Comments Off on BlogPaws or Bust!
08 May 13

BlogPaws or Bust! ...

by Nancy E. Hassel, LIPetPlace.com

BlogPaws returns to the Washington DC area starting on Thursday, May 16, 2013 and I for one am stoked and am really looking forward to the pet blogging and social media conference next week.

What better way to kick of the spring/summer pet conference season than with being with your peers, surrounded by amazing, brilliant minds in the pet world and social media world – and yes even dogs will be there too!  There is nothing stuffy about this type of business conference, when a dogs bark brings laughter and smiles during the middle of an speakers’s presentation!

BlogPaws started in 2010 and this will be the 5th conference, (2 were done in the 1st year for both coasts), and this will be my second one to attend.

So this year there are a lot of new features at the conference that will satisfy the beginner pet blogger, intermediate and professional pet blogger.  As this year BlogPaws team has introduced 4 tracks of sessions so if you have been before and are not sure what is in it for you this year as a pro blogger – check this out.  If you are new to pet blogging and want to hone your online publishing skills or want to start a blog for your pet business or community this is the conference for you.  You can also mix and match the tracks – in other words pick and choose what sessions you want to be in.

An addition this year, Blerina Sanocki from Google will be there to discuss google analytics on Thursday from 1 – 2:3opm.  It pays to get there in morning, registration starts at 10am on Thursday – guess this traveler will be leaving a little earlier that day to get there for this!

Also new this year will be Lunch Pack Leaders – which is an expert who will be inviting attendees to a lunchtime discussion to share their knowledge.  Cool, I am in!

And if you have a pet business this is a fantastic place to be too – while blogging and social media are big portion of the 3 day event – pet businesses will have the opportunity to learn so much too.  And of course for the networking and education you will get while there, it is so worth the 4.5 hr drive, if your driving!

To register for BlogPaws or find out more info, click here!

Hope to see you there!  OH wait! I forgot to mention the tremendous Swag you will get while there too! 🙂

Comments Off on Blogging about Blog Paws
31 Aug 11

Blogging about Blog Paws ...

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 3rd 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 2nd 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?