Blog

This one’s for the bloggers.

This weekend I attended my first blogger conference, Traverse 16, hosted by Traverse Events. I was on the fence about going at all. It’s hard to justify dropping dollars — er, pounds — on something that still feels like a mildly successful hobby (at best), or a forgotten URL in the ethernets (at worst). I had a 3-am freak-out a couple weeks ago — Britton can tell you all about, bless him — around how this feels unfair to him and to our lives right now and, well, I’ll spare you the details. There were a lot of swear words.

But it all worked out! I haven’t ruined my life or my future or even my bank account!

ANYWAY.

The biggest reason I’m going to make every effort to attend Traverse 17 next year, wherever it may be, is simple: I feel far more prepared now than I did three days ago. After Traverse 16 I have checklists, tools to explore, new friends and a stack of business cards. I have a new focus for my blog, and confidence in that specificity. I had one-on-one time with industry experts — not all of whom work within travel; they’re just good at what they do.

The other reason is the reason that appeals to my budget-conscious brain (and my hyper-budget-focused husband): it’s very much worth the money, especially if you get in on the early-bird pricing. To illustrate, here’s what £60(ish) got me for one weekend:

• Dinner, dessert and drinks at the welcome party (plus music from The Big What Band, which was a treat!)
• Four conference sessions with industry-leading experts and companies who work with bloggers; coffee; lunch; beer & wine at the final Q&A panel; several opportunities to win trips or gift cards from sponsors
• Wrap party (cool location + booze + dancing!)
• Muchos networking opportunities (I ran out of business cards. That many opportunities.)
• A “Sunday Experience.” In my case, this was a full day’s bike rental from Cardiff Cycle Tours. There were so many options though. It was ridiculous.
• Entrance and House Tour of Cardiff Castle

I thought there was a good spread of sessions for different levels of bloggers as well. I’m super-novice, but there were sessions for more established bloggers looking to monetize, grow or branch out.

Registration didn’t include transportation, but if I’d not been so on-the-fence, I could’ve booked train travel at a stupid-low price with a group discount code. Instead I faffed and waffled and had to book a MegaBus (which isn’t terrible, but definitely not a train!).

They had also worked out deals with area hotels. Traverse pretty much did everything they could to make the conference accessible to the most basic of bloggers.

I’ll be there in 2017.

Unless I’m crazy-successful and ruling the world from a bicycle by then. In which case I’ll send a postcard.

BTW, Traverse did not ask me to write this. It’s basically a thank-you note from me with love. They probably won’t know I wrote it until they see me tweet about it (hopefully they see me tweet about it?!) It’s totally my own opinion! I know I googled “should I attend Traverse 16” so I’m hoping to help out next year’s newbie. Traverse was a success in large part thanks to its sponsors and its host, Visit Wales, so throw them some love if you’ve got some to spare.