Niche Mommy: Reviewing My First Conference Experience

The inaugural Niche Mommy Conference was held in New Orleans this year and I was lucky enough to attend via sponsorship with Britax. It was an exhilarating weekend, packed with learning, networking and lots and lots of eating. As a boutique conference, Niche Mommy’s emphasis was on the quality of your experience, and as a newbie to the conference scene, that is exactly what I needed.

The conference was held in the beautiful Waldorf Astoria property, The Roosevelt New Orleans. The hotel is seeping in history and nestled within walking distant to all the amazing sights that NOLA has to offer. With a past dating back to the early twentieth century, The Roosevelt New Orleans has hosted the famous and infamous alike. It was undergone restoration, but the charm and nostalgia of the property has remained. It was the perfect selection for the conference venue and I enjoyed calling it home for my weekend getaway.

One of the pieces of advice that I received in attending my first conference was to determine my goals and define my own vision of a successful experience. This was imperative for someone who didn’t really know what to expect. Personally, I wasn’t too concerned with making connections with brands or swag. I was already attending the conference with Britax, a brand I wholeheartedly support and am knowledgeable of. However, I was super excited to meet and mingle with new bloggers, and of course for the learning that goes on within the conference sessions. But, my first order of business was to finally meet IRL {blogger talk for “in real life”} the amazing women who have influenced me so much. At Niche Mommy, I was finally able to hug and chat with bloggers who I frequently email and converse with virtually, and doing so was my ultimate conference goal.

With Niche Mommy founder, Nadia Jones

With Ana Flores of Spanglish Baby and Latino Bloggers Connect

With Eva Smith, co-founder of Latina Mom Bloggers, and her beautiful daughter

High on my agenda was also learning more about travel blogging and meeting the wonderful Tracey of One Brown Girl. Tracey works tirelessly to promote the values of travel to women of all ages through her Passport Party Project and her recent endevor of #BrownGirlsGive. I was SO thrilled to, not only meet this amazing woman, but to also spend quite a bit of time with her while walking the streets of NOLA. In that time, I learned so much on how to document my philosophies of travel and exposing my kids to culture. Tracey’s passion oozes out of her. Being around her motivated me to engage that part of my voice within this blog.

Meeting the keynote speakers was very cool – what an amazing wealth of knowledge and inspiration from bloggers and social media gurus that are doing big things! I especially enjoyed getting to know Daisy Sutherland, aka Dr. Mommy and author of the newly released book “Letting Go of Super Mom”. I learned a lot from her willingness to share knowledge and tips of advice…. she even extended me an invitation to guest post on her highly awarded website! Although making that connection was not on my radar, I was delighted to have made a great friends with a blogger doing big things.

Listening to Ted Rubin of Collective Bias discuss his infamous phrase “Return on Relationships” was very inspiring. Since I’m still a small blogger reaching for big opportunities, being sure to connect with my beloved readers is imperative. {Look out for a new interactive comment section coming soon!} It was great knowing that big timers believe int this philosophy, too.

Karen Walrond of the ever inspiring, photo-centric blog Chookooloonks was simply amazing. She is doing so many of the things I strive to accomplish with my blog, and in my life. She writes. She shoots. She lives in the most beautiful way. Her blog’s tagline says so much about the person she is and the positive energy she is putting out to the world: wildly convinced you’re uncommonly beautiful. After her keynote address, I stood in line to meet her. In a frantic mess, I told her about De Su Mama and the path I hope to lead my blog’s voice towards. I told her about my mixed family {her’s is, as well} and even asked her what lens she was using for a specific photo that I admired {50mm 1.4}. She took my card and said she thought my message was endearing. This one connection was not one I planned on, but turned into a highlight of my first conference. You better believe I will be reaching out to her in the future!

All in all, The Niche Mommy conference was the perfect pick for my first conference experience. I look forward to its continued growth and to attend again next year, because this is one conference that will for sure continue to evolve and grow into one of the best on the blogging conference circuit.

I will be posting more about my trip to New Orleans, and one amazing new friend I made {I’ll give you a hint: she goes BAM!} this week. It was a splendid city that has captured my heart… I can’t wait to take the family back soon!