Connecting with Tampa Bay Bloggers Offline

Saturday evening, thirteen Bay area bloggers met at The Pub to share, connect and meet the bloggers behind the blogs.  Some had met before and some were anxious to meet for the first time.

As a guest, I was looking forward to seeing Raffi of Running Betty, Brian of Digital Running, Maria of Mommy Melee and Angel of Cheeky Sweetie again.

My sisters-in-law Karen of If I Could Escape and Kirsten of Gone Bananas attended the event as well as our friend Susie of Hide ‘N Go Scrap.

But I was really excited meet Caroline of Morningside Mom, Erika of Southern Fried Lives and Clarisa of TBO for the first time.

As host and organizer of the event, I wanted the evening to be worthwhile as well as fun.  We started the evening with an ice breaker to judge how well we recognized faces from blogs.

Then, our guest, speaker, Chris Angulo of Vology Data Systems, shared some quick tips on how to optimize our blogs with branding and key terms.  He also briefly mentioned Google+ and how it will change the social media platform and connectivity.  (Now, if only I could get an invite to be part of the 25,000,000 exclusive club beta users to learn more about it!)

To combat the noise level in the restaurant, I had people moving and mingling to share what they learned.

All that was well and good, but I think it was the swag that stole the night.  Seriously, the swag was awesome!

Prior to the event, I posted a request on Facebook and my friends HOOKED ME UP with some rocking chackas for the swag bags, like lip balm and pens from Suncoast Running, haircuts from blo Hair Studio & Color Cafe, stainless steel, travel mugs from Florida Title Services.  Not to mention free food coupons from evos, Chick-fil-a  and California Pizza Kitchen and a bottle of mango mix1 to wash it all down.  A big THANK YOU to all the business that contributed items for the bags!

Suncoast Running
blo Hair Studio & Color Cafe
Pain Relief Centers
Kelly Noel Photography
Florida Title Services, Inc
mix1
evos
Crystal Mango
California Pizza Kitchen
Mia’s Therapeutic Massage
Fit2Run
Chick-fil-a
RDesign

Although the swag bags were sweet, the real treasure was meeting everyone.  I can’t wait to do it all again in March.  Hopefully, I can get some sweet swag bags together again pull it all off again.

*The bloggers that attended Tampa BlogHer are linking up and sharing their recaps.  If you have a post to share, click on the linky below to add your blog to the list. Remember to share the love by visiting another Bay Area Blogger’s post.*

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7 comments

  1. Lisa-Marie says:

    Sorry to have missed this fun get together! Looking forward to meeting up next time..even without the swag 😉

  2. Amber's Articles says:

    Thank you for posting this. I have been looking for ways to get connected with local bloggers.

    Could you sen me the info. Regarding the next meet up?

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