This past weekend was a weekend of many firsts for me. For starters, I got to spend three days in the glorious town of Burlington, VT at a beautiful, campy resort called Smugglers' Notch. This was my very first visit to a New England state, and also my first opportunity to attend a blogging conference! I'm so thrilled to have been invited to attend Blog Brulee; a conference designed especially for healthy food bloggers.
The weekend was filled to the brim with inspirational stories from fellow bloggers and entrepreneurs, education on food photography, search engine optimization, developing community through a blog, working with brands, and telling stories with food. And of course, there was LOTS of delicious food! Vermont is home to some of my favorite food brands, including Cabot Cheese, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, King Arthur Flour, and some of the best maple syrup I've ever tasted {yes, I did get to bring some home!}. The Blog Brulee conference sessions included:
- Digital and smart-phone photography tips and tricks from Regan Jones and Deanna Segrave-Daly
- Food photography story-telling, styling and processing with Katie Webster from Healthy Seasonal Recipes
- A writing session with Lisa D'Agrosa from Eating Well magazine
- Katy Widrick helped us navigate the murky waters of search engine optimization
- Tips for building better community through your blog were shared by Lindsey Livingston, Kylie Mitchell, and Sally Kuzemchak
- Anne Mauney inspired us with strategies for working with brands and ways to monetize a blog
I was blown away by all of the knowledge, tips and tricks that I learned from the conference sessions - my head is swimming with everything that I learned! I'll be looking forward to spending the week processing through all my notes and making a game plan to implement strategies that will make Sweet Cayenne a better experience for YOU - my wonderful readers!
All of this was made possible through the creativity, passion, and planning of the Blog Brulee founders: Regan of Healthy Aperture, Robin of Robin's Bite, Deanna of Teaspoon of Spice, and Gretchen of Kumquat blog. Blog Brulee was also funded by an impressive roundup of amazing sponsors, including Siggi's Dairy, California Ripe Olives, the California Almond Board, Davidson's Safest Choice Eggs, and Smugglers' Notch Resort.
If you or someone you know would be interested in attending Blog Brulee next year, certainly contact the founders to inquire about it!
Carolyn @ Cabot says
A beautiful gathering of talent at 2015 Blog Brûlée. Looks like a wonderful time in Vermont led by an amazing team.~Carolyn @ Cabot
Whitney Reist says
It was wonderful, Carolyn! And everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Cabot cheese that was stocked in our rooms. Such a treat!!
Regan @ The Healthy Aperture Blog says
Loved having you at BB and finally getting to meet you! My only regret is that we couldn't carve out time to watch football together, ha!
Whitney Reist says
That would have been fun, wouldn't it?!? Haha. Thanks for such an amazing weekend - I'm so happy I got to meet you as well and feel so blessed to have you as a resource and inspiration!
Deanna Segrave-Daly says
It was such a pleasure to meet the lovely gal behind Sweet Cayenne and I feel fortunate that we got to share that ride up together 🙂 We're so glad you were able to attend this year!
I'll be thinking of you and your hubby whenever Missouri is playing this fall (and have fun at T. Swift concert with your sister!)
Whitney Reist says
Aww thanks Deanna! That's very sweet of you 🙂 I feel so lucky to have had some one-on-one time with you before the conference started - hopefully I'll see you again at some point! I'm just blown away by all the hard work, time and sacrifice that you put into the event. You did a great job organizing all the crazy arrivals/departures and everything went so smoothly during the conference.