This year was my very first Britmums experience, and actually my first experience of a blogging conference in general. I keep trying to sum it up to people, and can't really find the words. It was absolutely fantastic, but also very overwhelming, long and exhausting.
My day started bright and early when I met the lovely Fran from Whinge Whinge Wine on the train. I was a bag of nerves, but I cannot tell you how much better I felt for not being alone. We arrived at The Brewery to a sea of people, and so began the hunt for faces I recognised!
It wasn't long before I spotted Sophie from Sophie & Lily, and within a few minutes we were taken through to registration and nibbles. The process was really easy - although I was shocked they didn't even check my ticket, they just asked my name once I picked up my badge. We quickly grabbed some pastries and drinks and found a table ready for the day to begin.
From there the day passed with a bit of a blur. I spent most of my day with Sophie and Claire (The Witt Family), we're all vloggers so I've 'known' them for a while now. We went to a number of sessions, although I didn't find all of them to be as useful as I was hoping. The SEO chat was definitely the best and I do felt I learnt some helpful bits. I also really enjoyed the Parenting Round Tables - Parents Under 30 chat too; it was lovely to just chat to lots of mums, and hear their experiences.
I spent my afternoon and evening with three fantastic ladies (and one gorgeous baby) - Alex (Lamb and Bear), Charlotte (Berice Baby) and Kay (Mummy Burgess). We relaxed in the MAM lounge before heading to the Keynote speeches and BiBs Awards. Amazingly I won MAM's fantastic giveaway, which really did make my day! The Keynotes were great, and I'm really glad I stayed for the awards.
The Hub was absolutely bursting with life, and I will admit I found it a bit too much to begin with. The room wasn't very large, and with the amount of people in there it was very intense. This did calm down throughout the day though which was better, and made it easier to talk to the brands and see what was going on. I really enjoyed meeting the brands; from cupcakes with MAM and tasting the new Coke Zero (I totally tasted the difference), to creating ice cream combinations with Affilinet, there was loads going on. I didn't manage to meet as many brands as I'd have liked, but there just simply wasn't time!
Something that really disappointed me was the food, or the lack of. The day started at 9am and if you stayed for the award, like I did, it ended at 7.30pm. In this time we were offered tiny pastries, a small hot lunch, teeny tiny cakes and then the little samples available with the brands. Don't get me wrong, what was offered was lovely, but there just simply wasn't enough! I came home very lightheaded and hungry - there should at least have been savoury nibbles before the awards I think.
Throughout the day I spotted so many familiar faces, although I wish I was brave enough to say hi to everyone! I was so happy to meet Alice (Alice & Amelia) again, after meeting her in Bluestone last year. After chatting on twitter for a while now it was lovely to meet Hannah (The Diary of an 'Ordinary' Mum), although we didn't manage a picture! I also bumped into two more Hannahs - Hi Baby Blog and Budding Smiles - both were lovely and have the most gorgeous little girls. I met Stacie from Parker & Me, although again it wasn't for long enough, and with so much going on it was so hard to find people once they were gone. I also managed to bump into and grab a quick selfie with Donna (What the Redhead said) at the end of the day - She's like blogging royalty so I was thrilled to meet her!
Overall I had a great day, and I'm so pleased I battled with my anxiety to go. Although I don't think I learnt very much, meeting fellow bloggers really was worth it! The day was VERY long though, and I felt as if I was go go go to be able to do everything in time. I'm still not 100% sure if I'd go again. Of course I'd love to meet everyone again, but I'm sure it was worth the money.
I vlogged my day so make sure to go over to my channel to watch. I'll also be vlogging all the goodies I managed to pick up to give you an idea of what to expect!
