Going To A Blog Conference

Let me tell you a little what going to a blog conference is like. You buy your ticket, make your reservations, and spend approximately 364 days confirming with friends on Twitter whether or not you are going.

As the big day approaches you feel terrible about leaving your family, but kind of look forward to it at the same time.

If you happen to fly a red eye flight to your conference destination than you spend your first day sleep walking through the city, but by the second day you’re ready to go.

What happens next will be a whirlwind of non-stop movement or as I told my mom on the phone “amped up behavior”. You choose sessions you might want to attend, you meet friends for coffee, breakfast, lunch, more coffee, dinner, and cocktails and you talk a lot.

The highlight of your trip will obviously be the free swag you are given at every party, but seeing people you like will be a close second. My particular favorite moments were spent navigating New York with my roommate Summer. We spent a lot of time walking through New York studying our iphones with our GPS maps held out in front of us, “The blue dot is moving the wrong way….I think we have to turn around….wait….no still wrong…”

I’m kind of notorious for creating awkward cringe-worthy moments that make me want hurry home and hide beneath my grandma’s blanket, but my friends insist those moments make the trip worth going on so I wear that hat proudly. Underneath my Grandma’s blanket. What kind of awkward moments you ask?

Oh things like, when a fairly well known blogger says “Hi, my name is Jane I don’t think we’ve met before have we?” and instead of saying “Gosh I’m not sure, but I’m Kat and it’s great to finally meet you!” I say “Yes actually…once at Bloggy Boot Camp when Tiffany Romero introduced us, once again Blogher last year when my lovely boss Holly Hamann introduced us and then again earlier this morning when I sat across from you at breakfast…don’t you remember any of that??”

But the best awkward moment award does not belong to me. After I left a comment on The Bearded Iris who had declared she was going to hump the legs of strangers in a blog post she wrote because she was so excited for the trip. I told her I’d give her 5 dollars for every leg she seriously humped. Imagine my surprise than, one week later, while standing outside a party with a group of friends, this grown woman came running up and began humping my leg…quite enthusiastically I might add. It took me about 7 awkward seconds to realize who was humping my leg and than after a hug of recognition I turned to my stunned friends and was all, “no it’s okay, I told her to do that.”

The beauty about creating awkward situations at blog conferences is that they’re filled with awkward people just like you and all that awkwardness will undoubtedly bring you closer.

And at the end of the day, if you’re anything like me you’ll really really want to go back home and just be quiet and never leave again…until next time.

Here I interview a very difficult blogger I managed to corner at lunch (starring Minnie from Nice Girl Notes):

(video here)

And you can see even more pretty pictures on my Facebook page here.