Haven 2013 Recap Part I

Imagine you went to a place for three days where all your favorite go-to experts were in one spot?  That may be easy for a blogger to imagine but harder for someone like my husband.  When I proposed going to the Haven Conference, he was clearly a bit skeptical.

Hubby:  “So you want to fly across the continent to hang out with people you’ve never met and even share a room with someone you never met before?”

Me:  “Um, yes.  But I already know them!  And I’ll be learning tons”

I knew I had to explain it to him in a different way, a ‘guy’ way.

I told him, imagine a room filled with all YOUR favorite go-to experts.  You read TSN, CNET and all your real estate Twitter feeds daily, right?  Well, now imagine them all in one room.  And everyone attending is a major TSN, CNET and real estate fan just like you.

Whoa.

Now imagine that you not only get to meet these people but they will give you all their tips!  They will even give hands-on demonstrations on how to use those gadgets and then let you have a chance to use them too.

Double whoa.

NOW imagine that there will be brands there – BIG brands – and you can leave your business card with them and even follow-up with them after.

Add in the sponsored cocktail parties, delicious meals, and dance parties.

I think he finally got it.

To say it was mind-blowing was an understatement.  I’m still reeling from that whole weekend.  Soon after I got home I had a planned family vacation to go on.  All I wanted to do was put all my tips into place on my blog and email all my new found friends.  But with sketchy wifi service it didn’t happen until today.  Drop the bags, grab me my laptop!

The Sessions

The welcoming talk was with the lovely bloggers that we a part of  last year’s GMC Hidden Treasure Adventure.  You can read about Lindsay’s adventure here.  These amazing bloggers helped makeover a home for a family in need.  There is also a GMC Hidden Treasure Adventure going on right now!  It’s awe inspiring!! {to find more about this, just google GMC Hidden Treasure Adventure}.

Ana White was the keynote speaker.  She has an amazing following with her blog and her talk really focused on how the blogging world has become like a small town and it’s so true!  We should make our blog like a small town store and have amazing customer service.  She had such great tips!

Top R:  Rhoda from Southern Hospitality, Brooke from All Things Thrifty, Lindsay from Better After, Traci from Beneath My Heart 

 

Bottom L:Ana White from Ana White Homemaker

 

All the sessions at Haven were unbelievable.  Tips, tips and more tips.  The hardest decision was “what class to go to?” as many were on at the same time!  I went to the amazing advertising class given by Cassity from Remodelaholic,  Becky from Infarrantly Creative and Rhoda from Southern Hospitality.

Brooke from All Things Thrifty and her brother Court gave us incredible SEO tips {watch the near future for So Much Better With Age climbing the Google ranks!}

Marian Parsons, Miss Mustard Seed herself {my fave! EEK}, and Shaunna West from Perfectly Imperfect gave an awesome advanced painting class.  I learned a lot and even though I have Marian’s book {that I just adore} and I have Shaunna’s ebook {so many great tips!} it’s so different being able to get the actual hands-on tips from the masters themselves!  Don’t look at my samples…not the greatest but I know what to do differently now.

L to R clockwise:    Cassity from Remodelaholic,  Becky from Infarrantly Creative

Brooke from All Things Thrifty and her brother Court

Marian Parsons from  Miss Mustard Seed  and Shaunna West from Perfectly Imperfect

 

Brands

I don’t even know if I can list all of the wonderful brands that were at Haven but I’ll try!  I hope I don’t leave anyone out!!

 Home Depot, Ryobi, GMC, Rust-oleum, Homes.com, ForRent.com, Bondo, Porch, Shaw Floors, Cottonelle, Moen, Frog Tape, Online Fabric Store,  Pure Bond, Kreg Tool, 3M, IZEA, HomeRight, Fish Window Cleaning, Thompson’s WaterSeal, Duluth Trading Co.

Ballard Designs had some wonderful rooms set up throughout the main room.  Gorgeous!!

  Annie Sloan Unfolded – I could spend all day in this booth!

 

 Southern Accents Architectural Antiques and Lucy Inspired‘s booth.  So swoon-worthy!

 

 Royal Design Studio Stencils had the best stencils.  I’m ordering some soon for some BIG home projects.

Okay, I have so much to write about that tomorrow I’ll be talking about the swag I got, the parties I went to, and the people I met!!

You won’t want to miss it!