Spark Sessions

So, as promised I am going to talk to you a little about the Spark Sessions conference I attended this past weekend. All I knew going into it was that there would be 250 fellow fashion and beauty bloggers, that there were panels where people would be talking about different topics relevant to blogging (how to turn blogging into a full-time job, and what to know before you sign with an advertising agency), and that of course there would be networking time.

When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised by how real everything and everyone was. By that I mean, the talks and panels were very tailored and relevant to the blogging industry as it currently is; a lot of the speakers (who I will talk about in a second) probably made their foray into the blogging sector years ago, but they still know what's going on with it and how it has changed today. And so they spoke about their experiences, but also how it would be different for us current and new bloggers and how that will change and we take their tips and advice into account.

The speakers that were at the conference were some of the coolest, nicest, most interesting people I've gotten to hear speak. Some of them were TV personalities, some were long-time bloggers (who have turned it into a full-time job), some were PR professionals, giving us advice on how to contact people like them to get ourselves out there more. There were also Q&A components at the end of (almost) every panel (if they didn't have time for a Q&A it was most likely that the speaker talked a lot about the topic, and had answered any questions we would've had), which was also good to hear them expand on their topic and tailor their information towards specific bloggers.

Day 1

(Andrew Sardone; Editor, Globe Style Advisor)

(Vanessa Craft: Beauty Director, Elle Canada)

(Wynnie Chan)

(From left to right: Cameron Gordon, Sean Beckingham, and Talya Macedo)

(Lena Almeida, Listen to Lena)

Day 2

(From left to right: Ruth Goudie, Noor Marzook, Isabelle Randez, and Sarah Kelsey)

(Katherine Andrikopoulos)

(Maxine McDonald)

(From left to right: Iva Galic-Grbesic, Rema Gouyez, and Natalie Ho)

(Cheryl Hickey)

And of course, there is the networking component. Before going, I thought we were just going to be able to meet fellow bloggers and bounce ideas and tips and tricks off each other to find out maybe what they know about the industry that we didn't. But what I was also very pleasantly surprised with was that the sponsors of Spark Sessions (and there were some really big names) were also available for networking, in that you could make an appointment with a certain brand you're interested in working with and talk to them for about 10 minutes ("speed networking").

During the course of the weekend, the sponsor brands also had booths setup around the building, and attendees could go around and talk to the people running them (who also work for the brand). You could try out their products, most of which are new and just hitting the market, or in the case of clothing brands, try on some pieces. For example, the Benefit Cosmetics booth was doing brow services, and I decided to give it a try. The girl who was working the booth was super nice and we chatted a bit, and I was extremely pleased with the result. She used Benefit's gimme brow, which uses brow-volumizing fibre gel. It just enhances your brows' natural look, making them look fuller, which is exactly what I was looking for. Needless to say I'm obsessed!

(The Blossom Lounge booth)

(The Crowd Social booth)

(The Vitabath booth)

(The Nicole by OPI booth)

(Me getting my brows done at the Benefit booth)

This type of experience is invaluable to people like me, to really get your name (and blog, and brand) out there for people to notice. My favourite thing about blogging is that there are sooo many different types of bloggers. Besides the fashion and beauty (and lifestyle) bloggers, there are also ones that do it full-time (or have other jobs and blog on the side, like me); bloggers that are looking to make partnerships with brands and PR companies (and ones that maybe don't have interest in doing that); bloggers that are looking to turn their blog into a website, with contributors and make it a full-time thing who can employ other people (and some who are happy with their smaller blog, who just like to do it for fun). And many other variations. No matter what type of blogger you are, you definitely got something (and by something I mean a lot of somethings) out of the weekend. For example, I attended some panels on topics I wasn't necessarily interested in at the moment (like the "how to rebrand your blog" session), but the information I learned in that talk was good to know in general, and will also help me if I ever do decide to rebrand.

And of course, the goodie bag. This was one of the craziest swag bags I have ever received, with tons of (full size!) samples of products, some of which aren't even on the market yet. There is probably no better place to give free samples than a blogger conference where the attendees will definitely try out the products and review and write about them on their blogs. I am so excited to start trying these products, and hopefully bring you some reviews of ones that I just can't get enough of. One of the samples I received was the Benefit "gimme brow", which I talked about above, and I'm so happy since I loved the product they tested on me at the conference.