Camp Blogaway: Confessions of a neophyte blogger

Camp BlogAway 

I had planned on creating a blog about food and travel called “2 Broads Abroad” after our trip to Spain last year. Alas, the only solid thing to come out of my plan was to register the name for the site on WordPress.

As fate would have it, I was looking at Joy the Baker’s site and saw that she was going to speak at a conference called “Camp Blogaway”. I was intrigued. Several clicks later I was signed up to attend the weekend event.

The days passed and then Friday arrived and I had to really begin thinking about my choice, let alone hunt down a sleeping bag. I was going to go to a camp, not a resort, but a bunk bed, room sharing type of camp filled with expert bloggers. Oh, and I knew no one and didn’t have an inkling on how to blog. It was sounding more and more like a bad high school dance—all those cute, hip sorority girls and me. Dread. I started to regret my decision to go. But the money was spent and I did commit to start a blog. It was time to suck it up.

I dropped my stuff off at my cabin and headed to the main lodge where I had just missed the Wilton demonstration. If there was one event I could miss it was that. I just finished wrapping the fourth season of Amazing Wedding Cakes and had had my share of fondant. But it looked like everyone had fun.

The evening began with dinner. Patti Lordre, camp organizer and dominatrix extraordinaire, then introduced all the bloggers in attendance. This proved a little embarrassing for me, I didn’t have a site and the one that Patti put up was not mine. At least I was sitting off to the side and not everyone could see me.

Patti Londre and Joy the Baker spoke about SEOs (an acronym that I had never encountered before). My head was spinning lots of information and not quite enough oxygen. As luck would have it, I shared the table with Erika of In Erika’s Kitchen. Erika exemplifies the spirit that permeated the camp—fun, generous, informative, the farthest thing from a sorority event that one could experience. She also gave me a very quick lesson on SEOs and a word of advice—write.

After meeting Erika my fear and awkwardness faded away. The next morning I met Greg of Sippity Sup, (a fellow Flip videographer), Louise of The Art of Cuisine, Liz of Liz the Chef and Melissa of The Fresh 20.

There were other informative panels:
• How to Be a Sparkling Vlogger—Carolyn O’Neil
• Balancing the Pressures of Blogging—Recipe Girl, Savor the Thyme, Sippity Sup
• Building a Bona Fide Community—Food Blogga, 5 Second Rule
• Catching the Eye of Corporations
• A conversation With…TasteSpotting

I left Camp Blogaway energized and ready to write. Thanks to Patti and all who organized this wonderful experience.

Meet Patti Londre the Mistress of Camp BlogAway.