This was my third year attending and presenting at Northern Voice, a local, grassroots blogging and social media conference.
This year felt… different in many ways. First of all, it was held at W2, instead of UBC. And many of the old guard, like @Miss604, @Hummingbird604, @KK, @darrenbarefoot and @julieszabo (who are living in France) were all absent.
Still, my favorite part of Northern Voice is always connecting IRL with tweeps I mostly hang out with online. It was super fun to hang out with @cathybrowne, @robertdall, @therealkazia, @fashion_fwd40, and @arianecdesign, just to name a few.
I took some good stuff away, too.
I haven’t been blogging nearly as long as many of the people at #NV12, but the truth is, blogging is a slog. It’s hard to feel inspired all the time, and I tend to put myself down if I feel like I have nothing to say. It was nice to hear repeated over and over again, that I’m not alone with my struggle.
I got some great tips on how to stay inspired in the “Blogging to Inspire” panel, featuring @amberstrocel, @bentlily and @cstraghnan. Crystal advocated the use of OmniFocus and Evernote to help save and organize ideas for future blog posts. Making a public commitment to your blog (ie Samantha’s commitment to writing a poem a day), and making writing a creative habit are also great ways to keep the ball rolling.
I was also so inspired by Yael Cohen’s “Using Personal Passion to Build Online Community.” For someone so young, Cohen has accomplished a lot. After her mom was diagnosed with cancer, Yael made her a t-shirt that said “F— Cancer.” That t-shirt has grown into a campaign to raise awareness of early detection, and Cohen’s goal is to eradicate Cancer in our lifetime. I was so inspired by her, I’m hoping to pin her down for an interview in the future.
And then there was our (@therealkazia and my) “Using Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Blog.” I love working with this gal! It was a blast. You can download the slides from our session here.
I’ll wrap it up by leaving you with my Flickr stream.
And if you’ve never been to Northern Voice, why not?? Check it out next year!