As I mentioned here, I recently attended The Blog Societies Conference in Charleston, SC.  I shared my outfit from the Welcome Party last week, but I wanted to do a full recap of the conference for anyone that may be considering attending next year or for anyone that’s just curious about what goes on at a blogging conference!

This is my second blogging conference to attend.  You can see my recap of Create & Cultivate here.

As a little background, The Blog Societies was founded by Cathy and Jessica and it is an online community of digital publishers from all around the US who share a similar passion for the content they create.  This year’s conference was the 4th annual installment of #TBScon (searchable hashtag on Instagram and Twitter!), and from what I’ve heard from past attendees, this one was the best yet.

The conference ran from Thursday night through Saturday afternoon.

Day 1 // Thursday

I arrived Thursday just in time for a late lunch at Husk with Victoria, Monica, Tara, and Katie.  Husk is all that it’s hyped up to be!

After lunch, the girls and I walked around downtown Charleston for a bit before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the Welcome Party.  The party was held at the Belmond Charleston Place, the host hotel for the conference, and was sponsored by Vera Bradley.  There was an open bar and tons of mingling.  I had the best time chatting with all of my DC blogger friends that made the trip and loved being able to finally meet so many people that I’ve known online for what seems like forever!  The Welcome Party was also a great opportunity to connect with some of the brand representatives that were there as part of the conference.  The night ended with Vera Bradley gifting us with the cutest new umbrellas, which came in super handy the next day when it poured!  Post-party, a group of us grabbed dinner at The Darling Oyster Bar and then called it a night.

Day 2 // Friday

Friday morning Victoria, Monica, Katie, and I popped into City Lights Coffee for a quick breakfast before heading to The Riviera Theater for the morning sessions.  I wore this dress for Friday’s festivities (full post coming next week)!

The morning included four speakers, Lindsey Humes of White Oak Creative, who shared best practices for auditing your website to keep readers engaged and really step up your publishing game, Amy Flurry, author of Recipe for Press (currently reading, and it’s great!), who shared her insight as a successful magazine editor on how to successfully pitch to editors, Sarah Bertness from rewardStyle, who discussed strategies in utilizing the liketoknow.it platform (how you can shop my Instagram pics!), and Victoria from MIMI at InStyle.com talked about digital publishers finding their own voice. I took away so many great tips from all of these amazingly talented women!

Lunch was provided back at the Belmond before we headed to the brand suite networking event.  This portion of the conference was basically an entire ballroom lined with booths set up by different brands.  We had the opportunity to bounce from booth to booth and meet and chat with brand representatives.  The brands kindly gifted us with an assortment of new products that they are currently promoting.  While this is a definite perk of attending a blogging conference, I do just want to point out that I, along with all of the other bloggers in attendance, did pay to attend the conference, and I would gladly pay it again!  The cost was beyond worth it!  A few of my favorite booths were the IT Cosmetics booth where they shared this amazing CC Cream and Under Eye Concealer (obsessed with both!), the Moon and Lola booth where we were able to style our own charm necklace and/or bracelet, and Swoozie’s – I mean, how cute is their booth?!

Friday night a group of us went to Poogan’s Porch for dinner (thanks to Laura for organizing!).  This was my favorite meal – If you’re looking for upscale southern food in a casual yet charming atmosphere with outstanding service, this is your place!

Day 3 // Saturday

Saturday morning started with a breakfast back at the Belmond hosted by Kendra Scott (have y’all seen the new fall line?!  LOVE!).  After we were stuffed full of deliciousness and fully caffeinated, we headed off to a morning of workshops.  This was my favorite part of the conference!  There were five workshops total and everyone got to attend their top three choices.  I chose Accounting, the Founders, and rewardStyle/liketoknow.it.  (P.S. I opted to wear this casual dress for Saturday’s festivities.)

Amy Northard hosted the Accounting workshop and oh my did I learn a ton!  Seriously y’all, if you’re a blogger or a creative entrepreneur, check out her site!  At the Founders workshop, Jessica and Cathy shared lessons they’ve learned while leaving behind the corporate/freelance world and taking their own blogs and The Blog Societies full time.  The liketoknow.it workshop focused on specific ways to enhance engagement on the Instagram platform.

The conference ended with a lunch hosted by Cosmedix where the Cosmedix ladies answered any and all skincare related questions that we had.  I’m currently LOVING their serum and moisturizer.

Overall, I had a wonderful time at the conference.  I learned so much and met so many amazingly talented creatives.  It’s so inspiring and motivating to spend an entire weekend surrounded with likeminded, passionate people!

If you have any questions about the conference, let me know!

* All photos curtesy of Kim Graham Photography