Here's what went down Friday night and Saturday morning:
We arrived Friday afternoon. Corey dropped me off at the Swap location to register and drop of my two items. Then we went and checked into the hotel. We stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Regency. The first event was a happy hour for people that were traveling alone hosted at The Bonneville. It just gave us all a chance to connect with someone. It was a nice way to get our networking feet wet.
Then we headed over to the night's event. It was a clothing and book swap. Every attendee brought two clothing items from their closet and a book that they love. Silly me forgot to take a photo of the things I brought with me. Both were things that I had bought online and when I received them, they didn't fit right or the style was not totally me. And I brought this book.
I was lucky enough to get two cute dresses. One was brand new, brought by Lulus! After the swap we walked down the street and had a little snack and talked some more. It was such a fun mix of girls, and some from Houston too.
The next morning, we had opening session bright and early. Indiana, the founder of TxSC welcomed us and told us this sweet story:
When she was little, she spent time hand drawing invitations for her birthday. She invited all the cool girls and none of them came. She said that all the time and effort that she put into this conference was like those hand drawn invitations. She is always so nervous that no one will come. She said, "BUT ALL THE COOL GIRLS CAME!" How sweet is that!
There were sessions all day that you could choose between. They were focused on different parts of blogging and small business.
The first session I went to was Life Blogging 101, led by Jenni of Story of My Life. It was super inspiring (for instance, look at me Life Blogging) and informative. Thanks for all the tips Jenni!
The next session was Iphoneography, led by Carli from Inked Fingers. Her and her husband are photographers based in Austin. They capture beautiful images. She talked about taking photos with your cell phone. Even though I don't have an iphone, this class gave some good tips about being intentional with your photo taking.
The third session I went to was called eCommerce 101, led by the wonderful Tasha of Imperfect Concepts. She has a blog and an online business. She also offers consulting to small business, so girl knows her stuff. This class was all the information I had been searching for, but I keep getting conflicting information. She's also giving us a free copy of her eBook that is coming out soon. I will be sure to let y'all know about that!
The next class was about personal budgeting, led by Eric & Kelsey Williams. Their blog is Words of Williams. They talked about how to create and stick to a budget. They also told us about this great budgeting software called YNAB or You Need A Budget. I've downloaded a free trial that me and Corey will be using for the rest of the month. I will be reporting back here with the findings!
And the final session I went to was an AMA style class with Kevin, co founder of Iron to Iron (and husband to Jen of Jen Loves Kev). He answered all of our questions about blog design and such. He also gave us some tips and information about where he thinks that design is going.
After all that this handsome guy took me to a late lunch.
Whew! That was a lot! I'll be back soon with more about PROM! And Sunday sessions!
All of the pictures except the one of me and the one of Corey are from the Texas Style Council Instagram account.
