Savvy Blogging Summit – Day One

After the first full day of the Savvy Blogging Summit, I can honestly say that this event has already exceeded my expectations.

You can see my badge in the photo to the left, which has a QR code on it. Scanning the code will give you my name, website, Twitter ID and other contact information.

The QR codes made it very easy to get to know people, and organize their contact information. Brilliant idea!

The entire event has been very well organized, with everything operating smoothly and on schedule. Speaking of the schedule, it is full of great content. Here is a screen shot of my Agenda for day one...

All of the meals, including the snacks, were included with the event. And the meals have been fabulous so far! From breakfast on the terrace to a luau dinner, with snacks & coffee available throughout the day.

This (above) is my unique schedule, which is inside my badge sleeve. There are several sessions going on at once, and they move the attendees around so that they get to attend them all.

The agenda is located in the back of our badges, so you can just flip it over anytime and see where you are scheduled to be and when.

Very convenient. Again, brilliant idea. It's all the little things that have made this event so easy and fun!

Not to mention the incredible venue, the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs.

The views are simply incredible!

The food is great, the weather is perfect, the venue is fabulous
... but what about the content?

I have to confess, I rarely attend sessions when I go to events - or sit through an entire session, even. I just can't hack it. Especially if the topic (or angle) doesn't sit well with me, or it turns into a pitch-a-thon.

That has not been the case here at Savvy Blogging Summit. In fact, I attended ALL of the sessions on my agenda today - except for one. (I was brain dead by the end of the day and skipped my last session in favor of a mental break - lol).

The content has been impressive so far. I'm actually taking notes! And even learning totally new lingo. 🙂 I'm taking my notes in Evernote, of course. I love the notes-synced-on-every-single-d​evice-I-own thing.

I can also easily click "share" and add my Evernote notes to a DropBox account that we (Angie, Tawnya and I) created to share our photos & notes from the event.

The topics were taught in small groups, to all attendees on a rotating schedule. That way you didn't have to choose between topics, and everyone had an opportunity to attend everything - which I thought was especially nice.

You can see my agenda in the photo above...

The first session I attended was on accounting & taxes for bloggers with Jodi Stevens, CPA. It was very detailed. I've been doing this for over 14 years, but there were great questions and many people taking lots of notes.

Topics included how to do a trend analysis, how/why to keep personal & biz data separate, home office deduction tips, etc. Jodi also discussed Sole Proprietor vs LLC vs S & C corp (which is when I asked MY question *grin*). She also explained how to calculate ROI. Awesome session...

My 2nd session was "Brand-Blogger Relations" by Amy aka @momadvice. This was by far my absolute favorite session of the day, and where I learned tons of new blogger lingo! She discussed brand engagement, sponsorship, brand ambassadors, and basically how to form mutually beneficial relationships with brands.

Good stuff!!

I attended more sessions, took some great notes, jotted down some excellent resources, and met a lot of great people. It's an incredibly friendly & social group - not at all snobbish or cliquish like you run into at some events. I haven't met anyone here yet that I don't like! I requested quite a few business cards, and look forward to following up with some of the cool people I have met here so far.

We also have great internet access, and power strips conveniently located throughout conference rooms. Like I said, it's a very well organized event.

And with engaging content to boot!

I'll share more about the content & resources with you in upcoming posts.

I'll have more photos for you soon as well. We've been taking tons of pictures since we arrived, and just have to download and organize them so we can share them with you. 😀 For now, you can catch them on Facebook and Twitter.

I'm off to get some rest. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, the second and final day of the event. It should be equally fun, and full of more great contacts & content.

But just after Day One, I can easily say this is the best blogging event I have ever been to in regards to quality of content AND networking opportunities...

Best,

p.s. You can get recordings from last years event, and you can also watch that page for recordings of the 2011 Savvy Blogging Summit event as well. They should be ready by late July or August.

The Summit Sale went live at 12:00 am on Thursday and runs until July 23. The discount code is “TheSprings”. All 2010 recordings will be 50% off plus if you get the recordings during the sale you'll receive a free recording of Phil Hollow’s 2011 Email Marketing session (available on or before August 1):

-Great deal! 😉