It’s been a bit of a whirlwind week in terms of travel! As I write this, I’m on a plane headed for Portland, where I’ve been given the opportunity to tour an egg farm (and meet and cook with Jeffrey Saad!)…but I’ll get to that later in the week.

I attended my first conference this past weekend – the Type A Mom conference in Asheville, NC. I’ve never been very interested in this type of thing, but when Andrea (<——–she’s so awesome) from POM Wonderful offered to pay my way in exchange for helping with part of the conference, who was I to say no? Andrea, who doesn’t currently have any kids, thought it might be nice if I came up with some kids crafts for their small hourglass-shaped bottles. An easy peasy job for me, with a big payoff. I knew Andrea already from the POM Wonderful Blogger Tour held last October, and I was thrilled to be working with her again! I won’t bore you with more of my standard gushing about the POM company (except to say that they’re so awesome!), and instead just tell you that it was a great treat to be able to work with Andrea again.

My plan for the long weekend was to take in a couple of the segments, with a couple of dips in the pool and a whole lot of napping (yes, sadly this is my idea of a luxury vacation these days ;). I got in Thursday night, had dinner in my room, watched a movie and relished every moment. The next morning, as I registered for the conference, I couldn’t help but notice the buzz in the air. Bloggers, Bloggers, everywhere…and you could just feel that they were all excited for the weekend. I was already hooked.

Then came the first round of segments, one of which I was pretty interested in…Search Engine Optimization. I felt pretty confident already when it came to that topic, but what the heck? It’s an ever evolving topic and who knows? Maybe I’d learn something.

You know how you don’t know what you don’t know? Let’s just say that I didn’t know nearly as much about SEO as I thought I did. And the women who led the discussion clearly did. (I won’t bore you non-bloggers with the details, but for those of you whose interest is peaked, I have one word for you…SCRIBE.)

The other segment I was looking forward to was “From Blog to Book Deal”. I will publish a cookbook, I will publish a cookbook, I will publish a cookbook… This has been a sort of “in the back of my mind” kind of goal for some time, and this session made me realize that I don’t want to just think about it in terms of “someday” anymore; I want to actively begin working on it. And so, I’ve decided that it’s time to begin the groundwork and hit the ground running. Who knew that this conference would be such a great place to start?

I knew that these conferences were a great networking opportunity, but for some reason I’d assumed that it was limited to other bloggers (which still is incredibly fun, if you’re also a blogger). But there were so many inspiring, easygoing and intelligent women present that if you weren’t looking where you were going, you were almost guaranteed to bump into one. (And don’t get me wrong, other bloggers…many of you are inspiring all by yourbadselves).

And so I found myself enjoying face time with some really amazing women (Today Show producers, anyone?), and I never did end up getting that nap. Small price to pay. And I’m certain I won’t be planning any more naps at future conferences. And there will be more – hopefully very soon!

I really want to give a special shout-out to my really groovy new friend Amanda from Food on the Table. We’d exchanged emails prior to the conference for work-related reasons, then discovered that we would both be attending. She’s is, for lack of a better word, awesome!! Intelligent, fun, inquisitive and always laughing, she was nothing short of an absolute blast. Dinner with her and Andrea at Bouchon Saturday night was something I’ll remember for a long time. Amanda, can’t wait to hit Austin with you sometime!

I also got to have dinner with Roni Noone, a fellow blogger who was also part of the POM Wonderful tour last year. We hadn’t had as much of a chance to get to know each other last year, so it was great fun to hang out with her, MizFitOnline and the aforementioned Amanda from Food on the Table. Roni is such a cool blogger; she makes it look so effortless. Very much into health and fitness, I found myself a bit in awe of her at how easy she makes it all look. Hers is one of the few blogs that I’ll not only be subscribing to, but actually reading on a regular basis as I begin my quest for better health (that’s another post entirely).

And I can’t forget JESS!! A rep for iGo! (<—-product review coming in the next few weeks for them, for no other reason other than they ROCK!), she essentially saved me from a huge headache over the weekend (check back in the next couple of weeks for that story). And it definitely didn’t hurt that we were able to bond over Wisconsin upbringings, fish tacos, seo and laptop chargers. I literally sat at her expo booth for over two hours and just hung out while the touted the virtues of “Green” power vs. “Vampire” power. Jess, you totally rock!

What I learned most from this experience is that conferences, while providing its attendees with an invaluable amount of information on various topics, is really all about the people. I had so much fun getting to know the people there, from the bloggers to the fun reps at the expo to the speakers, who were so generous with their time and knowledge. I can’t say if all conferences are this much fun, but I know that I’m going to find out asap.

And to think that now I get to visit Portland to learn all about eggs and how they make the journey from farm to fork. There are eight other bloggers attending, one of which is Savor the Thyme, a fantastic blogger who I just can NOT wait to meet! She’s getting in around the same time that I am, and although I’m really hoping for a nap this afternoon, I have a good feeling that won’t be happening. And I’m also pretty sure it’ll be another small price to pay. :-)