The Annual Bloggers Bash 2017: The Highlights!

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Last weekend I attended the third Annual Bloggers Bash in London. The Bash means an awful lot to me – I have been to every single one and have previously been the lucky recipient of the Services to Blogging, Inspirational Blogger and Best Overall awards, and I credit this event with giving me the confidence to take blogging seriously as a viable career path. This year, I was asked to give a presentation and be on a panel, which was an enormous honour.

This year the event was truly international, with people attending from the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada and there had been over 6,500 votes cast for its coveted awards. It was held at the Grange Wellington Hotel in Westminster’s Vincent Square. The Bloke and I got an early train in the morning and we were very graciously checked into our hotel room almost immediately at the Euston Premier Inn which gave us the opportunity to finish getting ready (although, I managed to get the majority of my hair and make-up done on the train to the apparent amusement of a man sitting a few seats away). We arrived at the Bash venue early (after having an accidental detour due to my awful map reading skills) and went straight up to visit my long-term bloggy friend Elena Peters, who had stayed there the night before.

As always, to write about all of the events of the day would be a 5,000 word post, so here are my highlights…

That initial excitement of seeing old bloggy friends – there’s now a core group of them that I know quite well – I’ve stayed at their houses, sent them Christmas and birthday cards, met them for coffee etc, so to see them again is always a huge excitement of hugs and squeals. However, there’s always a certain point where I am still a little freaked out – they already know what I am up to because of my blog posts so when they asked me questions about wedding prep or places I have recently visited I have to stop myself from asking “How did you know about that?” in response, having to remind myself that I put my life online for people to read.

Elena (Elena Peters) and I at the 2017 Bloggers Bash

Helping myself to Elena’s complimentary toiletries from her room. They were nice toiletries!

Introducing The Bloke. He goes off into the city with his camera while I am at the Bash usually and everyone always asks me where he is, so this time I asked him to stay for a little while so he could meet all the people that I have been talking about for years in person. I found it quite amusing that some would come over to say hello and then turn to him and say “So, you must be The Bloke then!”

The cake. Man, I LURVE THE CAKE, and Geoffle and Ritu had done an epic job of making an enormous selection of lovely pieces of yumminess that were displayed at the back of the room. Wedding dress diet? What wedding dress diet? I didn’t want to be rude and so made it my duty to try most of them.

Taking stupid pics of myself behind Lucy’s head without her knowledge.

Graeme and I doing our interviews together. It seems to have happened that in every Bash, Graeme and I have always ended up being in the same group, and this year was no different – we did our video interview with Hugh and podcast interview with Susie Lindau together. And ate cake. Well, I did at least.

Meeting people in person for the first time that I have spoken to at various points online for years. I grabbed Susie as soon as she walked in and then Eloise De Sousa as we passed each other in the room, and Allie Potts when she sat in front of me with the ever lovely Helen. I then got the chance to meet people who are in my Facebook group, which I found immensely exciting.

As always, the look on Shelley’s face when she received her award. She still remains as the smiliest person that I have ever met.

Lucy’s (‘Lucy Mitchell – Blonde Write More‘) contributions on the microphone.

Meeting Donna again after having lunch with her in Birmingham earlier in the year…

Giving my presentation on Monetising Your Blog and assisting Elena with her Pinterest presentation (she made me write notes on Flip Chart paper). My former years of teaching helped in two ways – I could project my voice without having to use the mic (I hate hearing my own voice) and I could write on the board in a straight line. Boom – I felt so nervous that nausea almost took over, but I loved it. I also loved the conversations that developed from it with numerous bloggers afterwards, particularly Lance, Sheila and Noelle and the potential for future projects.

Sacha and the committee doing their MC skills on the microphone. I am anticipating that Geoff will step it up a gear and deliver a performance of a Dizzy Rascal song next year to get the party started – he was a natural!

Matt admitting that he had taken a taxi to the event instead of making the EIGHT MINUTE walk from the station. Clearly a man after my own heart.

My Huge Hugh Hug…

Being a little too honest about my tweeting habits and admitting that I tweet from the toilet. Consequently, my Twitter notifications were immediately filled with messages and pictures from people whenever they went to the loo (yes, I’m looking at you – Matt, Shelley and Elena in particular). It’s a blog post just waiting to be written – ‘I Tweet on the Toilet and I’m Not Ashamed…‘ Stay tuned for that one!

This Snapchat filter of Hugh and Geoffle… Ā I think that it’s a look that they should consider adopting for next year!

A truly fabulous day, and it was all over far too quickly, with all the credit going to Sacha and the committee of Hugh, Ali and Geoff for their wonderful organisational skills… The event was over six hours long and there’s never enough time – it felt like five minutes had passed by the time came to leave and I still hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to everyone that I wanted to… Julie, Sue, Marjorie, Mary, Sherri – I’m grabbing you all first next time!

And the fun didn’t stop afterwards – Donna and her husband Sam, The Bloke and I and Elena went for a meal at the restaurant where the first Bloggers Bash partly took place years before!

The date for the next year has already been set for 9th June 2018, and I’m already looking forward to it!

Want to know the award recipients? Here’s a list of all of the winners, including the winner of the writing competition!

I’ve missed out a bajillion links, so here’s a comprehensive list of everyone that attended.

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to follow my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks

131 thoughts on “The Annual Bloggers Bash 2017: The Highlights!”

