Last weekend I attended my second Bloggy Boot Camp in Philadelphia, the City of SITSterly Love.
I was lucky enough to be able to travel to the conference with my Bloggy BFF, Daune AKA: The Grasshoppa. We drove her Grasshoppa Express as fast as its little wings would carry us all while singing along to the soundtrack from the movie, Grease.
The Grasshoppa and I rocking the feather masks!
Photo by Tiffany @SitsGirls
The sweet Southern Belle, Dianna Kennedy
At happy hour I learned a very important lesson...do not order 3 drinks without asking the price of said drinks first. WOWZA!
We had an amazing dinner at Triumph Brewing Company where we dined on chicken, gnocchi, and pan seared salmon. I believe there may have been more cocktails.
Many more cocktails, my friends.
We made it back to our hotel and stayed up until late in the night talking, laughing, and tweeting our little hearts out.
Also, there may have been a glass or two of wine consumed. I think.
The next morning came and there was a flurry of excitement as we made our way to Bloggy Boot Camp and a day full of networking, education, and support.
THE SPEAKERS:
Jill from Scary Mommy got the conference started with another great presentation on 10 ways to build your blog's readership.
Lolli from Better In Bulk taught us all about our cameras and
what they can do to improve our blog's photographs.
The talented Cynthia of Napwarden knocked our socks off with her video presentation
and encouragement to create a blog design that makes a great first impression.
CecilyK spoke about blogging through the good times and the bad and how what we share can impact others around the world. Her story was amazing, shocking, and truly awe-inspiring.
Ted Rubin from the OpenSky Project spoke about the company and its influence of bloggers, celebrities, and innovators being brought together to build a new marketplace ecosystem. OpenSky offers a chance for anyone to couple with manufacturers of products they believe in and then offer them for sale on their own blogs. This is something I will definitely be taking a closer look at in the weeks to come.
Many of us that attended this Bloggy Boot Camp had also been at Baltimore's BBC earlier in the year so Tiffany, Kat, and Jill decided to host a breakout session for us veterans. We got to ask questions brainstorm answers. This session allowed us to get to know each other better and share our blog's focus and future.
Kat from Today's Cliche, CecilyK, Caroline from The Bingham Diaries,
and Lolli of Better In Bulk were just some of the attendees of the breakout session.
THE PEOPLE:
I met so many great friends that until last weekend only lived in my computer. Getting to put blog names with faces was the best part of the whole weekend.
Heading to dinner with some great ladies.Mavin of Savin, Coma Girl, Dutch Being Me, A Million Boxes, and All Things Fadra.
and making me laugh.
Corine of Complicated Mama and Heather of Theta Mom making a point.
And in the forefront another cocktail!
Angie of Seriously A Homemaker and Roo of Nice Girl Notes
hanging with none other than the Philadelphia Ghostbusters!
hanging with none other than the Philadelphia Ghostbusters!
Saturday night all the SITStahs were treated to an awesome cocktail and dessert bar from the Bloggy Boot Camp sponsor, VirtuaWoman.
The Grasshoppa & Tiffany from SITS
Check out the dessert bar! I only had 1 thing and I am STILL kicking myself for not trying more!
Sunday morning came entirely too soon and we were forced to say goodbye to friends new and old.
Bye Napwarden and Dutch! We'll always have appletinis!
Daune and I escorted Dianna to the airport in the Grasshoppa Express!
But, before we left Philly there was one stop we HAD to make.
Geno's Steaks
Pat's: King of Steaks...and also panic attacks.
We had to have an authentic Philly cheese-steak before leaving this great city. These 2 locations are practically an institution in the city and after attempting to order my cheese-steaks (wit whiz or wit provolone) I was almost ready to be checked into one.
We went to Geno's Steaks first and that was pretty easy going. Pat's Steaks? Not so much.
Apparently when you order your sandwich at Pat's you had better know exactly what you want, have your cash in your hand, and for the love of God do NOT step to the side because if you do the cashier will admonish you and tell you that he could have given your steaks to someone else and then you would have been s#*t out of luck with no steaks.
No, I'm not kidding.
Thankfully we made it out of there with our steaks and I hung on to a thread of my sanity.
I can't thank SITS enough for hosting yet another great Bloggy Boot Camp and also the event's sponsors DiaperBuds, Collective Bias, OpenSky, VirtuaWoman, and Mastermind which made it all possible.
If you would like to read the recap from my first Bloggy Boot Camp held in Baltimore earlier this year you can read my recap of that event here!
