From left to right: Toni Anderson, Erin Chase, Crystal Collins, Crystal Paine, Andrea Deckard
(photo taken by SprittiBee – see all the awesome photos from the dinner)
On Friday, February 5th, we had the first ever (and hopefully not the last) Savvy Blogging Round Table Dinner and Discussion. After receiving and baggin’ lots, and I do mean LOTS, of awesome swag, we were set and ready to have our dinner.
It was so cold and rainy, and I (Crystal Collins) was put in charge of making sure everyone made it from the Gaylord over the the Radisson. I drove over in our rental van, to assess the situation and make sure everyone made it on the shuttle. We were waiting at the main entrance, but no shuttle showed up. I must have called Toni and Andrea 5-6 times, re-clarifying where we were supposed to be and what the shuttle would look like. I then found out we were waiting at the wrong location.
So I moved 75 women, and a few babies, out into the cold to another pick-up location. Still no shuttle. Then, as if he knew we needed a savior, a random Opryland bus driver pulled up asking who we were waiting for. After telling him, we found out that we were waiting in the wrong spot (again). Being such a gentleman, the driver offered to take us all over to the Radisson, babies, strollers, laptops and all! I was so grateful, as were all the women that were stranded in the cold!
Phew, we avoided a catastrophe and were ready to start our dinner out right! Dinner began, and it was instantly awesome! People were already chatting and sharing, without any encouragement from us. Once dinner was underway, we heard from our two main sponsors: Cracker Barrel and Savings.com. Cracker Barrel shared the story of how their antiques are done in their restaurants, and what the vision of the founders is. Savings.com told everyone about an upcoming affiliate program they will be launching that is geared towards bloggers. It was great stuff, and we are so thankful to our sponsors that made this dinner free, and provided awesome swag!
Then the real learning began. Each table had a table leader that led the discussion on various subjects like monetizing, wordpress plugins, how to inspire reader engagement (more comments), search engine optimization, tags, and so much more! Everyone was contributing and it was a fantastic experience! I learned some great things, and was able to pass on some of my own knowledge to those that were around me. This part lasted about an hour or so, and then we all just mingled around the room (continuing to share and help). I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. A room full of bloggers, and all of them with the same mindset: share what I know with someone so they can become a better blogger.
This all slowly came to a close, and we all grabbed some serious swag! Thank you so much to all of our sponsors for making this happen, and especially to our attendees for making this such a memorable experience.
You all ready for more Savvy Blogging? Make sure you are following us on Twitter, Facebook or our RSS Feed to know about our next event coming up real soon! You won’t want to miss this…
Do you have a Savvy Blogging Dinner recap or “what you learned post” on your blog? How about a Vlog or pictures? Let us know about it here with the linky!
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Thank you!
Blessings,
Mrs. White
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And about the bus thing: I didn’t even really realize there was a problem. I think we were all so excited to go that we didn’t fret about transportation issues! But you got us there safely and on-time – thanks.
-Lauren
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