Alt Recap - Friday Roundtables, Panels and Mini Parties! - 01.31.2013

riday morning at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City started off with a quick breakfast before heading out to that morning's round tables. Imagine a gynormous (is that even a word??) room filled with, what else, round tables! : ) See below...

{image by Brooke Dennis}

Each table was designated to a different blogging or blog related topic of interest and you could sit in one or as many as you wished! I chose to sit in the "From Blog to Book" table led by the fabulous Dana Willard from the blog MADE.

{images by Brooke Dennis}

The main thing I learned from Dana is that you must reeeaaallllyyyy want to write a book... bad! It's not a task for the faint of heart.  So, it helps to truly be passionate about it because it will take time, sweat and tears to get it done.  Plus, if you're doing it for the "mula", the "dinero", the "pesos", the ca$h... only, you will probably want to aim at becoming a NY Times Bestseller, cause it's truly not the end result of writing your average book.  I really appreciated her candid talk with us because I think there's a lot of misconception out there about writing a book and it's almost like the holy grail for most bloggers out there.  Many of us want to write one about our passion. But, the real question is why do you want to write it? If it's for money and exposure... it's probably not worth the hassle.  But, if it's for passion and love of the book... go for it! She also stressed that it need not be published by a publishing house.  You could self-publish and keep 100% of the profits! An e-book in the works perhaps? Hmnnn????? 

After the super informative roundtable (by the way... I'm suddenly having a flashback to high school journaling... "First period I saw this boy... second period I had a stomachache... third period I enjoyed the lesson...")... Sorry... brain fart. Okay... moving on.  After the roundtables, I headed over to see Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks. Honestly, I was interested in the topic... but I was more fascinated by her because I read that she used to be a lawyer, and as someone who got a law degree and didn't even try to stay in it (cause I was bored to absolute tears), that interested me quite a bit. I'm always interested by people who leave the legal profession to pursue a passion. That, to me, takes a lot of courage. Especially because you will face (and I did) so much resistance from your family and from society.  So... I already liked her before I even laid eyes on her. 

Well, was I pleasantly surprised or what! Whoa! This woman is fantastic. She's articulate, bright, funny, witty... oh my! If she's adopting, I'm totally in line for that! Sorry Mom!! : ) 

Here's me taking notes, the old fashioned way...

{images: Mina Brinkey}

Some of my takeaways from Karen's inspiring presentation were:

• Stop Comparing
• Stop comparing your insides to their outsides
• It's exhausting to try to be someone else
• Don't compare. Instead, be inspired.
• Comparison leads to negative feelings about ourselves. Inspiration makes us want to be better people. (I LOVE this wise little nugget of advice!!!)
• Practice Seeing
• Be in every moment, take it all in and see what is around you.
• Carry a camera with you at all times to make you want to notice the little things
• Journal, Read, Collect Awesome Things
• Just let it all out as you journal
• Collect whatever moves you
• Name What Lights You Up
• Ask yourself what you like to do
• Why do you like what you do?
• Travel
• It changes your perspective & the way you think
• Make Life Happen
• Don't wait for it to happen
• Create Your Own Story
• Great blogs are intimate
• You can be intimate without being exposed

All in all, Karen's presentation left me inspired to be myself and to notice life and not let it slip me by.  I've soaked it in just a little bit more since last Friday. Thank you Karen! 

Friday ended with some uh-mazing mini parties thrown by the coolest sponsors like Flipboard, Hayneedle.com, Better Homes and Gardens, Go Mighty and Method, among many others. Here's the evidence... 

{image by Flipboard}

{images taken by Mina Brinkey/Photographs by Go Mighty party photo booth}

I had an absolute blast at the mini parties! I hung out with sweet Koseli who I could've packed up in my suitcase and brought home for non stop chatter. But, alas... Friday ended. It was the most fun I've had in a while. Danced for at least 2 hours... to old school rap, nonetheless. I'm sure the Fresh Prince would've cringed at the sight of all those 30 something mommy bloggers (I'm proudly including myself here) dancing and doing our versions of the running man, the sprinkler and the cabbage patch. It was a sight to see, that's for sure. : )

I leave you now my sweet readers. I hope you enjoyed the recap. I will be back Monday with the final recap of Alt. Saturday's fun adventures! All I'm going to say is that there's paintbrushes and a final master piece involved. Stay tuned!!

Hugs,

Mina

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