The Florida Bloggers Conference (#FLBlogCon13)

Saturday morning found me trekking it a whole 15 minutes to the Florida Bloggers Conference. First of all, can I tell you how happy I was at the commute? I have been in Orlando for a while and have heard of Full Sail (even reached out to them at one point when I was looking into MFA's). But truth be told, I'd never been on their campus. I never realized how much they've grown and though I know they are all about technology, I cannot tell you how happy to be in the blogger friendly environment I found myself in.

Pat Williams was the opening keynote and wow. Just wow. He's written a bunch of books and done a bunch of things in his life but there he was. Walking around the auditorium, looking us in the eye and speaking his truths to us. Here are his 10 principles:

1. Think the right thoughts
2. Say the right kind of words
3. Be specific with your goals
4. Control your attitude
5. Seek out the right kind of friends
6. Take your hurts, pains, setbacks & disappointments & turn them into strength!
7. Go the second mile! Do twice what's expected of you
8. Never give up!
9. Character counts
10. Live your life by the faith phenomenon!

If you've been reading my blog for any period of time, you know that these principles speak to my heart.

There was lots of learning with lots of awesome workshops including Twitter 101 taught by the FABU Brian Wilson and Blogging 101 taught by the incomparable Bess Auer who also spearheads the Florida Bloggers Conference.  I can't say enough about the great job that she did putting this conference together.

The day was amazing. From Bahama Breeze giving away THREE trips to the Bahamas (sadly, I did not win), to a great closing keynote by Pam Moore (lots of takeaways from her presentation).

I was happy to have been able to participate as a speaker along with my cohorts Yadira and Joscelyn. It felt amazing to be speaking in my own backyard and to see so many familiar faces.

But I will say though, there were tons of new people! That's one of my favorite parts of conferences. Meeting new faces. Of course, it's also my favorite to see old ones, like Christie and Brian (pictured below).

I also loved connecting on topics that we need to start speaking about but don't. I'm a big proponent of putting it out there because someone is going through it as well and this weekend was a clear reminder of some things that need to be addressed for our own sanity and our own support. Stay tuned for some of that in the coming month.

When was the last time you connected with your community?

If you'd like to download the presentation, you can go to the Florida Bloggers Conference SlideShare page to view.