Ahhh. Britmums Live. The single biggest blogger get together of the year. I’d been looking forward to this day ever since I’d bought my ticket months ago. The most exciting thing of all was getting all my blogging girls together and having a good time, but also saying a big hello to everyone else. I’d also hoped to learn something from one of the various sessions.
After a bit of a late night, made even later by the hotel knocking us awake to try and trace a leak, we made it to Britmums Live on time, woohoo! It was literally less than 10 minutes down the road and I was ready, rucksack on back, to see what it had to offer. It was being held at The Brewery, possibly one of the most beautiful venues I’d ever seen, so much so that I wished it was closer because I’d have definitely had our wedding reception there!
We rocked up, bagged ourselves a seat at the front (we didn’t want to miss a single thing!), and went to grab a cuppa and a pastry! After a little mingling everyone took their seats while we were welcomed by the founders followed by a poem and a keynote. The keynote was, for me, really emotional. I never expected to start crying less than half an hour into the day. Anne-Marie Cockburn’s daughter died and she’s written down her feelings and thoughts which have been published in a book called ‘5,742 Days’. The thing that sent me totally over the edge was when she held up the pair of Converse that Martha had been wearing when she’d died. I can’t imagine what that must feel like and I felt devastated for her. She is a very strong woman because I know I couldn’t stand up in front of all of these people and read an extract from that book.
Anyway, the day does become less sombre, I promise! To get the spirits up again, a game of pass the parcel was played. The idea was to get to know people on your table, but as we already knew each other we were just excited to play a little game and at the end Stacie (Parker And Me) won a beautiful necklace from Merci Maman, which I was very jealous about, I’m happy to admit!
Britmums Brand Hub
It was at this point we were allowed to roam around and have a bit of social with each other and meet some cool brands. Ami (My Mummy Spam) and I headed straight for the tennis court where we had a quick game – she might as well have been in Wimbledon if you ask me! She then grabbed me a cup of tea and we headed to the foyer after we’d finished to meet up with the rest of the girls; Chantal (Milk and Nappies) and Faye (Tales and Tea) only to bump into the beautiful Emma (Our Fairytale Adventure). The last time I’d seen Emma was at The Baby Show in May 2015 so it was so wonderful to catch up with her.
So what brands were there? There were quite a lot of stands and you can find a list of all the sponsors here, but I’ll just highlight a couple of my favourites!
Johnsons were there showing off their wonderful range of products. I know there’s lots of things in the news about Johnsons at the moment, but I still really love them as a brand. They’ve been around years and I really do love their stuff. They were showing off their new big cloths which smelled beautiful, and are perfect for a strip wash!
Munchkin were also there with their fabulous range of products. Now I love their 360 cup, both of my boys have got one (thanks Munchkin for the display cup, Ted loves it and now my boys have stopped arguing over the blue one!) and they very kindly gave us a very packed goodie bag to take away. The people on the stand were wonderful and we had a good in depth chat about some products they were hoping to launch soon!
Merci Maman sell beautiful personalised jewellery pieces and I would absolutely love one of these as a present. Their stand had a selection of pieces and I really loved their personalised initial necklaces. Ooh and did you know Kate Middleton has been spotted wearing one?
Boots Soltan were also there talking about their 5 star rated products; and rightly so because they give the highest level of protection against UVA rays, yay! Not only this, but all of their products are developed so that applying sun cream isn’t a big ole job. Here are some other super duper facts about Boots Soltan;
- Sun damage is caused by two types of ultraviolet light, UVA and UVB. UVA penetrates deeper and is mainly responsible for ageing. UVB penetrates less deeply but also causes sunburn.
- The level of UVA protection a sun cream gives is shown by its star rating. (I always opt for 5 star, especially when it comes to the kids)
- Did you know the amount of UV light present is less about temperature, but more about the time of year and how close you are to the equator?
- The closer you are to the equator, the more UV there is. While UV light is still present on an overcast day, because it can penetrate cloud cover, it is higher the closer you are to midsummer’s day.
- Did you know around 3 tablespoons of sun cream is enough to cover your whole body? (No, I didn’t! I usually end up slapping on about half a bottle!)
