Last year, I start participating in a community called SITS. It is based on featured bloggers and commenting. I started talking (actually tweeting) the founder of SITS, Tiffany, on Twitter. We hit it off right away over our love of reality tv and Hello Kitty. In December of last year, I met Tiffany in person. She lives in Southern California also. I was able to also reconnect with Tiffany briefly, at Blissdom in early February.
Tiffany told me that she was doing a series of blog conferences that we would throughout the United States. I thought that it was a great idea to have a one day conference for beginning bloggers to give them some tips, and treasures of information to go home with. I made plans with Tiffany to go to my first Bloggy Boot Camp in May, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona.
I had a fabulous time at Bloggy Boot Camp in Phoenix, and made so many friends. Every one of these people in these pictures is someone that I made a connection with through Bloggy Boot Camp. These women are my tribe, and my community. Because I was able to spend more one on one time with these women, I believe that we made genuine connections, rather than someone casually passing through.
In August, I went on a road trip with Ciaran from Southern California to Northern California for my second Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco. We drove a Lexus SUV which she had for a review and rode in style. Ciaran and I both spoke at Bloggy Boot Camp. It was my first time speaking at a blog conference and I gave a presentation on Privacy. I believe that my presentation was well received and that I was educate the attendees of the conference. I started a trend in Phoenix with photographing Bloggy Boot Camps and I took a few hundred photographs while in San Francisco.
And the end of the summer, Tiffany announced that she would be adding an extra Bloggy Boot Camp onto their schedule, in St. George, Utah. I was excited to go to this event, because it was the weekend of my 35th birthday. I thought it was the perfect way to spend my birthday. I went on an adventurous roadtrip with Tiffany and Kelly from Southern California to Utah. I will talk about this roadtrip someday, and it involves cupcakes. But we were treated to an enjoyable night of karaoke, a perfect conference (where I spoke on working with brands), got lost a few times, and ended with a birthday dinner fit for a princess.
I’m still participating in #Reverb10, can you believe it? I’m actually following through with something. Don’t be shocked! But I think that today’s topic was perfect.
December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
I would say that I have found my tribe or community through SITS Girls, and Bloggy Boot Camp in the past year. By attending three BBC’s, and photographing all three of them, I can look back and reflect at the memories that I have.
I hope to be able to attend at least one Bloggy Boot Camp within 2011, and I hope my schedule can accommodate the traveling. If you are interested in learning more about SITS Girls and Bloggy Boot Camp, do not hesitate to contact me. I’m always happy to give my testimony of SITS Girls, Bloggy Boot Camp, and their founder, Tiffany Romero. She is very pretty.
