Alt Summer

I’m still unpacking from my fun and inspiring trip to Alt Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. If you’re one of the few people who has never heard of Alt – It is a design focused conference for bloggers, lifestyle sites, companies and creatives in the online space. I was invited to speak and moderate a panel – Diversity in the Design & Lifestyle Blogging/Social Media World with Chauncea Carothers and Maritza Diaz. After going over several ideas about how we should best the run the panel, we decided to keep it conversational. After all, diversity? It’s not a cut and dry topic that can be broken down into a Power Point presentation. We introduced ourselves and went into what the term diversity meant to us and how we discuss it and don’t discuss it in our social media presence. It’s who we are but it does not define everything we do. The topic got so good, the hour just literally flew by. We loved that women wanted to diversify their readership, address bigger topics on their blogs, show different sides of their personal experiences and include other languages in their posts. This panel was everything that makes blogging such a amazing world to be a part of.

Alt Summit in Salt Lake City

The Summit was held at the Grand American hotel. Oh, my. What a pretty place. The accommodations and staff were seriously rave-worthy. Everyone was so friendly, the attendees mentioned it whenever they were given the chance. Ana and I had a large suite all to ourselves. While I made the rounds throughout the Summit, she spent a lot of time catching up with work and making calls in pure comfort. It was so nice to order breakfast in the morning with our view of the mountains and catch up on some much-needed girl talk.

Making this trip to Utah was a bit scary for me. I missed two conferences I was suppose to speak at this past year because I was unable to fly. Vertigo is really an awful thing. Ana confessed much of her decision to go on the trip (her schedule is super packed these days) with me is because she wanted to be there as a friend. She and I have been there for each other for some pretty big moments – This was no exception. If you’ve ever dealt with a chronic illness, I’m sure you can understand how monumental it is to take a step back into the things you once did without having to think twice about it. To have a friend with you is pretty golden.

RELATED: My TMJD Story

During the Summit, Gabrielle Blair (Alt Summit co-founder) announced our latest endeavor – coLAB (L for Latina Bloggers Connect, A for Alt Summit and B for Blogalicious)! coLAB is a collaborative project between our communities to get to know each other better while creating something amazing. I write all about coLAB in this post.

If you’re looking to launch a business, I cannot stress the importance of attending workshops and conferences enough. There’s nothing like being surrounded by peers and learning from the greats in your industry. Sure. They can be costly. But if you want to take your brand to the next level, it’s an investment that will pay back 10-fold. Networking online is simply not enough. I’m still taking everything all in. There’s so much more I want to do, and I’m feeling like the time is right … starting with this blog. There have been a few subtle changes here and there in design. Expect lots more in the months to come!

(Pic: A combination of my own and Alt)