  2. Thanks for sharing this! My dream is to be able to attend someday. I love all of your blogs and it is so cool to see you all togeather and being as fun as you seem thru the virtual world. Much love to everyone šŸ™‚

  6. Sounds like a fantastic day was had by all of you. I wondered if your presentation was recordred Suzie so that those of us that didn’t make it could listen. šŸ™‚

  8. It was an inspirational blogger I listened to and met. The day was a time of fun and exchanging idea’s, but mostly a time to meet and connect, make wonderful friends and celebrate their wins. Nice to meet you and listen to Suzie speaks.

  10. I hope one day I get an ambiguous nickname because I know I’d be amused every sinlge day.

  11. Ark at me clutching my handbag! Was great to finally meet you.

    And any walks over 3 minutes are taxi-worthy, just looking after my dividend in Uber shares!

  12. Ever think how strange it is that you know a person, really know them, before you ever meet them? Or, at least, you’ve been inside their head and sometimes the blogs tell you so much? It’s fascinating. Anyway, it sounds like it was a fantastic day.

    • I still find it reall surreal – I’ve met a few of them a handful of times in person and yet I feel like I know them really well. I think a lot of the blogs that I read are written by people who tell their life stories, so it’s a little easier to get to know them

  14. I think I already did this – however, what I said was that I enjoyed this post – everyone looked so happy and the photographs were great. Sadly one of the drawbacks ( and there are a few) to living in outback Australia is the tyranny of distance. Great post, great photographs, thank you.

  15. Lovely post Susie. Particularly amused by the bit about you tweeting on the toilet! Lol… that was asking for trouble! Yes, we must chat more next time. I think we did have a brief few words by the cakes… as you do. Those cakes were extraordinarily good – what did Ritu and Geoff put in them? Secret recipe I reckon. See you next time, feel free to grab me – I missed chatting to the bloke too – will he be coming next time?

    • Hi lovely! I think that was where the majority of the conversation happened – by the cakes! Sorry you missed The Bloke – I’m sure that he will be making an appearance next year!

  20. Ohhhh! It looks like so much fun! I loved seeing photos of so many of my blogger pals and also hearing more about the event. Thanks for the updates from where I am in Canada, Suzie šŸ™‚

  22. It really was a fab day! And your presentation was inspirational… you have achieved so much through your blog, and you and Elena have certainly given me lots of ideas for simplifying my life while maximising my blog potential over the next couple of years while I am at uni, so thank you for that. See you next year!

  23. Reblogged this on Write to Inspire and commented:
    I learned a lot during this wonderful day, not least how to monetise my blog. Thank you for all your suggestions. With so many years of training experience, with Suzie’s advice, I feel that I cannot fail to earn some pocket money.

  28. Aww Suzie…you better grab me first lol! It was wonderful to see you again, but next time I’m not letting you out of my sight!! Such a wonderful day, and I particularly wanted to thank you so much for your wonderful presentation. You made me feel a lot better about my blog and the way I constantly worry about trying to ‘keep up’. As you know, I’ve really struggled for a while now, since last summer really, but I’ve always been so humbled and moved by the amazing support from my blogging community who still take the time to read my posts and comment even when, as recently, I didn’t blog for almost 3 monts. When you talked about ‘likes’ and comments and the numbers of followers in relation to engagement, I felt I could breathe a little easier because I am so very grateful for those who do still read. But I do hope to get better… As for your twittering on the toilet, I don’t use twitter much – another stress, arrrghh! – but now at least when I think of it, I smile šŸ˜‰ Thanks again Suzie..can’t wait to see you next year! ā¤

  32. Looks like it was such a fun day! And lovely to see photos of people I recognise from their blogs all having a great time together. Hope I can make it to the next one!

  33. I am so excited to come to this next year! I’ve found that many bloggers share my own anxieties about mingling with new people so it’s great to have a group of peeps that you feel like you already know – even if only in a virtual world šŸ™‚

    And who doesn’t tweet from the loo? It’s the only chance i get at work šŸ˜€

  35. I had no idea Duncan made an appearance. Where was I? Probably, being ordered around by Sacha? šŸ¤” šŸ˜€
    As always, it was so lovely to see you, Suzie. Thank you so much for your contributions towards the day. Your presentation was excellent and got everyone in the room talking.
    Hopefully, next year, I’ll have some time to actually sit down and have a drink with you? Let’s hope so. In fact, I’m gonna make it happen.
    Huge Hugh hugs šŸ¤—

    • He was in the bar and then the registration bit for a while but I think he got a bit overwhelmed with the amount of people so he left haha! I’m going to do things differently next time so I get chance to properly see you all

  39. Ah man….I wish I wasn’t an ocean away and could attend this! I was hoping someone would post pictures so thank you so much for posting! All of you guys (I feel like I’m making so many new friends!) should come to the U.S. someday for a blogging bash!!! Again, thank you for posting the pictures! You rock!!!

  41. Sounds like a fab time was had by all. Can’t wait to get there next time and meet everyone. Great to read for those of us unable to make it, thanks so much!!

  42. Clearly, I’m still way behind, but slowly catching up on a few Bash related posts… Some great memories there, Susie. And it does fly by, doesn’t it? Do you think we should have mini Midlands Bash to keep us going between now and next June?

  44. If that was you ‘nervous’, I bet you were a force to be reckoned with as a teacher. I couldn’t tell at all. Thank you so much for your presentation. I took copious notes as I figure there may just yet be a test one day. It was great to meet you!

  45. Pingback: How To Monetise Your Blog | Suzie Speaks

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