by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

Last week after the earthquake and before the hurricane there was a pet conference taking place in Vienna, Virginia called BlogPaws – the 3^rd annual and all for the pet blogging community!  We, a few Long Island Pet Professional members, and many New York pet bloggers and from all across the country were fortunate enough to be in attendance at a furtastic conference.  One of the organizers, Caroline Golon is also a local Long Islander and of the Romeothecat.com blog fame – and she along with her BlogPaws partners, Yvonne DiVita and Tom Collins of Scratchings and Sniffings did an amazing job – dispite mother nature’s wrath!  BlogPaws 2011 was a great way for all of us in the pet blogging world to meet face to face – since so many of us follow each other on Twitter or are friends on Facebook, but nothing beats meeting in person.  The conference ran so smoothly and everyone was so excited to be there and meet each other – even all the pets!

The breakout sessions that I attended on Friday were fabulous and even if you think you know a lot – you can always learn so much at a conference like BlogPaws or even at a networking event.  I have pages and pages of notes to go over, and hundreds of business cards – many of which I already reached out too, and even found more pet people and media to follow on Twitter.  This was my first BlogPaws conference and I really hope to make the next one in Salt Lake City, Utah.   I mean seriously there were even people from Disney – this was the conference if you are a blogger not to miss.

And where else are you at a conference where you can bring your pet to sit in the breakout sessions with you?  Many times during a session a dog would bark in agreement with what the expert speaker was saying – it was quite funny – and made the conference just all that much more refreshing.  Some people even brought their cats, yes their cats, and their ferrets too.  All the pets seemed to be getting along and having just as much fun as the attendees themselves.

The only unfortunate thing about it was that we had to head back to Long Island because of rude Hurricane Irene, so many of us missed the 2^nd day.  Very disappointing, but we had to head back ahead of the storm.  But still attending the day & ½ that we did – it was pawsome!  And did I mention the ridiculously filled to the brim swag bag? Holy crap – we got so much amazing free stuff in the swag bag Max’s, my pit bull was too very excited when I got back!  In addition to the swag, the BlogPaws event raised over $12,500 and donated it to five different charities.  The next event is scheduled for next June in Salt Lake City – so who’s going?

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