BASH Recap

If you follow party blogs you've probably been reading over the past week on those blogs about this conference called BASH.  BASH is a conference geared toward people in the party industry.  Now I'd been kicking around for over a year the idea of attending a blog conference but couldn't decide which one would be the best fit.  BASH was it! It was the conference I had been waiting for.  Not only would every class be geared toward the party industry but all the people attending would be party people! People I have been collaborating with, chatting with online and following for years.  I think I was more excited to meet the people attending then the classes and guest speakers.

The classes were amazing. I know it got a lot of us thinking, kicked us in the butt to stop thinking and start doing and maybe even had us changing direction from where we thought we were headed.

Class Review:

One of the kick me in the butt classes for me was the accounting class from Sweeter CPA. I learned A LOT in this class and I'm starting the process to implement some of what I have learned. The unexciting but necessary part of blogging.

Now before this conference I have to admit, I didn't know who The Alison Show was. The moment she was announced as a class speaker I looked her up to see what she was all about and knew I wanted to take her class. This is one of the classes that has me thinking about a different direction than the one I've been thinking about. We'll see what comes of it. One of the great take away's from this class was that Alison has been exploring her brand for 7 years and has just recently really focused in on it. So good to hear because Fizzy Party was born just 3 years ago and I feel like I'm still exploring where I want to take it.

Monetizing your blog by Creative Juice.   All about ads, affiliate links and product reviews. As you may have noticed there are no ads on my blog and very few posts about product reviews. I have done the occasional review and always give you all my honest opinion but I plan on not making reviews a big part of this blog. When blogs do too many reviews it takes away from why I started following them in the first place, to see party inspiration. This class does have me thinking and I'll go into more detail a little later on.

So you want to write a book taught by Creative Juice, Lynlee's and The Marshmallow Studio.    Not that I have plans to write a book, what would I even write one on?  But I have been kicking around the idea of a magazine so I took the class. Books are like magazines, right? I'm a magazine whore. No really, I am. My step-daughter even commented once about how much I love magazines. We'll see if I actually create one. I've heard they are expensive to create. I better start saving.

Loralee Lewis, the class I almost didn't take. I was about to take the other class being offered at the same time but something guided me to this class and boy am I glad I took it. Lorelee Lewis' style is not mine which is why I almost didn't take the class. Her work is beautiful but I like bolder, brighter, glitzier things. This class had all of us in tears. We were all so touched by her words and humbleness. I'm going to have to make this a separate post I can tell. There's just too much to say.

I told you all on FB I was going to bring real raw emotions to this post so lets get to it.
I was surprised how many of the party people were nervous about meeting fellow party bloggers and the speakers.  I couldn't understand it. What was there to be nervous about? We're all just people. I found it all rather silly. Then someone reminded me, "You aren't an introvert".  They were right. I can walk into a crowd of people I don't know and have no problem striking up a conversation.  You should have seen the way I talked to Amy Atlas! I'm thinking that needs to be another post too.  So now, not only am I surprised about how nervous most of the attendees are but they're mostly introverted too!  What? You're party planners, stylists, bloggers and you're introverted! Really? I didn't see that one coming. Now I understand why so many of them are bothered when they get a negative comment or their numbers on social media go down. As an extrovert I just let that stuff roll right off me.

Perfectionism. It runs rampant in the party world.  By the end of the conference I saw how different I was from so many of the attendees. The last morning of the conference a small group of us were having breakfast when Amy Atlas came by and joined us. The conversation turned toward perfectionism and how kids pick up on this and how it affects them.  Everyone at the table was agreeing except me. I couldn't relate.  Not because I don't have kids but because I'm not a perfectionist in the way these ladies are. I remember a post in a party group I belong to, someone had posted a picture of glasses with straws in them and a whole conversation took place about how they all hated when that happened and how much it bugged them.  I didn't understand what everyone was talking about and had to ask.  The straws weren't all perfectly precisely lined up.  I hadn't seen it. It just didn't bother me. I like things to be neat and somewhat perfect but it just doesn't really bother me is everything in a picture isn't perfectionism.  When every party I look at is absolutely perfect it's almost boring to me. There's nothing that catches my eye and makes me want to stop and take notice. I wanted to give these women a little piece of me so they could relax a little and just go, meh. So the straw isn't lined up to the millimeter with all the others. By the end of our breakfast conversation I was actually glad I couldn't relate to these women's perfectionism and happy to be an outsider in that part of the party world.

At the conference I got asked a lot, "then why do you do it?" and "why don't you plan parties for other people?"  This was another big difference between me and the other attendees. For most of the attendees at the conference, their party planning, styling, blogging is their full time work. They have clients to find, ads all over their blogs, do a lot of product reviews and are affiliates for a few companies. It's how they make money to pay the bills. The electric company isn't going to take a styled party as payment. Cash needs to be made.  I have a full time job outside of Fizzy Party.  I don't do styled parties as a business. I'm honestly not sure if I want to take on clients. I know I don't want to at this time, unless it was for a magazine. "Why don't you plan parties as a business?" because I don't see a market for it where I live. Portland is a very DIY, don't throw big blow out parties kind of city.  And I'm such a "oooh this is a super fabulous idea" last minute person.  When you have clients you can't wake up the morning of the party at 5 a.m. and start crafting your amazing idea. Well you can but you can't really bill the client for that and now you've just lost money if you simply HAVE to have that amazing idea. "Then why do you do it? Why do you put in the long hours of posting to social media, styling, photographing and blogging about your parties?"  Because I love throwing parties and inspiring others.  I'm not saying I wouldn't love for Fizzy Party to bring in some income so I could turn around and throw more parties.  But I don't want party planning/styling to be a full time job right now. It doesn't give me vacation pay, sick pay, insurance and a retirement account. I'm still exploring where I want to go with Fizzy Party and by having a full time job I have the flexibility to explore the brand.

I have SO much more I want to share but if you made it this far, you're fabulous! and I won't keep you any longer. But seriously, come back and read more about the Lorelee Lewis class and how I talked to Amy Atlas.

I would absolutely adore your thoughts on this post.