Blogtacular and photowalk with Xanthe Berkeley

At the weekend I attended my first Blogtacular which bills itself as ‘a place for bloggers whose hearts beat with creativity to come together to meet, share and inspire’. I’ve been to a few blogging conferences in my time but none of them ever felt like I really belonged there. I had high hopes that Bloctacular would tick all my boxes, and guess what? It did.

Blogtacular and photowalk with Xanthe Berkeley

I was lucky enough to get a place on the Photowalk with Xanthe Berkeley. The only problem was it started at 7am on the Southbank before the conference. I set my alarm for 5am and got to the London Eye with plenty of time to spare. The Photo Walk was really fun and made me see London in a completely different light – albeit through sleepy dust laden eyes. We explored the Southbank, stopping to take photographs in front of painted walls and steps with ginormous helium balloons. It was a lot of fun.

Then it was on to the venue and ready for the first speaker – the inspiring Grace Bonney from Design*Sponge. I loved her talk all about how blogging changes and we should embrace that change, even if we’re scared of it. I’ve been blogging since 2005 and find myself constantly learning and trying new things.  My favourite quote from her was “The best thing about working on the internet, aside from it being fun, easy and free, is that there is room for everyone at the table.”

I couldn’t decide which talk to attend after this so went to visual storyteller Marte Marie Forsberg who spoke about Creativity & Inspiration. Her talk was great but pretty much the same as the one she gave at BritMums Live last year.

I loved The Bones of Good Photography by Kat Molesworth and picked up some great tips which I’ve already used. The Instagram Panel was brilliant, as was Finding Your Voice by the Mollie Makes team. The closing keynote was given by Anthony Peters of Imeus who inspired us all  with his talk on Creativity in the Digital Age.

During lunch there was plenty of time to network and get crafty. I loved the craft table provided by Seeds and Stitches and made a motivational banner and painted a necklace with gorgeous Annie Sloan paint. I must admit to nipping out to Liberty at this point for a breath of fresh air!

I had a really inspiring day at Blogtacular. Before I went I was feeling a little blah about my blog and I’ve really been struggling with which direction to take it in. This Summer sees my tenth year of blogging and I’m finding it hard to justify the time spent writing and sharing my posts. Blogtacular has definitely encouraged me to think about things in a different light and I’m looking forward to my eleventh year of blogging.

I can’t end without a note about the beautiful goody bags by Nikki McWilliams. Gorgeous!

Official Blogtacular photographs by Piers MacDonald, thanks Mollie Makes.