Meet the Blogger: Offline Adventures at the ME London Hotel

Well after last week’s blogging frenzy it’s been a little quiet over here, whilst I calmed down from the excitement/terror of giving my first ever public talk to a group of over 100 members of the Interiors Blogosphere, for the wonderful Meet the Blogger event at the ME London hotel. To my relief, it all seemed to go rather well – my slideshow worked, I didn’t fall on my face/have any freak Wardrobe Malfunctions ending in Dr-Pepper-ad style social disasters, and I think I kept the incoherent rambling to a minimum. After spending the week working with Dulux to create a series of blog posts on their latest SS13 trend, I presented all my findings to anyone who’d listen, along with some extra post ideas for other bloggers to try out, plus a few real-life examples of features I’ve created which give a spin on a bog-standard press release.

Dulux also hosted a painting workshop to teach attendees the ombre technique I trialled on my bedroom wall earlier this month, along with some other highly interesting workshops, including basic photography techniques by interiors snapper Paul Craig, plus a furniture painting masterclass by Louise from West Egg Interiors.

The food was naturally a chi-chi affair, created in line with this season’s colour trends (we all do this at home, right?) which prompted a feverish bout of Instagramming from the assembled crowds.

Keynote speaker Yvonne from Belgian uber-blog Yvestown even bought along a film crew for the day (she’s currently the subject of a TV show about bloggers, Shoot, airing currently in her native homeland I believe). She talked passionately about how she’s managed to carve out a rather idyllic lifestyle for herself through the opportunities her blog has afforded her, going on to host a more practical styling workshop alongside British blog royalty Will of Bright Bazaar. And if that wasn’t enough, a team of nail artists suddenly appeared at the end, lined up along the side like a row of very stylish jurors, to ombre/spot/stripe our nails into perfection. I went for a sapphire/baby blue ombre mash-up but due to post-speech shell shock, forgot to actually photograph it, but trust me, it looked very cool.

To see a bit more about what I talked about, take a pootle over to my Pinterest board on the topic, with a multitude of links and inspiration. Big thanks to Mischief PR for approaching me to work with both them and Dulux on it all, and also to Meet the Blogger for so graciously hosting me. And a special shout-out to Byron Burgers, who very kindly reserved a table for 14 of us at the last minute post-event, and even appeared to have quickly repainted an internal wall for us in-keeping with the key colour themes of the day…

{Images: All copyright photographer Yeshen Venema for Meet the Blogger, via Flickr, apart from the Pinterest screengrab and bottom striped photograph, which are mine}