I think I must be living in a parallel universe! | Mum In The Madhouse

I think I must be living in a parallel universe!

I attended Cybermummy (a mummy blogging conference) this weekend, which was billed as The UK’s premier Blogging Conference and I have to say that I really did wonder if I had taken a wrong turn and turned up somewhere else!

I have put off writing this post for a few days to see if my opinions changed after some time to assess and disseminate the things that had been going through my mind, but they haven’t and I have to say I was really underwhelmed with the event.

  • I thought the venue was not particularly suited, one session room was inaccessible if you had a buggy and yes this is marketed as an event for mummy bloggers. Some poor soul got locked in the loo and it would have been nice to have a map and maybe even agenda’s on the wall somewhere.
  • Don’t get me started on the fact that it is all about the mummy!
  • There weren’t enough places to sit and eat, plus the portion sizes of the food left something to be desired.
  • You were only allowed tea and coffee during official break times and one fellow blogger asked for some juice only to be told to drink either the free wine (from the wine tasting table) or drink water as it was better for her.
  • I found it particularly condescending that you had to prove that you had spoken to all the sponsors and get them to sign your passport to be entered in to the prize draw.  This was even more annoying when many of them had no particular interest to me or were not even relevant.  I fear that we are all silver haired mums with new borns or very young children!
  • There were technical issues, plus the main room was quite large and I was at the rear and it was very hard to see the person speaking, perhaps a large screen would have helped and also it would have been great for the bloggers asking the questions to have been encouraged to introduce themselves.
  • It was really hard to see the name badges if people were wearing them, not everyone had one, some were hand written, some had twitter id’s on some just blog names.
  • I am also not a fan of lanyards as it meant that you were looking at peoples chests and tummy’s, perhaps pin on badges would have made life easier.
  • The most disappointing aspect for me was the content or that should be lack of it.  I think that it was very light and focussed on the inexperienced blogger, which is such a shame, as I invested my time and someone else’s money in attending.  I also have to say that I really find it offending to be labelled as part of the masses which seems to be the term used for attendees a lot of the time.
  • I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people there.
  • Goodie bags.  Again this seemed particularly targeted to people with younger children.  Mine had three packs of baby wipes in, no wonder it was so heavy.  it also had in it two packs of pasta (which is remarkably heavy)!  I am glad that I didn’t have to lug it back home via the train.
  • It was a conference for bloggers, many of whom had travelled to attend and there was nowhere to recharge your devises, although the free wifi was great.

The one thing that redeemed it for me was the people.  There is something amazing about the diversity and sheer bloody wonderfulness of a lot bloggers.  Many of whom I am proud and delighted to be able to call my friends.  It was great to be able to meet some women that I really admire and I may have even shed the odd tear.

I also loved the fact that I could play match maker to some of the bloggers that I know would just get on so well with others and to finally get to meet with some people I have tweeted with forever!

Another positive for me was meeting with my wonderful sponsor Lego Duplo and I had a great chat with Kerry from Digital Outlook and Not Supermum and also educated a fellow blogger that Duplo and Lego are compatible and you can use them together (yes they actually connect), which makes Lego Duplo a fab brand to be sponsored by.

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