Blissdom Canada 2012: An Introvert Goes To A Conference

Many people attend Blissdom for the famous Costumes and Karaoke party.

I attended in spite of it.

When Blissdom was taking place last Fall, I followed the Twitter stream and read the blog posts, feeling like I had really missed out on a great opportunity to make connections and learn more about the art and business of blogging. So as soon as registration opened for Blissdom 2012, I jumped all over it.

But then I started getting nervous. While I’m certainly comfortable socializing with “my people” (family, staff, close friends) I’m not so confident with strangers. I started worrying about the Costume party, the meet-and-greets, the meals and round table sessions where speaking to others is kind of essential. Would everyone else know each other? Was I crazy to sign up?

Then I had an epiphany. I was paying for this conference, so I should get exactly what I wanted out of it. I vowed that I would push my limits enough to feel like I had “grown”, but not put myself in any situations which would stress me out. And that’s exactly what I did.

I know many gals had a great time at Friday night’s Road Rally, but I got a good night’s sleep at home, ready to head into the big city the next morning.

My fears began to dissipate during the welcome message, when it was made clear that “Everyone is welcome here. No cliquiness, none of that. Not allowed.”

Saturday’s microsessions were the part I was looking forward to the most. Picture a ballroom with 500 women (and a few men), 41 round tables, each one with a session leader and a specific topic, and did I mention the sessions were first-come, first served? That part was a little crazy, and I know many ladies strategized where they would eat breakfast in order to be at or close to the first table they wanted!

Here’s what I took away from my sessions:

Bookkeeping for Canadian Bloggers (Brian Kent-Baas)

• Yes, products, gift cards, etc. received through the blog are considered income
• But:, the expenses a blogger can write off are vast: a percentage of home expenses, such as heat, hydro, property taxes, etc.; a percentage of business travel and meals; products and services that have been purchased and then reviewed on the blog; the list goes on

Creating the Perfect Pitch (Jen Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Family magazine)

• I was excited just to be sitting at the same table as Jen, and of course I said little and just took it all in
• She made a great point about how the magazine’s website looks for “evergreen” article topics, but the print issue doesn’t want “evergreen”, they want things that are more timely. I know that with such a long lead time (pitches coming in now should be geared to Spring topics) it’s not like you can cover breaking news, but the subjects still need to feel fresh
• Most articles in her magazine are 650 words, and are seen by many sets of eyes before print
• She receives 50-60 pitches per day, and can’t possibly respond to them all

How To Price and Value Your Services (Rebecca Brown)

• I’m beyond working for free, so this topic was of particular interest to me
• Rebecca’s handout was full of gems like “Pricing is both an art and a science”, and some case study information which showed me what another site with the same traffic as mine should charge for ad space and sponsored posts.
• She also suggested contacting small, local businesses when selling ad space

Sessions which I didn’t get to, but would have loved to check out: “Media Training” (with Alison Burke of Impressions PR), and “How To Establish Yourself as an Expert” (with food maven Theresa Albert. Clearly our areas of expertise are very different.)

The afternoon featured several guest speakers, such as:

Jian Ghomeshi: broadcast host, musician, writer and producer

• The best tidbit I took away from Jian (who shared hilarious excerpts from his memoir, 1982): He said that when he started doing interviews, he had to decide whether he was going to follow in the style of Larry King (the “everyman” who doesn’t prepare in advance for his conversations) or Barbara Walters (who prepares meticulously, reading the books, watching the movies and conducting extensive research on her subjects). I liked hearing about this, as I consider myself an “interviewer” as well (with over a dozen celebrity Momterviews to my credit) and I, like Jian, have chosen the Barbara Walters approach. I agree with him that the other person is going to open up more and take things to another level when they know that you’ve come prepared.

Susan Cain: author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking”

• My mom raved about this book when it first came out, and I’m excited to see this focus on introverts (I’m especially interested in how it relates to education – as we continue to force our littlest introverts to do more and more group work and ‘collaborative learning’)
• Though she didn’t delve too deeply into this point during her presentation, Susan’s bio in the conference program also mentioned “the phenomenon of the social media extrovert but real life introvert, and what it means to be both personality types when we engage both online and in real life.” I am WAY different online than in person. I can’t even imagine how many fewer opportunities I would have had through the blog if they had required cold calls or visits instead of risk-taking emails (which are far easier for me).

The next big highlight was Sunday morning, when Blissdom attendees participated in various excursions, which were selected through another first-come, first-served process, this time online (thanks to my cousin Kerry for handling my registration, since I was on a field trip with my students at the moment of sign-up!)

My destination?

Behind the Scenes Television Excursion on the set of The Marilyn Denis Show

Being on the set wasn’t new to me, as in 2011 I went behind-the-scenes at the show and even sat down for an interview with Marilyn, but this was an entirely different experience.

• Michelle pointed out that for The Marilyn Denis Show, she’s looking for “unique things that girlfriends share with each other”, and that you don’t need the word “Pitch” in your subject. Just go straight to the headline.
• We even had the opportunity to work in a group to present a pitch and a segment and receive feedback from the panel. Very valuable! Thanks to these four for giving up their Sunday mornings to educate us.

When the session ended, it was back in the car and homeward bound…but my mind was absolutely spinning, and still is. You should see the lists that have come out of this!

I know other Blissdom attendees may say that I missed out by skipping some of the conference events, but if it was all a required package deal, I probably wouldn’t have gone at all…and would really have missed out on so much!

The point I want to make is that Blissdom can be great for everyone, if you make it what you want it to be. I’m already looking ahead to Blissdom 2013!