Average Jane's Wonderful BlogPaws Experience

I had such a good time in Salt Lake City at BlogPaws. I loved seeing old friends and making new ones and it was even more fun with my good friend Spyder as a roommate. Here are some of the photos I took, in no particular order.

Here is BZTAT, Jenifer Whiston and Spyder, all doing what social media people do at dinner! We met up for local microbrews and dinner the night before the conference.

This is my new dog nephew, Duff, and his mom Katharine McMahon of Kat & Dogs. I fell in love with his brother, Lucky, at last year's BlogPaws, which led directly to my adopting Toby. (Note: If you put Toby next to Lucky or Duff, it would be the perfect illustration of the difference between "pet quality" and "show quality" in a particular breed.)

Just like last year, there were lots of dogs in attendance. This is Tillman, spokesdog for Natural Balance. As you can see, he's a monster skateboarder. He and his dog buddies and handlers travel around in a huge bus and do various amazing dog tricks.

This is Preston. He can ride a scooter or a bike. Unfortunately, his bike didn't make it to the conference thanks to an airline snafu, but he did a great job on the scooter.

I loved this little guy's studded "wristbands."

There were also cats, like this lovely gal in her fetching pink wig.

I spent a little time with Bret Michaels, who was debuting his new line of pet accessories at PetSmart. He didn't have a lot to say, but he didn't object to my bringing home a cool studded jacket and leash for Toby.

Here's Laurie Ruettimann with a flat capybara because, why not? It was wonderful to get to hang out with Laurie one evening and see her session on monetizing your blog. It was definitely one of the most dynamic sessions I attended.

Speaking of capybaras, I was happy to reconnect with Melanie Typaldos and Stacy Winnick. They're determined that next year's BlogPaws will feature many more small animals such as rabbits and rodents. 

On the first day of the conference, I skipped one of the session blocks and instead made an Honor Flag for the cats from my past. They strung them all into two long banners and hung them on the stage at the closing event.

The important thing to know about BlogPaws is that it's truly a social media conference. There are sessions about blogging, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, podcasting, video and just about anything else you can think of that would be useful to someone in the social media space. There's nothing about it that's restricted to pet bloggers, it's just that pet owners love to hang out with each other and it provides a great backdrop for a lot of knowledge.

The sponsors were incredible. This is all the stuff I brought back, which I divided between my cats, my dog, my sister's dogs and a local rescue group. I'll be writing some product reviews in the next few weeks because there were some outstanding new products in there that are well worth sharing.

Next year's conference is back in the Washington, DC area and I've already purchased my conference pass. Can't wait to see everyone in 2013!

Comments

[Teri and the cats of Curlz and Swirlz]

Great post, full of news and fun and what you did while you were there...And I found another photo of Coco! It's a good one and I added it to the slideshow I made! It was nice being able to chat with you a bit and reconnect.