Travel, Entertainment, and a Blog Conference

Last weekend I went to a brand spanking new blog conference called the ENMN (Entertainment New Media Network) Conference. This FIRST conference of it’s kind was held in Anaheim, CA and was the brainchild of Erica Pena-Vest. Erica is one of those people who you could underestimate if you didn’t know her better… she knows her shit! For a veteran conference goer like myself, if I can walk away having learned something I didn’t know before, it’s a successful conference. And I have to say, I had NO clue how travel and entertainment blogging worked before last weekend. Wow… completely different than fashion, beauty, food, and lifestyle blogging. My mind was blown.

My big issue when I’m at a conference is that I don’t take a lot of pictures. I spend most of my time either listening to what the speakers are saying or I’m writing down tidbits of knowledge that I know I’ll forget later on. Photos aren’t my thing, so you probably won’t see any fabulous photos… unless someone else has taken them. 

Part of the excitement of this conference was that it was the first time I was asked to be on a panel of veteran bloggers. Just the fact that I’m now considered a veteran kind of humbled me. I guess once you’ve been around for over 5 years, you’re considered the top of the food chain. I don’t think of myself like that, however, because I am still learning, experiencing, being awed by things other people in the blogging world are doing. I think part of being an experienced blogger is realizing how much you don’t know… and figuring out a way to learn it.

Other than my family, there isn’t much I love more than talking blogging, social media, conferences, and branding. It’s in my blood. The other women on my panel, Lisa Robertson of Babes in Disneyland and Pilar Clark of One Mom Media, I had known of but had never met before. I have to say, I will now be stalking them forevermore because not only are they super knowledgeable, but they are super nice. And nice is sometimes hard to come by in this industry.

 Thank you Elizabeth Parker for the photo.

 A conference is only as good as it’s speakers. If you don’t learn anything new, it isn’t worth the price of admission. Literally. One of the highlights for me was hearing Doug Bowman, the Creative Director of Twitter, speak. I am fascinated by the way social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest work. I think being a fly on the wall in some of the company meetings would be eye-opening. One thing I didn’t realize is that quite often these sites which we think are always hiding information from us, really aren’t. You just need to know where to find it. There is a site business.twitter.com that will give you a lot of info on what is really going on behind the scenes at Twitter. I highly recommend you take a look at it. 

I was also struck by Marcy Massura of MSL Group, one of the nations largest PR agencies. I think bloggers tend to complain a lot when it comes to working with PR agencies and Marcy’s very clear picture of the responsibilities of PR agencies helped us to understand their roles when working with bloggers. It is always refreshing to meet someone who whole-heartedly believes in the benefit of working with bloggers (influencers) and is working hard to foster this relationship for the future as well. And just for the record… yes, PR pros do have blacklists for people they won’t work with again. Don’t be that blogger that gets on one of those lists. Be professional, be on time, dress the part, don’t be a complainer and please… know your value. 

Learning is exhausting, don’t you think? So to top it all off, there were some really fun screenings during the conference. The one I attended was “Mom’s Night Out” with Sarah Drew and Sean Astin. This was one of those movies that had been on my radar for a long time, and one that I would have absolutely gone to the theaters to see on my own dime. Hello… huge Grey’s Anatomy fan here. (Sarah Drew plays April on the show.) The movie did NOT disappoint. I have to say that I was surprised by some things, but I’ll let you go see the movie and figure it out yourself. I thought the movie absolutely captured both the stress and joy motherhood brings. It was funny, thoughtful, inspirational and honest. I will be seeing it again. And again. Because the actors are amazing… all of them. I’ve never been so enamored by an ensemble case as I am with this one. Take a peek…

So let me know if you want to go see it when it opens on May 9th. Not sure I’ll be able to drag my husband or not.

Erica, huge kudos for a job well done. I’m sure next year’s conference will be even better.