Britmums Live 2012 Day 1.

Posted by Jacq in Uncategorized | 4 comments

So far, so good.

This isn’t going to be a long post as I’m at home and into my second glass of wine, while watching Tom Petty at the IOW festival. I’m feeling lucky that I live close enough that I can come home for the night and don’t have to stay in a hotel. Then again, a childfree night and a bed all to myself sounds kind of appealing on some level!

Britmums 2012 is being held in The Brewery, the same venue that hosted Cybermum last year. It’s a short walk from Moorgate tube station, which is on the Metropolitan Line. This is very handy for me as it also services that town we live in.

Fridays in the City of London are much busier than Saturdays, but there was no problem getting to Brewery. There was a short wait to get inside and pick up our name tags, but from there on it was straight through to the handy coat check and the Exhibition area. I went straight for a cup of coffee and an excellent slice of cake and had a quick scout around for goody bags.

I talked to Panasonic about their convection microwave ovens, the Warner Bros about their Digital Movie Locker service, Ultraviolet and Lego about their ‘Friends’ range. I was also approached by various bloggers who had noticed I was alone and wanted to make sure I didn’t feel lonely. It was lovely chatting to them, but I had been quite happy just mooching around. It’s nice that they have the ‘butterfly’ service going on though, so that no one needs to feel friendless.

Then it was time to traipse upstairs and listen to the welcomes, followed by the funny and brave Ruby Wax. At this point I should have followed the people who went back for more coffee and cake, as the British Blogging Now session dragged on a little. Still, I had Twitter and FB  to amuse me and had found someone I knew to sit next to.

The organisers had also put up a phone charge bar at the back of the main room. This is such a nice touch; organisers of any blogging conference should take note!

Then it was time for more food and drink. I visited the Radcliffe Wines Stand, and sampled a very nice rioja, then had my 5 plus at the vitamix demonstration stand. This blender was amazing. The guy demonstrating it made some warm Thai soup, some chocolate mousse and some berry icecream ( with added cabbage and carrot!) ion front of me and they all tasted fantastic.

At this point, I went off looking for the room that hosted the Bloggers’ Studio: Getting Published talk. It wasn’t one I was familiar with from the year before and it turned out that this was because it hadn’t been used for Cybermum. But I found it in the end, right in bowels of the building and it turned out to be a really good talk. Unfortunately, it confirmed what I’ve always suspected; you have to actually write something before you can get published.

Then it was upstairs for drinks and nibbles up in the bar. We were greeted by some windbuffs, which were basically some young men without much in the way of clothing on. They were ‘provided’ by Radcliffe Wines, and were very polite and cheerful but I did feel a little uncomfortable. I guess they were a talking point.

The BIB awards were due to be announced after this, but alas, it was time for me to go home. I followed the event on Twitter on the tube and congratulations to all the winners. I hope there aren’t too many sore heads tomorrow/ today!

It’s time for bed for me now. This wasn’t short at all was it? I’ll see some of you in the morning!