A couple of weekend ago, I attended the Nashville Blogger Bash at the Nossi College of Art in Nashville. This three-day event was presented by the Nashville Blogging Collective. The NBB brought together a diverse group of digital content creators, including bloggers, social media influencers, podcasters, vloggers, and digital marketers.
The Nashville Blogging Collective is lead by a group of amazing women — Tiffany Perkins, Melissa Lunsford, Lindsey Miles, Sheena Steward, and Ashanti and Jamie.
“Now in its second year, the Nashville Blogger Bash attracts dozens of locally and nationally recognized content creators to Nashville to network, build knowledge, and of course, have a great time.”
This year’s conference was all about “Execution”, and they put together a weekend “designed to provide attendees with actionable takeaways, deepened knowledge, and reliable contacts.” I, for one, met some wonderful people, and connected with several of them. It was also nice to see some familiar faces, such as Dr. Carmen April.
The Friday night Kickoff Party was held at Draper James. Then Saturday’s conference was held at Nossi College of Art, followed by Happy Hour at the Nashville Urban Winery. Sunday’s brunch was held at the Trimble House. {Unfortunately, I didn’t get to attend the Kickoff Party or the Sunday brunch, due to logistics — the events were in Nashville and I live just outside of Knoxville.}
Saturday was full of group sessions, mentor labs, and several vendors. There was also a luxe lounge that offered complimentary nail polish changes, a braid bar, chair massages, makeup touch-ups, and wine provided by a few amazing sponsors.
The conference began with the most amazing Canadian I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting – Michelle Ferreri. She is the biggest Dolly Parton fan, and I told her that if she ever wanted to go to DollyWood, I’d take her myself! Not only is she funny and hella beautiful, but she is smart, savvy, and has incredible style.
Words of Wisdom from Michelle
- Money is the after effect of doing what you love.
- Build “relationships” with people.
- Create content with value.
- Set attainable goals.
- Replace the words “sell” with “share”.
- Be transparent and be real.
The conference featured sixteen classes, two panels, and a schedule that allowed attendees to create the experience that would benefit us the most. The featured conference guest was Marie Denee, creator of The Curvy Fashionista, and she was a tremendous inspiration to me.
Marie was one of four panelists on The Style Panel, which also included Emmanuel LeGrair, Ashley Brimer, and Tiffany Perkins.
Emmanuel LeGrair and Marie Denee 
Tiffany Perkins and Ashley Brimer
Marie encouraged me to think beyond my age and embrace who I am. She told me to think about what I can share with others through my blog and social media. She said for me to stop thinking of myself as a 46-year-old fashion and lifestyle blogger and share with my followers my life as a fashion and lifestyle blogger/city girl living in the country.
shares her tips on what it takes to be a successful style blogger.
Other sessions topics included: search engine optimization, monetizing social media, building an online community, website analytics, influencer marketing, tech hacks, niche specific blogging, and MORE.
Sunday’s catered brunch featured keynote speaker Brooke Wilkerson, of The Coffee and Chaos Blog. Brooke shared her journey to viral fame, insight on cultivating a hyper-engaged community, and tips for creating authentic content.
NBC also supports non-profits, like the LP Pencil Box. On Saturday, they collected dry erase markers to help the efforts of Nashville’s LP Pencil Box, which is a teacher supply store stocked with classroom essentials such as pencils, crayons, copy paper, notebooks, book bags, glue sticks, hand sanitizer and much more. The store exists through generous donations from national brands, the Nashville community, and our PENCIL Partners.
All of the event’s decor was done by Grandma’s Charm (@Grandmascharm). I was so pre-occupied with the sessions, the vendors, and the luxe lounge {where I received one of the most relaxing upper back and shoulder massages}, that I totally missed out on the photo op with the giant unicorn float in one of the side rooms.
I really wish we had these types of events in Knoxville, but I honestly don’t mind driving all the way to Nashville. I’ve really connected to that blogging community and can’t wait for the next blogger conference.
Are there any bloggers’ conferences that you really like? I’m always open for suggestions on which conferences to check out.
Yours Truly,
Vanessa
P.S. I’ve also attended a couple of BlogHer conferences, my first one being out in L.A. You can read about what I was expecting from my first conference and what I learned from that first conference. I hope to attend a few more BlogHer / SheMedia conferences in the future.