EVO '10 – What I Learned & Who I Met

Oh my goodness, where to begin?  Two weeks ago my family and I drove up to Utah to have some  bonding time in the mountains as well as attend EVO ’10.  It’s a social media conference hosted by Rachael & Jyl in whom I adore.  I’ve roomed with them, laughed with them, and now have a fondness for Jello because of them.  When they told me they were hosting a conference, I knew that I must support their new endeavor.

Cindy and Me – I’m wearing headband from SweetGrass Mill

I picked up Cindy from Skip To My Lou from the airport and we were off to Park City!  We helped stuff swag bags, met up with blogging friends, ate good food, and laughed so hard our tummies hurt.

Me, Alli, and Lisa {{Alli just goosed us!}}

I finally got to meet Ciaran from Momfluential and we hit it off immediately.  Her man is web guy like mine and we bonded over how “we just want you to make this small change”.  Anyone who knows anything about code, it’s not JUST a simple fix.  She even hooked me up with one of her Francie Pants! {{squeal in delight}} She’s fabulous and I learned so much in her Small Business Success session.

From Momfluential:

• Get a one page business plan from Oprah
• Have short term and long term goals
• Have an exit strategy
• Get help from your peers which is your greatest strength and pull your resources

From Lisa Leonard:

• Build genuine relationships and nurture them.
• Find what you love and do that.
• Think outside the box for new creative products with meaning.

From Mom Biz Coach:

• Tweet with your customer in mind
• Follow people in your target market  {{not just those who you look up to}}
• Check out peoples twitter list
• Twello – troves through bios so you can find people
• Participate in twitter events #gno #followfriday

“People need to know how much you care, before they can care about what you know.”
– Mom Biz Coach’s philosophy when using twitter

Hayley, Amy, Me, Cindy, Jenny

In the Photography Session I learned about programs you can use to edit your pictures:

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• Google Picasa
• Picnik
• GIMP

Other Tips were:

• Get in close and see emotion
• Crop at the bust, hips, and knees
• Use “actions” for Photoshop & Lightroom

Katja, Me, and Amy at the Hershey’s Party hosted by Collective Bias.

Here I’m at an early evening party where I had the coolest conversations in innovation, PR, and social media.  It will be exciting to see what happens in the next 6 months.

Me, April, Kelly, Tania, and Alisa

I was the mic wrangler in the Sales and Monetization session so my notes aren’t as good as they could have been.  But it was a dynamic session with some powerhouses.

• A great media kit example is Apartment Therapy
• Make sure people know who are you, about your site, about your readers
• Who are you really?  Speaking gigs, Social Media footprint, Media coverage
• Mad Hatter Mom has a great Welcome PR page
• The Shopping Mama has a great contact form

Marie, Allison, Carina, Maya and Me

It was really nice that the parties in the suites were open for everyone to attend.  It made the entire conference very collaborative and easy going.  I felt like I wasn’t on a time schedule or in a rush which completely matched our surroundings at the resort.

Most of my roommates and a few fabulous faces:
Maya, Amy, Jenny, Troy, Jyl, Me, and Niri

Donna from Big Tent, Leah with Mamavation, Lorraine with Blogrollers, Me, and Karen with Volunteer Spot
(I’m wearing headband from LeatherBlossoms)

My session was the Evolution of Community. I wish I could have taken notes, the girls shared some incredible examples and great tips!

Laurie’s Tips for forming and nurturing your community:

• “Dress for the Blog you want, not the Blog you have!”
  • Give off a great first impression
  • Have your picture on the sidebar to make it personable
  • Use a kind and engaging tone of voice
  • Observe how influential bloggers have branded themselves
  • Define your goals and be consistent
• Engage your Readers
  • Acknowledge that you  have a community (even if it’s small) and let them know you care about them
  • Create opportunities to connect and give them something to look forward to
    • Tip Me Tuesday
    • Spring Fling
    • Birthday Bash
  • Make it easy to stay connected:  Subscribe, Facebook, Twitter
    • Put your e-mail box on your most popular posts so people can stay connected if they like what you do.
• Create a Blogging Alliance
  • Network Within Your Niche -love the people in your niche
  • Help Other Bloggers – be the “go-to-girl” for a specific topic
  • Collaborate!!
  • Barter with Each Other – trade advertising space or handmade products with each other
  • Participate in Each Others Communities
  • Solve a need – Personally this is my goal.  I love to come up with crazy fun ways to solve your needs and save you time.  That’s really what all my sites are about.

Jenny and I playing around with the cowboys

The Bush Beans party Saturday night was crazy fun since it was at the Park City Resort with great food, ziplining, the alpine slide, and more.  It was open to family members and such a cool event.

Me & Jenny

Jenny created a hysterical video of us Ziplining in Park City.  Now I have to explain. I had a full on panic attack when I got up there.  I haven’t experience one before, so needless to say I was trying to face my fears and this teenage boy was heckling me!  He was asking me if I was ready to “plummet to my death” and don’t “grab the ejection cord”.  Anyway, you’ll see what I did and I’m sorry for my behavior.  But I wasn’t myself at the time.  {{Although he totally got what he deserved.}}  It’s hysterical!

Amy, Jenny, and Me

The entire weekend was full of bonding moments with old friends and making new ones, creating new collaborations, and brainstorming cool ideas.  I left with new insight, great tools, and a renewed spirit and passion for social media.

I had so many light bulb moments and finally “got” several things I’ve been struggling with – like Twitter.  {{dude}}  Sometimes you just need a woman to explain it to you, to get it.  I’m so sorry for the novel-length post but I can not tell you how much I needed this weekend to learn and collaborate.  To all my new friends “Hola” and I’ll catch you at the next one!

Huge thanks to the EVO Conference Flickr Group for allowing me to use some of their photos, namely No Biggie, Mom Spark, JennyOnTheSpot, and Maya.  {{high fives}}