Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup 2012

On Saturday, I attended the 2012 Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup, which took place at the Brassaii Restaurant and Lounge in Toronto and was organized by the wonderful Vie of Verdigris Vie and Daniella of Daniella Marie.

I had an awesome time. I love this event because it's a relaxed atmosphere and really gives us a chance to talk with and hang out with our fellow bloggers. I got  to meet a few new faces, which was awesome. From this meetup, I found some awesome (new to me) bloggers to follow and have added some people to my Twitter account. It's funny, part of me wants to walk right up to the bloggers I've talked with online (but haven't met yet), and part of me wants to hang back and not be so enthusiastic so I don't look crazy. I feel like I already know a lot of them through their blogs and the back and forth we have in the comments and emails. I love the Canadian blogging community! It's awesome! 


At this event, we had some fantastic guest speakers:


Lisa Murphy, an online director at House and Home;
Cameron MacNeil, a senior design editor at House and Home; 
Cassandra Lavalle from the blog coco+kelley;
and surprise guest, Brian Gluckstein from Gluckstein Design.


I had a bit of a hard time hearing, but took some notes from Cassandra's presentation. Some of the messages were reiterations from BlogPodium, but I appreciate hearing them again. It helps to drill them into my head!

• Have a professional looking blog and a consistent and cohesive brand. 
• Actively seek connections with established bloggers. If you want to guest post on another blog, pitch your specific idea and why you think it would be good on this person's blog.
• Attend industry events
• Create an editorial calendar
• Be true to your voice and style
• Practice good blogging etiquette (good referencing is important!)
• If you can't do something well on your blog, such as graphics, hire someone out until you learn how to do it

And finally, if you were unable to attend or are just curious about what goes on at these events, Len from Otima was filming and has put together a short clip. Check it out! It's just a teaser while he finishes the complete video, but it'll give you a feel for what we bloggers get up to after a few glasses of wine... just kidding!

Thanks to Vie and Daniella for putting together another amazing event! 

Here are my posts to my previous blogger meetups:

Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup 2011

BlogPodium - Jan 2012

What I Learned at Blog Podium: "Blogs+Media"

On Friday, I attended Blog Podium. This was the first of a series of conferences created by Jennifer Flores of Rambling Renovators and Lindsay Stephenson of Little House Blog. The topic of this first Blog Podium was "Blogs + Media" and the panel was made up by a fantastic line-up of women!

• Margot Austin, Senior Design Editor for House and Home magazine (and blogger!)
• Kate Moore, CityLine Producer (and blogger!)
• Kimberley Seldon, Design Editor for Chatelaine magazine
• Jennifer Flores, Published Blogger and Co-Founder of Blog Podium
• And the moderator was Leigh-Ann Allaire Perrault, CityLine Guest Expert and Benjamin Moore Design Team member.

Left to right: Leigh-Ann Allair Perrault, Jennifer Flores, Kimberley Seldon. Photo by Jason Hudson

Left to right: Kimberley Seldon, Kate Moore, Margot Austin. Photo by Jason Hudson

The conversation was awesome! I tweeted throughout and took notes like a fiend! I was the sponge and they were the water. I was there to learn and learn. I. did.

From my notes, I focussed on the messages that were repeated by most members of the panel. So I present you with my:

1.     Have a clear and authentic message I.e.: be original and have a distinct voice. People want to read blogs that are 60% content and 40% entertainment. 

2.     Focus on having a beautiful, well-edited blog. I.e.: Do not use your flash for photos, create posts that are less than 500 words, and break up the text with photos... photos that are properly credited!

