I can’t believe it’s only one week until Blogtacular – this time next week I’ll be on the train to London! I bought an early bird ticket last year and have been really looking forward to it since then. There have been so many exciting things happening in the build-up that I’m even more excited about it every day, and I didn’t think it was possible to be more excited than I was before! But I am, and I have a few things to do in preparation for what promises to be an incredible event…

This week, the schedule has been released and so we all have the difficult decision to make about which session to go to. They all look amazing, so it will be hard to choose – just when I think I’ve chosen, I think ‘ah, but I would love to hear about that too’ and I have to start all over again! The keynote speaker this year is Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge and the title of her keynote is ‘The Power of Fear: how to embrace what scares you and use it to grow your personal and professional life’. How brilliant does that sound?!

I’ve ordered myself some more business cards from Moo and will be swapping those like mad on the day! One of the main things I’m looking forward to (other than listening to amazing speakers, obviously!) is meeting other bloggers and hopefully starting new projects with many of them. Networking is really important and it’s going to be great to meet people face to face. I will also be pitching to Thomson on the day and took part in the webinar on Wednesday evening with Kat Molesworth and Christian Torres (head of the Brand & Creative team at Thomson), which was really interesting and inspiring! I hadn’t really thought about pitching to them before Monday of this week, but it’s a fantastic opportunity to travel and blog for Thomson, so I really hope that my pitch stands out! Fingers crossed 🙂

There is a Pinterest group board for all attendees, and people have been uploading links to their sites and introducing themselves in advance of the event. This is such a great idea as it gets people talking before next week, and we can try to spot each other when we’re there! There’s also a lot happening on Facebook and Instagram, so if you’re still undecided about getting a ticket just head over and check it out. I think they’re in single figures now so you’d better be quick! I’ll be posting photos throughout the day on Instagram (follow me @hellohoorayblog) so if you can’t make it you can see more there or use #Blogtacular to follow the action…Can’t wait!