#BlogSummitUK Manchester 2013

Having got so much out of Blog Camp last year I was really excited to be off to Manchester for Blog Summit this year. Being an impoverished Northener I can't .get to many conferences but this was is not too far away. I did have to get up at 6 AM but it was well worth it.

Before the conference I met up with a bunch of mostly familiar faces for a coffee. We chat every day online but only see each other face to face a few times a year. Such a lovely bunch of mums.

Then we headed off to the Studio for the actual conference. Its a lovely venue with plenty of room for all of us to both mingle and learn. First up was Ben Wakeling to talk about learning to take online criticism and how to market your own publication online:

He coped very well being heavily outnumbered by a predominately female audience. His use of photos of male Cbeebies presenters as poster boys may have helped! Did you know that Mr Tumble has a huge mummy fan base?

Ruth from Geek Mummy gave us 6 quick tips for our blogs including backups! One of her tips I am using for this post as I am remembering to export photos to a smaller size before uploading them to this post...

Next up was Sarah McIntyre a children's illustrator and author who talked about collaborative blogging and reaching out to your readership through interactivity. As you can see she is far more glamorous than your average blogger:

As a pre-lunch quickie Sally from Tots 100 gave us a great explanation of how the Tots 100 ranking system works:

Then it was time for the all important buffet lunch:

Dessert was provided courtesy of Divino and their divine fruits with fat free gelato inside: 

Fully refreshed we headed back in for a talk on Food blogging from Emma at A Mummy Too and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. I will never be big on the foodie front but the tips on food photography will come in useful. Helen has challenged us all to to a recipe post this month so watch this space... In the meantime here was how I tried out their tips at the tea break:

The event was sponsored by Volvo and Cow and Gate so their PRs were there to talk to us between sessions. Of course their freebies were a great excuse for a quick silly photo:

I never got a chance to go the blind baby food testing on the Cow and Gate stall but the fruit puree looked yummy!

We finished with a PR expert panel to talk about how PRs work with bloggers and share the good and the bad:

Afterwards a few of us retired to a local pub to mull over some of the day before heading home. All in all a great day out and I really hope I can go again next year!