This weekend I attended Blogfest in London for the very first time with no idea about what the day would bring.
I have watched the event unfold on social media in previous years and it always seems to be a blog conference that the more established bloggers enjoyed, so I was hopeful that I would take useful information away from it.
The first talk of the day was “A Room of One’s Own: Motherhood and Creativity” with Bryony Gordon, Margaret Atwood (via live link), Meera Syal CBE, Bridget Christie, Polly Vernon and Catherine Mann. Unfortunately the live link wasn’t very good and we had no idea what Margaret was saying, but the other ladies pitched in admirably discussing the amusing parts of motherhood alongside how they juggle parenting with their creativity and work.
I have to admit that I really admire Meera Syal and she hit the nail on the head when she said ‘the loss of a sense of self scares many women – but when a child is born, both a mother and child are born’ but she upset me pretty much straight away by slating childcare providers for charging too much.
She went on to say that ‘if you can afford decent childcare your options are different’ and that ‘there is no affordable childcare in this country’. Whilst I agree that childcare is a significant cost and the reason I left my job in an investment bank was because I could not afford two children in childcare, it was also my choice to have children and to concentrate on raising them for their first few informative years.
What the panel neglected to say was that many of these childcarer’s are mothers themselves trying to make ends meet, this is their job and therefore their wages and these women are looking after their most precious commodity and all on the lowest wages. Looking after other people’s children is certainly not easy and the paperwork involved rivals that I had when I worked in the bank.
The system isn’t perfect but most employers offer tax relief with childcare vouchers, there is 15 free hours of childcare offered to 2 year olds where the parents are on the lowest wages and 15 free hours (soon to be 30) offered to all 3 & 4 year olds, plus if you are on child tax credit they pay up to 70% of your childcare costs. But this is for another post, let me get back to Blogfest.
I came away a little riled but a cup of tea, some cake and a chat with some blogging friends soon cheered me back up and I headed off to the Advanced YouTube roundtable with the Crumbs Sisters and Kate Rushworth. Firstly, it wasn’t really a roundtable, think more a load of vloggers lounging around on bean bags and it was more about the how well the Crumbs Sisters have done with hints and tips along the way and a chance to ask questions at the end.
The only thing I really took away from the session is that I need to find my own style and think about when I am uploading my videos. I tend to use YouTube as an extension of my blog, but in reality it should be a stand alone channel and I should promote the content separately rather than just embedded videos in my blog.
My favourite session of the day was ‘Think Bombs’ with Sandy Toksvig OBE, David Baddiel and Val McDermid. Sandy spoke about the state of the rights of women in the UK and the fact that there were more men called John running FTSE100 companies than there were women. She has launched a new Women’s Equality Party and it is certainly something I am going to look in to.
Val spoke about creativity and how she was miserable if she didn’t get the chance to be creative and David Baddiel had the audience in stitches with his self-depreciating humour and slides of tweets where he made some very witty come-backs against trolls. He hit the nail on the head when he described social media as ‘Everyone in the world raising their flag of self’.
Lunch was delicious and there was another chance to chat with bloggers and some of the brands in attendance, who included Cocoa Cola, Unilever, Arla, Village England, Pitrock and Butlins.
The session where I learned the most was the ‘How to be a YouTube Sensation” with Kate Rushworth who works for YouTube itself. I have come away with a page full of things I need to do to my channel to help make it work better for me.
I missed the other sessions as I chose to network with fellow bloggers instead; well when I say network, I really mean gossip. For me that is what a blogging conference is about, meeting up with friends and putting the world to rights.
I wouldn’t say I enjoyed Blogfest 2015, for me there was something missing, which I can’t put my finger on, and I didn’t come away feeling inspired, however, I did take away some really useful tips and the goody bags were brilliant!!
Did you go to Blogfest 2015 – how did you find it?
This is the first year I haven’t been to Blogfest for a while. Sounds like I missed a fee interesting bits – I would have loved to find out how to be a YouTube sensation too! It’s a shame you didn’t really enjoy it. Would you go back again?
I think one of the reasons I don’t go to conferences is that people lay down their opinions as if they are fact! I’m not a vlogger so this conference probably wasn’t one for me anyway.
It’s interesting to hear your take on it Kara. I have never been to Blogfest (yet!) but it is one I did want to go to. However I was working at the weekend doing a social media workshop so I couldn’t turn down paid work to attend the conference, although I would like to go next year if I can. The thing I love most about blogging conferences are the networking opportunities and the chances to catch up with old friends – it does sound like you got the chance to do that?
I have been once before a few years ago and I enjoyed it but I was in the frame for ‘learning more’ at that point. I did want to go to this years event but couldn’t make the date. I have loads of respect for child are providers, looking after my own is enough I couldn’t do it with anyone elses. I often wonder how you do it and your blogging too x
Really interesting to read this Kara, it was my first time too. I enjoyed the Think Tanks the most of all – especially the one you mentioned with David Baddiel et al. The session on how to win at brand relationships was good too. I wish I’d attended a YouTube session instead of the photography one which was pitched as a masterclass and wasn’t! Was nice to catch up with people as always 🙂
Let’s say after reading this I’m pretty glad I didn’t go. I couldn’t have gone as we had stuff on but it’s one of those I’ve always been interested in going to.
Nice honest review and I’d love a peek at your YouTube notes
Me too! I know I need to do more with mine and the bit about just having them in blog posts is me all over!
I attended Blogfest on Saturday, i did enjoy it as i am still enjoying meeting other bloggers. I really enjoyed the self esteem breakout session and the how to win at brand relationships x
I have heard mixed opinions on this event. Glad that you did find some enjoyment from attending.
It’s great to read what everyone took away from the day – I like the sound of the Youtube session.
I have to say that I have not been to any blog conference this year. I did most of them in 2014 and didn’t get enough out of any of them to return!
Thanks for this post. I’ve always wanted to know what happened at these events and if they were worth going to.
For what it’s worth, I think my childminder is extremely good value and I am happy to pay her the wages she earns. X
This is a great post! I’ve never been to a convention quite like this, but would love to go. Thank you for sharing!
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Blogfest seems like a really interesting day to attend with so many amazing speakers and wonderful talks. Perhaps I should try and make it next year. x
It was my first one too! I saw you at a distance but didn’t get chance to say hi. I was disappointed really and agree with you – except I didn’t see the David Baddiel talk. It wasn’t an awful lot to do with blogging I thought. Kaz x
I have to say I love it, but having said that, I dont tend to go to any of the blogging tips sessions, heading instead to the writing or people power type ones, which always have brilliant panelists. It is very different to other blog conferences, I always describe it as being like going to see The Guardian Live! I always find I hear some really interesting discussions on interesting topics, and the speaker list is fabulous. I too loved the think bombs most of all I think. I tend to think of it as a day that gets me thinking rather than a straight blogging day, and for that reason I love it – however I can see how it is very different from the others and may not be to everyones taste.
A real shame you didn’t enjoy it that much. I stopped going to conferences as I was finding them very much the same. I’m looking forward to dipping my feet back in theatre next year though x
I like the idea of Blogfest and it does sound part useful part if I have spare time I could do something else.
This is really interesting and I have never been, in fact to any of the big blogging meet-ups and I’m really not keen on doing so. I like the sound of the YouTube one thougg, but that wouldnt be enough to convince me to go.