As I have returned to reality and the cold of a real winter, one with snow and below zero temperatures, I can still feel the Bliss that I experienced in Nashville this past weekend.  Although I am not new to conferences having attended both Blissdom Canada’s, BlogHer ’10 & ’11, Women in Biz, She’s Connected, Amplify Her Awesome and I am sure I am missing at least one in there… I came away with a little different feeling from Blissdom.  Despite being somewhat involved in the Conference as a Community Leader for Photography, I still felt I had time to connect and meet more people than I usually get to. Perhaps it was because of the location, perhaps it was because I forced myself to say ‘hi’ to everyone since I was wearing my Community Leader badge and perhaps it was because people approached me more too. I can’t tell you exactly why, I just know that I found a little more Bliss in Nashville and I hope that I get the chance to return.

I traveled with my girlfriend Krista, this is our third conference together both with the travel and as roommates. Krista and I seem to go well together with out travels. We are like opposites that attract, I am my beachy self, I play with light and cameras and Krista is my geeky (and I say that with the utmost love) girlfriend who plays with tech and apps and can make my mind spin when she talks about it all. And I love her for that! That and the fact that we can go out for dinner and before we even get to the restaurant we are sporting cowboy boots and fitting in with the locals. We laughed, we cried, we ate fried chicken and fried pickles, we experienced lots of live music and we danced the night away. We stayed up late chatting when we should have been sleeping and we ran through Opryland in our pj’s (our real pj’s not the pretty ones for the party) looking for lost items. I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate and travel partner. And I am already looking forward to our next adventure this summer with another of our girlfriends Capital Mom, can you say ROAD TRIP???

Blissdom was full of so much awesome, I don’t even know where to start. I should say that I only attended sessions in the Photography Track because I was a Community Leader  for some of the sessions and I wanted to hear all the good stuff from the other sessions that I wasn’t a leader in. We didn’t quite follow the new worksheet format due to the nature of the sessions, but it was awesome just the same. I got to meet and hear Me Ra Koh, so beautiful and inspirational, she has Best Seller out called Your Baby in Pictures. Me Ra reminded us to be proud when we “Shoot Like a Woman” as we do have a different view than most men do. Aimee Giese, she is witty and funny and I loved everything she had to share with “Capturing the Moment” if you wait for perfection, you may miss what is going on right in front of you. Diane Cu from White on Rice Couple, oh my (yes, she made me cry again!) with her “Storytelling and Bracing Imperfection”. Diane demonstrated how photos and video can be perfect even when they are not technically correct. And Ryan Marshall and fellow Canadian Jason Hudson discussed “Expanding your Brand: Mobile Photography with Microblogging and Instagram”. They discussed how you should have a purpose with your mobile blogging and instagram as it is still an extension of you. This is something I hope to work on more as I think I am lacking in this area.

And last but not least, the amazing Kristin Luna, who gave us great tips on getting better images and got us exploring our cameras, some of us worked on getting our cameras going and some of us went on a photowalk. Kristen is so lovely and it was such a treat to hear her speak.

And to top off all the awesomeness that was learning, we were treated to lots and lots of talented musicians (Nathan Pacheco, Joe Jonas, Rascal Flatts and Chris Mann) a few parties and plenty of time to network and visit the sponsor booths.

Whew!! I know I could share so much more, but I may have to save that for another post….

I do have one last fun thing though so don’t run off !!!

So many people asked me about my amazing Twitter necklace. You can see Krista and I wearing them in our red carpet photo below with Shannon and Tara, you can also see Alli Worthington wearing hers on stage in her opening speech. These necklaces are made by a local (to Ottawa) jeweler called Blend Creations and since they heard how many people had been asking about the necklaces they have offered to give one away to one of my readers! The winner will receive one @ Necklace with their twitter handle on it, shipped directly to them.
How exciting is that???  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me who your fave artist of Blissdom’12 is. Even if you didn’t attend Blissdom’12 you can still play along and win a necklace, just let me know who your fave artist is out of the four who played for us at Blissdom’12 and you will be entered to win.  Contest closes Friday at Noon (EST) and the winner will be announced later in the day.