This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 3rd annual Latina Lifestyle Blogger conference.  I was very fortunate in that I won a ticket via their twitter party they had over a month ago.  Why attending conferences is a good thing?

Although I am not Latina, I am definitely a lifestyle blogger that focuses upon local travel within Los Angeles, my love of wine, and photography (although far from being a professional!)

These are my 10 Reasons as to why Attending Blogger Conferences is a good idea:

1) The Networking that Happens Around You:

There were some pretty incredible people in attendance at this conference including Cesar Rolon Jr (founder of Latino Fashion Week.)  Actor: Saul Velaz Jr and Actress: Doris Morgado who was so beautiful in person and rocking a GREAT dress.  Also, Magazine owner Davina Ferreira of Alegria magazine was also present.  She was looking for contributors.  If you always wanted to write for a magazine, right before you, this was your opportunity.

2) The Wealth of Knowledge:

Let me tell you, the speakers and panels and topics at this conference covered everything from building your business plan to connecting with brands from real PR perspectives to the importance of grammar to building your social media presence to the ethics of blogging.

And the speakers really added value to this discussions.  I was really impressed with the speakers present at the #LALLBLOG13 conference.  They shared their personality, they were authentic, and had you laughing.

3) Introduction of new products!

This is one of my favorite things, but because of sponsorships that occur at blogging conferences you may be introduced to a new product you may not have heard of before.  Products such as the newest Agua Fresca: Coba.  #drinkcoba or Ilaments, a beautiful jewelry line that covers itself in earrings, bracelets, and necklaces to a new favorite alocholic drink called Delicia.  The bottle only has 5% alcohol in it, however, it is sweet, and really good especially the Strawberries and Creme, and of course Joia, which is a Minnesota Based Company that combines fruit flavors with different variety of spices.

4) Reiterates What You Already Know, or what you need to work on:

After any blogging conference it gives me the time to reflect on the information that was sent my way, and it allows me to work on the things I have been neglecting, or, reiterates the things I have been doing correctly.

@marthamacys @muchoupdate @besamegirl @jspepper

For this conference, the branding of your Social Media Persona really hit close to home for me because the past week I had been reflecting on that exact topic.  It couldn’t have been more perfect timing.

5) Lunch

Can I tell you what’s awesome about the Latina Lifestyle Conference?  Their Lunches.  First day was catered by Fresh Brothers, one of the best Pizza chains in Los Angeles, and Day 2, Mexican was brought in by Juan’s Restaurant.  And it was good.

6) Open Your Mind to Learning Something New

With any conference you should be able to learn something new and then apply it to your blogging life.  That is very true about the Latina Lifestyle Conference.

From learning what B.L.O.G stands for: Branding, Logistics, Organization and Goals, which completely makes sense to knowing its okay to not allow negative comments on my blog.  Why would you let someone piss in your cheerios, right?

To so much more.

7) The Power of Social Media

Throughout the conference and each session we were asked to share our knowledge of what we learned throughout the panels.  The winner with the most influence and who tweeted out the most would win some fantastic prizes.

PS: I am so happy I won shoes from @socalshoedoctor from her 34MinutesShoes Line.

But also, as I was tweeting out, a fellow SCLB who was following along during the conference asked a question how awesome it is for us to acknowledge the person asking the question.  We took her question and made sure it got answered during the conference.

And as @coupledumb answered this resonated in so many: “It is far worse to have an online presence and not acknowledge others than to not have one at all.  Be social, it is social media.”

but also knowing the conference had just 160 contributors, but reached nearly 13.42 million users via social media.  And had over 5000 tweets throughout the weekend.

8) Anything is Possible

These conferences remind us that if you put in the hard work, if you make the connections, your dreams can become possible.

And it empowers us to keep going.

Serendipity Cupcakes.  Their frosting is so light.

9) New Friendships

It goes back to #1: The networking that happens in the room, but you get introduced to other bloggers you may not have known prior to the conference.  And because of those connections, new friendships are born.

10) The Swag 😉

Lol, I don’t go to conferences because of the swag, but I must say it’s a GREAT bonus.  And the Latina Lifestyle Bloggers pulled out all the stops from providing us with make up to earrings to brushes and more.

A huge thank you goes out to Carolyn West and Ana Lydia Monaco for the success of this conference.