SNAP Conference 4.24.14 to 4.26.14

Snap conference for bloggers… my experience

Don’t Give up!

That was the message I got loud and clear Thursday evening, April 24, 2014 on the first evening of SNAP Conference for bloggers. This message came from the very inspiring and motivational u-tube musical sensation Alex Boye’. 

I took this video clip from part of his speech: Please watch, its only 15 seconds. 🙂

——–>>  alex-boye’-dont-give-up

SNAP is a bloggers conference in which 500 of some of the top creative bloggers attend to learn, share, and grow together to build a better blogging community. There are also many wonderful sponsors in attendance who help pick up some of our expenses of attending in turn for some advertising and promoting on their behalf. We also have an opportunity to meet with them, check out some of their products and services, and see if we are a good fit to work with their brand. The sponsors also give us some amazing sway to bring home with us. You may be seeing some of that pop up on my blog or social media sites. Its a win-win all around!

So, last Wednesday I headed to SaltLake City to attend SNAP conference. The day before, I had turned 51. It wasn’t as fun as turning 50 which I shouted from the rooftops a year earlier. Really, I did——–>> See my post from turning 50 HERE… {I was determined to be 50 and proud.} Last year I went to SNAP at age 49 and turned 50 two days after SNAP. This year I was 51 going to SNAP and not feeling quite so ‘with it”. I was probably twice as old, twice as big, and feeling twice as inadequate as a majority of the other bloggers attending. But this was not going to stop me! While this was hard for me, I was determined {my word for 2014} to go and make the best of it! {Don’t give up}

SNAP did not disappoint! Every moment from 8am until 11pm was filled with learning experiences, workshops, classes, pampering, socialization, demonstrations, contests, speakers, awesome meals, meetings with sponsors, craft making, door decorating, business card exchanging, beauty and fashion, 80’s parties, entertainment and much more! 

Snap conference at Little America SLC

Little America provided wonderful accommodations. I seriously LOVED this venue. There were chandeliers everywhere! It was gorgeous. Victorian Elegance at its best!

 Getting some staining tips from Bruce Johnson while eating lunch. I like to call him “Mr Minwax”. He is one if the coolest and nicest men around. Check out his blog “Sawdust in my Coffee” at minwax.com.

For my business card swag gift, I gave a BE happy magnet, “Enjoy the Little Things” print, a business card,  a silly story about commitMINT, involveMINT, exciteMINT, compliMINTS, moMINTS, etc… along with some yummy mints in a bag closed up with cute washi tape. Kinda cheesy but maybe memorable. 🙂 I met so many awesome people and received a ton of business cards as well as some fun and creative gifts from other bloggers. This has helped me make contact with many back at home which I may be doing for weeks still. 🙂

Here we are getting some awesome tips from Cara of Maskcara during lunch one day. She knows beauty and how to bring out the best in it! I loved her genuine love of beauty both inside an out.

All three days of the conference I went to classes taught by the cream of the crop in the blogging community. They taught such things as How to make your blog grow, how to make money blogging, how to connect with readers, how to manage the backend of your blog such as seo and statistics, blogging and social media, pinterest and more. I learned a lot and was also re-invigorated through what I heard. One commonality that most taught was to “be yourself, to be authentic”, “don’t compare yourself to others”, and to be organized and plan ahead. Those are all awesome tips for being successful and they are things I know but sometimes I get off track. Right now I am a bit behind. I have so many awesome post ideas but not planned ahead enough so I will be taking some time to get more organized. Then WATCH ME … BOOM! Ha! 😉 But seriously! {don’t give up}

The first evening we had the wonderful performance from Alex Boye’. He spoke and sang in a performance that was out of this world! He said he owed some of  his success to bloggers. When he was working a full time job that he didn’t enjoy, to support his family, 5 bloggers had shared a u-tube video of his. It brought him an insane amount of hits in just one day which brought him instantaneous success. Because of this, he felt he owed part of his success to bloggers so in turn he wanted to share with us. It was goose bump wonderful. Let’s just say I am a HUGE Alex Boye’ fan now. And of course I LOVE his rendition of  “HAPPY”! 

Check out Alex Boye’ “Happy” HERE!

The second night our motivational speaker was Noelle Pikus-Pace. Yes, the olympian sweetheart who took the silver in this years bobsled winter olympics and stole everyones hearts when she celebrated by running into the stands to celebrate with her family. She had endured a terrible accident shattering her 2010 olympic dreams after she had reached #1 in the nation and had spend her her life in training for the event. But, she DIDN’T GIVE UP ! And look where it got her this year. She shared her story as well as this years video with her medal in hand. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room and the hair on my skin was standing straight up. What an inspiration! {Don’t give up}

Noelle Picus-Pace at snap conference

The first night we had an 80’s PJ party after the concert. It was fun seeing numerous women running around this huge hotel in their jammies 80’s style! The second night we had an 80’s prom. Here’s some 80’s style that was posted on the SNAP FB website. Yes, that is me in the bottom right corner!

{some of the 80’s looks at snap conference}

I only used my i-phone camera at the conference so my photos are of that quality but here are some random pictures I captured at SNAP:

…..Spooky hallway…..

Kinda FUN. hahah

What hotel puts scales in their bathrooms. Seriously?

Yep, there were scales in our bathroom. I was tempted to hide them under the bed!

Here is the Door my 2 roomies and I decorated for Snap Conference:

This was our door for the snap door contest… “Cafe SNAP”

The closing message on the last night of the conference was this:

“What we become makes all the difference…”

Closing message at snap conference…

 So I will take those 3 words, “Don’t give up” from Alex Boye’ and I will just be myself and try to be the best I can be. I’d like to share a couple of styles of prints of “Don’t Give Up” with you today. We all have things in our lives where this message can be of use. Right?!!

Then, what we BECOME will make all the difference.

Don’t Give up Black & White Download HERE——–>> JPEG  or PDF

Don’t Give up Brights Download HERE——–>> JPEG  or PDF

Enjoy! 

Jillene

Snap conference happened… now its over…