Early last Saturday morning, I joined the other lucky people who were picked to go on the Blogtacular 2015 photowalk with West Elm. We met at the London Eye at 7am (!!) and were split into two groups – one with Xanthe Berkeley and the group I was with was led by Samee Lapham. We explored the Southbank which is such a vibrant, colourful area with a LOT of photo opportunities. It was brilliant to meet some lovely new people before the main event, and we got to know each other well along the way!

West Elm Blogtacular Photowalk 2015 Official Photos by Piers MacDonald

West Elm Blogtacular Photowalk 2015 Official Photos by Piers MacDonald

We were all asked to wear something Instagrammable, so I wore my bright pink coat There was a lot of Instagramming going on along the way – you can see more by searching for #WestElmLondonScenes The balloons were a big feature along the way too – how brilliant are the big balloons?! I was very excited to have the pink one for a while, as you can imagine!

A huge thank you again to Blogtacular and West Elm for organising this photowalk, and also to Xanthe (seen in my last photo) and Samee for being so welcoming along the way!

Post updated 12th February 2020.

The post Blogtacular 2015: the photowalk appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

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!

The post One week until Blogtacular! appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.