Fitbloggin 2011

Across the board Fitbloggin was really fun.  There was very little ego around, and I really enjoy that type of environment.  This community of fitness bloggers really did feel like a community. **Quick plug for a giveaway I am doing for the Fitness and Health Bloggers conference – details here.

Here is a slide show I shot of the conference if you want a small feel for it.

Nights one and two I roomed with Lauren, Greta, and Jenn.  Night three I roomed with Emily, Emily, and Brittany.  Neither room was any better or worse than the others but they were way different and nice for me to experience.  I want to say thank you to my roommates, it was fun to hang with you all. I learned a good deal from each one of you.

Heading into the conference the only person I knew from real life was Kathryn Brown of the Daily Burn who was on a panel on Saturday, but she was only coming in Saturday for the day.  I made a “FREE HUGS” shirt the night before I left thanks to Susan’s (Foodie McBody) inspiration.  And I knew a few acquaintances from the web including two of my roommates Greta and Jenn from the Mamavation campaigns.

Upon landing and heading to the shuttle I recognized Ryan and ran into two of my roommates as well as Kia (who I am a fangirl of due to her consistency).  It turns out that as the conference went on I knew A LOT of people.  It wasn’t just a popularity contest though because that would be lame.  Here is what I gleamed from my time in Baltimore.

• I highly respect the science and more fact-based information disseminators out there and was pleased to see Holly Perkins and Liz Neporent on panels.  As far as social aggregation I highly respect Lisa Johnson because she knows we have a collective blogger responsibility.
• The big themes for the conference were be yourself, express gentle kindness to yourself, and as a community we have a responsibility to support each other to make us better.
• People have more self doubt in this sphere than I realized and I wish I could bottle whatever confidence I have in my abilities to give to others when they needed it.
• This blogging sphere also has a good deal more integrity than what I see in the mommy blogging community and will call out someone or pump the brakes themselves if they see questionable products being supported.  As it was Jillian Michael’s was not regarded highly because of her backing a diet pill.
• A lot of people did not like the idea of being a career blogger after learning what it takes to do it.  The panelists on this topic did an outstanding job.
• If you do work with brands be genuine and establish relationships before you ask for a sponsorship.  Also if you are approached by a brand and they are not a good fit for your niche then suggest a fellow blogger who would be better.  We are a community after all.
• There is a good deal of dialogue to be had on blogger responsibilities with a portion of our community questioning if we are too arrogant to be concerned with our responsibilities as a sign of not thinking our readers are smart enough to think for themselves.
• I question how much of this particular fitness community is concerned with weight loss as their fitness focus and wonder if “Fitbloggin” as a title is misleading with that thought in mind.
• It is fantastic to simply LISTEN to the journeys others have taken.  Especially others that don’t seem like they are like you.  I want to thank everyone of you who gave so freely of yourselves in sharing your experiences.

Going forward I saw where my skills and knowledge can better contribute to this community.  I will add more photography, vlogging, and videography content because I am good at these mediums.  I am also considering pieces on yoga for everyone, especially larger people who can be intimidated by yoga studios (I do have clients who prefer to work privately with me because of intimidation).  I will add pieces on the gentle kindness nature to oneself in terms of nutrition, movement, and compassion.  I am also a big believer on continuing the blogger responsibility dialogue because it is one I have IRL with my friends working in the wellness sector every week and will add to to this topic.

The sponsors were very generous with the swag at this conference.  New Balance not only gave everyone shoes, clothing, and earphones but helped present a fantastic session on trends in the industry.  And if they send me something we talked about you will be seeing a lot more New Balance chatter on my blog.  I made a joke to them via twitter that before the 890 shoes I got last month I had only thought about them when I saw Steve Jobs’ one outfit.  They are quickly changing my mind about their presence in my world and my running and lifting.  I was very pleased with Attune Foods and even more so after talking to their representative who also talked to me about some of the environmental stances of the company then proceeded to give me a BPA-free screw-top container recycled from old yogurt cartons via Preserve for my son.  The funny thing is that I have gone through my number of boxes of Uncle Sam cereal due to my sugar cane allergy over the years.  I was also happy to see Larabar there since I do live near them and munch on their bars as calorie emergencies – they also work well with my sugar cane allergy.  I gotta say the cherry industry was a surprise to see there but a good one.  My son has been munching on dried cherries a lot lately.  Thank you everyone.

However my best piece of swag I brought home was from Susan a.k.a. @foodiemcbody.  She had on a Totoro hat Friday morning and I know I SQUEEED when I saw it.  My family are huge Miyazaki fans and our son’s baby shower/party was Totoro themed as well as part of my design asthetics I point people toward when they want to give him gifts.  She gave me one.  Thank you Susan, my husband is jealous.  You will be seeing the hat soon – it needs its own post.

I will need to do an individual gratitude post later because that will be long.

On a final note I was pretty crap with my poken, but would love to connect if there is anything you want to dialogue about.  Thank you everyone for sharing and inspiring.  Being around this community was empowering because everyone is so beautiful on the inside and out. Namaste.