- Wearing a t-shirt provides UV protection but only when it’s dry. Once it becomes wet it turns opaque so swimming in a t-shirt offers no protection from the sun. (Had no idea about this, and there have been times where I’ve been on holiday and have worn a t-shirt in the pool to help with sunburn that I’ve already managed to get)
- 40% of UV exposure occurs when you’re not in direct sunlight so always ensure you’re protected by applying sun cream before you leave the house
Soltan can actually help you choose the best sun cream for you with their online SPF selector tool which is great. Obviously I’ll getting a factor 50 because I’m basically transparent and with over 75 years of expertise protecting the nation’s skin, Boots Soltan has always been committed to providing uncompromised sun protection and they’re a brand I trust. They also had a super duper photobooth that Emma and I had our pictures taken in – this was one of them;
And I didn’t realise at the time but they had a competition going on which I won! I’m pleased to tell you that I’ll be spending two nights at The Grand Hotel in York and getting a super duper hamper from Boots Soltan on arrival. How amazing is that? I’ll tell you more about my York trip once we’ve been!
The Sessions
After all this VERY exciting meeting and greeting it was time for the first session. Ami and I headed over to the ‘Understanding SEO’ session with Judith Lewis. While it was very insightful, there were a lot of questions mid session which actually delayed Judith getting through most of the slides. She was lovely enough to send us over a link to the slides, although it’s pretty difficult to understand what a lot of it means without it being talked through. It was a good session, but I didn’t come away with anything new that I could implement into my blog! She was giving out chocolate though!
The second session I attended was about making money from your blog. Recently, I’ve been doing ok with money but know I can be doing better. I don’t have affiliate links or anything like that yet so I’m hoping to get this sorted soon, but right now it’s not desperate and I need to find the time to do it and do it properly! I don’t just want every single link I’ve ever included to be an affiliated link. Unfortunately, for me, the session didn’t really focus on how we as bloggers could be making money and what options there were, but seemed to focus more on the speakers who were already clearly earning very good money from their blog. I did think the gentleman from Affilinet struggled to get some of his thoughts in too and I’d have loved to have heard more from him.
After lunch, which was really lovely I headed downstairs to a session on working with PRs and this was, by far, my favourite session of the day. I learned what PRs are looking for, top tips on working with PRs and what to include in emails when pitching. I got a lot out of this session and I really do hope to be able to put some things into practise when I can! First stop, personalised thank you cards – I just need to sort out my blog branding!
The last session I chose to attend was the round table talk, but I feel my time could’ve been better spent elsewhere. The room was noisy with around 5 different chats going on and nobody could really think! It was nice to say hello to everyone but I didn’t feel it was as productive as it could’ve been.
After the sessions
Once all the sessions were finished, everyone gathered back in the main room where Cherry Healey came and gave us all a little interview and interactive session, which was hilarious. She had me laughing out loud and I’ve only gone and bought her new book ‘Letters to my Fanny’ which, so far, is hilarious. She spoke about lots of things and I think I heard a lot of ‘TMI’ stories but it’s always good fun. My favourite had to be cork lady – don’t ask!
Several bloggers then got up to read some of their blog posts out loud and actually, both of my favourites, were from the blokes! Tim (Slouching Towards Thatcham) gave us a pitch perfect parody of ‘Pretty in Pink’ and Teddy gave us the low down on how kids interview their parents. I think Al (The Dad Network) was a bit shocked he managed to get the job to be honest!
The whole thing was finished off by the BiBs being presented by Carol Smillie. Personally, I thought the wine was long overdue and that some of the winners were questionable. Obviously the people I wanted to win.. didn’t. Boo! I did get a bit ranty though. Just ask some of the people on my table – hey Stevie? (A Cornish Mum)
Was it a good day out? YES! Would I go again? Only if I was sponsored again. There are lots of other feelings and thoughts I have about Britmums but here is not the right place to air them. I had a great time saying hello to everyone! See you next year?
It’s not until you read it back you realise how full on and long the day was, so much fun though. Was lovely to meet you!:) x
It sounds like you had a great time, I hope to be there next year too!