3.    Consistency! Be consistent with your brand and the regularity of your posts (minimum of 3 posts per week is ideal) 

4.     Create an editorial calendar!

5.     Social media (Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook) and guest posts are a great way to get exposure 

I had never heard of an editorial calendar, so I looked it up - it's supposedly a very efficient way of controlling content publication. I'm all for efficiency and have had issues in the past with coming up with post ideas. Using an editorial calendar, everything would already be planned out. So I spent a couple of hours finding a good template and then altered it a bit to suit my needs. Then amalgamated all the notes I have for post ideas (in emails, on my phone, written on paper) and organized them into the calendar (for the most part). Then thought "OH EM GEE. Why have I not been doing this ALL ALONG?!" Well... I didn't even know such an idea existed until very recently. That's probably why. But now I know, there's no going back! Up until now, my blogging has been spontaneous. I draft a post and usually publish it that same day, so I don't have any backup posts on the ready. I'll work a bit over the next couple of weeks to create more content (drafts for publishing) to add to my calendar. I'm so excited! I haven't been this inspired or felt this motivated in a long time. 


Does anyone else have any great blogging tips? Do you like my condensed list? Are YOU going to start an editorial calendar now? Seriously... do it! Do it now! You can thank me later :)


Here's what went down at my very first blogger meetup: The Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup 2011

Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup 2011

On Saturday I went to Brassaii for the Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup. Before Saturday, I'd never been here before, but I'd heard good things about it. Brassaii is located in a beautiful building on King St W in Toronto - outside is a charming cobblestone patio and beautiful tomato coloured doors greeted me as I entered. Inside, there was some great lighting and brick walls - my weakness!

The lovely Daniella (from Dress, Design & Decor) and Vie (from Verdigris Vie) were the power duo behind this beautifully organized event.

They snagged Tommy Smythe (!) as the key speaker for the event and he quickly dubbed us "Bitches Who Blog" and he called me beautiful...well technically, he called he audience beautiful, but I was in the audience, so that counts...right??

He shared with us a slide show of photos from his (and Sarah Richardson's and Scott McGillivray's) recent trip to Scandinavia, where they visited the Ikea Museum. Tommy has an amazing eye for design (obviously!) and his commentary was hilarious, to say the least. He talked about the timelessness of good design at any price point, and gave the Lack table (shown below) as an example. He also showed us a uniquely shaped building front and said it was an inspiring shape for a headboard. The most hilarious part for me was when he discussed the pros and cons of obelisks versus ball-shaped objects... If you don't know what an obelisk is, look it up and you'll get why it was funny.

{via}

I couldn't believe the giveaways! A huuuge Ikea gift card, several Delta faucets, a Rowenta steamer, an iPad, books, some Crate and Barrel pillows, a few magazine subscriptions to Canadian House and Home....... wooh!

The swag bags that were given out at the end of the night were great as well. We got one copy of Style at Home, 2 copies of Canadian House & Home, a travel mug by CIL and a cool lamp from Ikea. 

The best part of the night for me was meeting all my fellow bloggers in person! It was so great! Admittedly, it felt a little creeper-like to walk up to someone and say, "Hey (insert blogger's name)! I love your blog. Your bathroom/kitchen/garden/kids/wedding looked so great" lol but I guess that's what blogging's all about - putting yourself out there. These ladies below are Brittany (My Daily Randomness), her sister Amanda (Amanda Cromwell Designs), and Janice (Life Begins at Thirty, Right?)... then me!

Some other women I met, who I didn't get pics with, were Kerry from First Time Fancy, Sarah, from Redesigning Sarah (who won the iPad2....lucky girl!), Lindsay from Buy Borrow and Style, Michele from Mod Missy, Susan from Saf Affect, Jennifer from Rambling Renovators, and Andrea from Ikea, who very kindly explained to me how Twitter works.


I couldn't get enough of the hors d'oeuvres! I wasn't hungry when I got there, but I sure worked up an appetite once I saw the beautifully presented food being served.  Yummy spring rolls, gourmet grilled cheeses, individual sized fish and chips, crab cakes.


I thought I tried everything, but then I saw the photos on the CDB site and somehow I managed to miss these delectable bites! Me oh my they look gooood.

**All photos, except where noted, are from Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup and were taken by Leah Kirin from Forever Moments.