My days at ALT were filled to the brim! On the first day I was up around 7:40 so not too early but the second morning there was a PNW blogger meetup at 8 am! Ah! The first morning started with Garance Dore as our keynote and the second morning we eased into things with roundtables. Between all of the classes I would visit with the sponsors and have laughs with all of my new ALT friends. There were just so many great things going on it was hard to split my time wisely. I think overall I made some pretty good choices though.
^styling boards with Minted-this was fun I just wish all the prints belonged to me. ^I ran into a gal who was carrying about a Rouge and Whimsey original! ^Hanging around with the goodly blog ladies and we ran into Caitlin of Lady Hue. ^I met Megan and we had some great conversations-also she’s wearing the Utah pin I handed out with my business cards. ^Garance Dore ^Chatting with Cricut-their new cutting machine is kind of awesome! ^a pair of glasses cut out by the new machine and I’m being silly.
New friends! Mandy and Jacqueline.
I think I need to ease into spilling all about ALT (all good of course). I just feel like I have so much to share that if I don’t do it slow I won’t do it at all. I have about 150 business cards I collected that I’ll be sharing soon also.
I arrived in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and I met up with a few Seattle bloggers (Brooke and Megan) unexpectedly at the airport (they were on my flight and I had no idea). We made it to the hotel, checked in, got set up, met my roommate, attended the early bird sessions, and then got ready for dinner. I carpooled with a few ladies headed to my dinner and it was a great way to slowly start meeting the some 700 people in attendance at the overall event.
Our dinner was held at The Tin Angel in Salt Lake City and hosted by Umba. It was such a fun group of ladies and after we all sat down and started talking I think we felt a little more at ease. I had some wonderful conversations over dinner and met one of my conference buddies (Jacqueline). I met a lot of great ladies and I will be mentioning them all when I post about the business cards.
I was glad our dinner didn’t last too late though and I had a chance to relax and get a good night’s sleep before the event fully kicked off.
Alt is the third blogger type event that I’ve attended in a little over a year and dare I say it was my favorite? Everyone was so warm and open. I never felt intimidated to talk to anyone and I felt well received by everyone I had the pleasure to talk with even if it were just a minute in an elevator (it’s how I met Court of lovecourt and found out she is a Michigander moving to Seattle!). I do think my wooden California pins helped break the ice for me many times. I didn’t regret a single moment I spend hand crafting those.
The event kicked off on Wednesday evening with sponsor dinners. I signed up for the dinner with Vivint. I like that they were about fostering a sense of community and getting everyone involved. The gifts we received from them were also local which I loved (local chocolates, tea, and a pretty bag from Samantha of noteify.com. The dinner was such a wonderful way to get to know a few people in a calmer atmosphere. From there we had dessert at the Fairmont hotel where all of the dinners joined and everyone attending the event was present. It was a bit hectic compared to the dinner but I still managed to meet a few lovely people.
The next day I was up early and back at the Fairmont for breakfast, roundtables (including hand massages and letterpressing-fun!), keynote speakers and panals. It was a full day but it was informative, fun, and interesting. The sponsors also had some pretty fun things going on between talks so we kept busy all day. Lunch was a fun treat because it was held in the Tonga room at the Fairmont. It was really cool, especially when it started to “rain” in the middle of the room.
The day ended strong with a closing keynote by Mike McCue the founder and CEO of Flipboard. After a short break we all headed to the PINTEREST headquarters for our closing party. I was super excited about this. It did not disappoint. I managed to squeeze in a few more conversations with some amazing people before the night was out. It all seemed to fly by (well I really think it did) and it was a little sad when the night was over.
Now onto the task of messaging everyone I made a connection with, surprisingly I made more than I thought. Maybe I’ll have another post about all the people I met.
^a pair of glasses cut out by the new machine and I’m being silly.
