I attended the Blissdom Conference in Nashville, Tennessee last week. You may have or may not have met me if you attended. But really even though you don’t remember meeting me, you did. Because I looked like this, most of the conference. I’m going to break my post conference recaps up into three parts.  I will have three posts up within the next week. I’m not sure what dates they will go live, but you know, it takes a lot of thought to write something around my pictures, or  other people’s pictures.  The people who were awesome and actually took photos of ME!

Photo by Mishelle Lane

Do I look familiar now?

Four Days + Eleven Hundred DSLR Photos + Fifty iPhone Photos + Cropping/Editing Photos for Forty Plus Hours = Three Hundred Eighty Seven Photos + Uploaded to Flickr = No Sleep, No Blog Posts, and No Responding to E-mails, but Job Done!

After all was said and done, I have 387 photos edited and posted in Flickr from the Conference.  I started at the beginning and worked my way to the end, chronologically.  Some people may have wanted me to put up the best photos first.  I slowly worked my way day by day, event by event.  This is how I roll, or post edit.  After looking through the Official Blissdom Flickr group, I have realized once again, that my photos are “meh” but I got the job done.  I always tell people that photographing a conference is much different than just being an awesome photographer.  Usually the lighting is horrific and you have to use a flash.  I appreciated all of the help that Dawn gave me figuring out white balance.  And don’t tell my husband, but I really want a Nikon D700 now because of Dawn.  I was lusting after the D7000, but swoon, the D700 is so pretty. Be sure to check out Dawn’s post about the white balance lens cap she uses. All I can say is amazing!

Did you get to meet my roommates? I have photos of them all over, but this photo really captures their “rockstar personalities”.  Really, how can you not love Laurie and Kelly.  They are both great business women, have three kids each, and can rock the dance floor like no one else. And they are nice, like really nice!

I arrived in Nashville on Tuesday night with my party plane girls.  We all went to dinner, and stayed up late chatting.  It was great to have some quality time.  On Friday morning, we were up early, well 7-ish, to report for our first day of the pre-conference which was the Wisdom Workshops. I saw many of my blogging friends right away when I walked upstairs to the registration area.  I was able to hug Rachel right away because she was working the registration table.  We were thinking alike, because we both had our Tervis Tumblers in hand.

I am somewhat of a wanderer and I roamed through the Wisdom Workshops on Wednesday.  But I can tell you what I really listened to an extended period of time.  I went to vlogging, photography, and SEO/Analytics.  I enjoyed Jenny and Esther talking about vlogging and preparation before you actually blog.  I was able to hang with Amy, Mishelle, and Dawn through the photography workshop.  They helped me with my camera “issues” (typical), and we also discussed iPhone photos.  I walked into the SEO/Analytics session late, but my head hurt while I was in there. The information that Angela, Melanie, and Shelly gave out was super informative.  I need another tutorial or explanation of it all.

After attending the workshops, I headed to dinner in the hotel with some of my bloggy friends.  I had some delicious sliders, with a side of holy wow, time is flying, and must go take more photos.  So I went and changed, and then headed towards the Kick-Off party.  I was promptly greeted by all of the other fabulous bloggers.  It was crowded but I managed to sneak in and out of the crowd to chat, snap a photo, and maybe even get a few snacks in.

We were treated to a sneak preview of CMT’s “Working Class” with special guest, actress Melissa Peterman after the Kick-Off Party.  I had a cupcake and almost fell asleep during the viewing.  I knew that it was time to go to bed.  It had been a very long day.

Photo by Heather Durdil

Summary of Day 1 (Wisdom Workshops): It was a long and busy day. There were so many informative workshops, but they were all going on at the same time, or maybe I just have ADD.  I think it is the ADD. I know that people hate blog conferences being compared to sorority rush, but really, it felt like Day 1 of rush.  I went to all the events, met so many people, and could not process it all.  I may have asked if there was a scheduled “nap time” several times. Wouldn’t that be great, with blankies and everything! But I have to say, I looked pretty cute doing it all! Heather was able to capture me, “in action”.

Part 2 of this post will be posted in a few days…