The day started quite early for me like most of the women attending, I had a lovely journey down with Carly and meet Karin at Kings Cross. While heading for the tube I was accosted by a woman who grabbed by arm and said “are you Carol?” “I recognised you hair from your blog” it turned out to be the lovely Becky someone I had been talking to for ages through twitter, blogs and emails , this set the tone for the rest of the day and it was a good one.
We all headed off together and meet more bloggers along the way, we all walked down from Earls Court tube station together (once we got the right exit), I was walking near the front of the group and was amazed to see so many women walking together, it was a joy to see. Thank you Hannah for arranging the walk.
As soon as we got into the hotel you could feel the atmosphere, there were hugs, tears and nerves all mingling together and to be honest it felt good. The rest of the day was a blur I meet wonderful women, missed just as many. Listened to inspirational women speaking, faced my fear and spoke in front of them, laughed, cried, ate cupcakes, drank wine and did a pub quiz.
The talks was interesting, at times I felt disappointment as I thought to myself I know that, but on the journey home I looked at in a more positive way at least I’m on the right track, I doing it right.
I wish I could tell you every single thing that happened but I can’t, one I don’t remember and two it would be a very long post.
What I can tell you is what Cybermummy has done for me-
- It’s giving me confidence in what I write
- It has made me realise I need to refocus some aspects of my blogs.
- It’s given me hope that we can all get on if we are in a room together.
- It allowed me to meet the people I admire the most.
- I learnt that Linda Jones is exactly how you envision her to be, she managed to kiss me, compliment me and insult me in the first 3 minutes I meet her.
- It made me proud to be a woman/mummy blogger
I’ve already started a fund for next year!
It seems that all the love we generated at Cybermummy as disappeared overnight due to a new parenting league table being announced and Julys Tots 100 going up.
So here is some advice (feel free to ignore it most people do)
- Celebrate or commiserate then move on, stop going on about it
- Don’t make people feel bad for making or not making a list
- Stop worrying about them, being on a list doesn’t make you a good blogger, you do.
- Write for yourself and no one else, people will know if you are writing to get comments so you can move up on said list.
- Remember why you started blogging in the first place
- If you don’t love it anymore, don’t do it
- Live first, blog last
So in honour of the fabulous Cybermummy conference I leave you with this song, I hope it helps empower you.
