nursery collection is so bloody cute, I can’t wait to buy some of them for the girls! I had my photo with the Sylvanian Bunny that was walking around too!

The two presentations I attended were tutorial for photoshop by Sarah Jane who showed us how to edit in photoshop and photoshop raw. I also went to a presentation on how to do overhead videos by @eatsamazing which I found really interesting but man that looks like such hard work! I really wanted to go to the Building relationships with brands presentation but I missed it as I was being a chatterbox.

There was also a GINgerbread trail but I wasn’t clued up enough to figure out what to do. They did serve some gin in the afternoon where I had a cheeky tipple with Nicole @thelittlestdarlings who I’ve known for years and we had a lovely chat. She was the one who persuaded me to attend the conference as I’d messaged her about it!

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Our lunch was included in the price of our ticket which was a buffet in the restaurant and included bat man burgers and mince pies. How beautiful was the cake though?!

I have to mention the raffle even though I regrettably didn’t buy any tickets.

Everyone had the chance to purchase tickets throughout the day and the money all went towards the bloggers fund to help bloggers in need when they have an emergency. The numbers and names were drawn and everyone had first pick from ALL of the toys so were running like lunatics trying to find something they wanted. Everyone was cheering if someone near them had their name called out. Although I didn’t get any tickets (I wish I did now) it was actually very entertaining! My friend Lucinda won and chose the Harry Potter invisibility cloak and she was over the moon 🤣 and she also won some other toys and gifted me the girly ones cos she’s the cutest!

📸 Zara very happy with mummy’s goody bag!

Not only did I learn a huge amount from the day I also made so many friends and if you are thinking about going next year I would strongly recommend it. It was my first time going and I was very anxious but there were also a lot of people in the same boat and once you get chatting you’ll be okay and you’ll have a wonderful time! I came home feeling really refreshed (first time away from the kids 😂) also tired from talking so much but most importantly feeling very inspired by all of the people who I’d met and full of ideas for my blog which I was lacking before.

Thank you to all of the organisers and brands who made the day as amazing as it was. I’m looking forward to next years already! Hoping I can stay for the after party next year as it looked like a lot of fun and gin was had by all!

Head over to the BlogOn website if you’d like more info!