Southeast by Midwest: 6 Items You Need at a Blog Conference

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I’m having so much fun sharing these guest post with you each week. It’s a great way for you to meet some of my closest friends in the blogging world. Cassie, is my guest this week, and I know you will love her as much as I do. She is the ONLY Fashion/ Beauty blogger that I will follow. I value her opinion so much, because she has great taste, is down to earth and practical too. If something is great and worth the money she will tell you, if not you can rest assured she will be honest with you about that too.

I’m Cassie and I blog over at Southeast by Midwest. I met Brenna when we both attended Online BlogCon last year. Being an avid reader of her blog when she asked for a few guest posters I jumped at the chance to help her out. Knowing that she was going to be going to a blog conference in May and that she loved the business card holder roundup I did over on my blog, I thought it would be win-win to do a roundup type post for her.

Blog conferences are a great thing for bloggers to attend for many reasons. They allow you to socialize with other bloggers, get your blog’s name out there, and they introduce you to brands that you can work with. This roundup is the six items that I think are absolutely necessary to have with you when you head out to that blog conference.

1. Business Cards
Business Cards are the most important item to bring with you. They give you something to handoff to other bloggers and brands to remember you. If you don’t leave them something to remember your name, your blogs web address, or your email how will they ever contact you? You can get business cards from printers like Vistaprint or Staples but if you just can’t afford that you can always design your own and print them on business card paper.

2. Hole Punch
Keeping in line with the business cards you’re going to want to bring a hole punch with you. Depending on the number of bloggers and brands that are the conference with you, you may be receiving a lot of business cards that you’re not going to want to lose. You could just throw them in your purse but with them all being loose you take a chance of one getting stuck in a receipt and thrown away. I have seen several people mention that they love this way of handling business cards from conventions.

3. Loose Leaf Rings
These go along with the hole punch in keeping up with the business cards you are going to be receiving. Just punch a hole in the cards and then slide them right on this ring. For extra security you can put some ring protectors around the hole in the card before slipping on the ring. You can just pop this ring, with the cards on it, right in your bag.

4. Notebook with Pens and Pencils
With all of the tips you are going to be learning you are going to want a way to keep track of them and a good notebook with a comfortable writing instrument is my favorite way to do this. Getting a 3-subject notebook lets you section off your tips about the conference from the thoughts you want to jot down for those inevitable blog posts you’ll be writing when you get back home. As for the writing instruments make sure that not only do you have comfortable ones for yourself but cheapo ones for the people who will inevitably borrow your pens and not return them.

5. Cell phone / Camera / Video camera
Some kind of device to take pictures with is something that you are going to sorely regret not having with you if you choose not to bring one. I’ve noticed that the preference for this tends to run towards the cell phone because it’s quick, you don’t usually have to explain to others how to take the picture for you, you can share the picture to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram after taking it, and it allows you to have your camera and video camera in one device. Now here is where a lot of people get skeptical, I believe that you should vlog part of your experience. I’m not talking about the classes because they conference host probably won’t look to kindly on that but meet-and-greets, dinners, lunches, etc. pulling out a camera and capturing some of it (even if you never show it to anyone) will let you look back on it later and enjoy what a great time you had.

6. Snacks and Water
The last thing that I feel is a necessity to bring with you is snacks and water. I’ve heard that there are times where you are going to wish you had something to drink and some food, especially because you are going to be so busy meeting and hanging out with other people you’re not going to want to leave for a lunch break. So make sure you have some snacks and water on you and even better if you bring some to share, it’ll make you an instant hit I’m sure.

Hopefully you all enjoyed this post. Feel free to come check out my blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Also, if you hopped over here from my blog make sure you give Brenna some love by subscribing (hint: the email subscription box is on her sidebar), liking her Facebook Page, Following her on Twitter or Instagram.

Thank you so much for stopping by, Cassie! I am going to start getting my 6 items together right away. What I really need is for you to go shopping for me and tell me what I should wear to a blog conference (I may or may not be stressing over that part), but I guess that is another post.