The Central Florida Blogger’s Conference was hosted by Bess Auer of the Central Florida Top 5 Blog. When I entered the Maitland Middle School gym, Marc Middleton was giving an inspiring and insightful presentation about his National program called “Growing Bolder.” His presentation stressed that we can achieve anything we set our sights on. He punctuated the point by showing video of a woman who was 109 years old who loved blogging. She said writing every day kept her sharp and always curious.
At lunch I got to meet Laura Tellado who runs a blog called “Holdin’ Out for a Hero“, which promotes Awareness of Spina Bifida. I learned about her cause and we batted ideas back and forth about blogging. She introduced me to the QR code which magically brings up a web page using a smart phone. The first thing I did when I got back from the conference was to design a new business card with a QR code on it. Working daily on my own blog I never realized the wide variety of specialty blogs out there. When so many specialists mix it up there are unexpected and exciting results.
The day offered many new ideas and concepts. I am still trying to digest all that was discussed that day. I feel that I have a whole lot of catching up to do and I am proceeding one step at a time. I was told by a fan of my blog that I don’t tweet enough, so I will work on that. So many people at the conference were professional Public Relations and marketing experts. Which was both intimidating and exhilarating. Everyone offered me new insights and leads. Although this conference was smaller than the izea Fest Blogging Conference I sketched over a year ago, it had the advantage of being more intimate, offering more opportunities to meet fellow bloggers. At the Eden Bar afterward, I got to talk to Maria Diestro from Second Harvest Food Bank. This chance meeting will result in my sketching and reporting on the great work this organization does.
