Disclosure: I was chosen as a SoFab grant recipient for the conference. My ticket and some expenses were covered but all opinions are my own.

sofab cincinatti

Hi all!

I’m back again to talk about an AWESOME conference I went to last weekend. It was a blogging conference through Social Fabric and it was in Cincinnati, Ohio. SoFab is actually having multiple conferences all over so they can reach as many bloggers as possible, so if you’re interested in attending (you totally should) see if they’re coming near you!

cincinatti

The best part about this little mini vaca was that I was able to bring the boys! Cincinnati is around a 4-5 hour drive for us so it wasn’t too long of a drive, and we stopped a few times along the way. Especially when we passed a space museum, we had to get out and see the space capsule! 

leviBK

space

space capsule

We left on a Friday morning, drove down, visited the Newport Aquarium, and then on Saturday (the day of the conference) the boys explored Cincinnati while I attended the conference. They were able to visit the surrounding area and even visit the ZOO a bit (before they got rained out).

wyatt shark

The conference was amazing, it was my first blogging conference besides my trip to New Buffalo and I was so excited to finally meet one of my “internet” friends in real life. Kristin from Hello, Flecks! She was just as sweet in person as she is online and we instantly clicked and were laughing and chatting the whole day. It was so comforting to know someone there, with my anxiety I was a little intimidated about walking into a room of people and not really “knowing” anyone. She was a constant source of comfort the whole day and I am so grateful for her kindness. Sometimes in life you meet people that just “get” you. And this girl, she really gets me! I’m so thankful we started chatting many years ago and it was so awesome to introduce her to my family! Levi just LOVED her, and we’re already planning another road trip to see her again soon 🙂

us

Our busy day kicked off at 8:00am with registration and a blogger breakfast sponsored by Muller. From there we had a discussion about how to excel with sponsor posts, we talked Pinterest strategies with Ahalogy, and had some amazing keynote speakers. I learned SO much from Joe Robb, who was pretty much an expert on smart syndication and how to grow your blog traffic. I learned so many things that I just wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

Google Analytics was demystified and I really appreciated him sharing his expertise with everyone! Our lunch for the afternoon was sponsored by Chick-fil-A, and let’s just pause here for a second, because this was my first time eating Chick-fil-A….

HOLY COW WAS IT DELICIOUS.

Like, wow we need one near us! After lunch we chatted with a  few brands to see what they are looking for when working with bloggers. We spent a lot of time talking with everyone at our table because there was just so much knowledge to soak up! Around 2pm we left for the New Riff Distillery in Newport, KY which was a short drive from where we were. There we were able to learn from the great Nate Engles about creating a sponsored post, and even cooler, capturing and editing the best food photos!

Here’s the food photo my group styled and shot with Nate’s help:

foodphoto

He showed us how to edit the photos using PicMonkey as well and we even talked social media growth. He is just a super-sweet guy and SO knowledgeable about food and photography!

Overall, Cincinnati was amazing, beautiful, and I learned SO much from the conference. My hand was starting to cramp up a little bit at the end of the day from taking so many notes! I was excited and ready to get home to implement the things I had learned!

But, I think Wyatt was the saddest about leaving Cincinnati, because he really loved the King-sized bed..

wyattbed

 But, seriously. If you’re a blogger – if you want to learn more about blogging – you NEED to attend this conference. It’s smaller than most conferences so you can really focus on learning, connecting, and getting a chance to really communicate with others who share your interests.

Head HERE to visit the OnTheRoad site so you can see if they’re coming near you!