J. Ellarie : Southern C Summit Conference Review

Hello there!

I know I have been a horrible blogger lately. Again, I apologize for my inconsistent schedule. It will get better, I promise! We are slowly moving along with the house but currently still living out of some boxes. Still painting, cleaning, steam-cleaning the carpet, etc. Never ends! Ha! I just want to be on a normal schedule. I don't have a routine down yet (I'm a very routine person so a disruption in it throws me off) so until we have completely settled down, things will still be chaotic for a bit. My mirrored dresser came last week but when we opened it, it was broken in several places. Sooo I had to order a replacement and that doesn't come until next week. Once that it is in, I will be a little more organized which will make me feel a little bit better. :)

So now that I updated you guys, I wanted to talk about the conference I attended in February. Before I begin, I will say that I originally wanted to attend the Alt Summit because I thought it would be a really good conference for me to attend as a beginner blogger. Sadly, the tickets went on sale and sold out before I could buy them. I didn't want to wait until 2018 to attend a conference so I searched for upcoming ones and found this one. The ticket price was a lot but I was dead set on attending a conference and the description of events and speakers seemed like it would benefit me. The Southern C Summit is a 3-day conference limited to 250 attendees. It took place at The Cloister on Sea Island, Georgia. To say the place was beautiful would be an understatement. The details were incredible along with the views! However, even with the discount because of the conference, the hotel was pricey for me at the time, so I stayed at The Inn at Sea Island. It was nice but there weren't many amenities such as room service and there is no restaurant in the hotel. There are some restaurants within walking distance so I was at least happy about that.

I was initally excited for some of the speakers such as Darcy Miller, author of Celebrate Everything!, Monica Lavin, Founder of Lavin Label, Fine-art photographer Gray Malin, and Nikki Bazzani, Creative Strategist for Pinterest. Monica and Nikki definitely had some great info that I could use in what I am doing and plan to do with my blog. Another speaker that I didn't know about but found very useful was James Nord, Co-Founder and CEO of Fohr Card. There were a few workshops that you could attend if you wanted to pay extra. I chose "Standing Out-How to Make your Media Pitch Pop" with Brian Hoffman and Brooke Bell. It was informative and had some good points. There were many other seminars and lunches/dinners, and networking opportunities during cocktail parties. I will say that I was a little upset during the cocktail parties because there was nothing but alcohol. I don't drink much because 1) I'm picky about what I like and 2) alcohol can bother my stomach and I didn't want to feel sick during the party. So I couldn't get a soda or even water. If I wanted that I had to go all the way down to the other side of the hotel and buy a soda or water to drink at the bar of a restaurant. Not for nothing but not everyone likes to drink and on top of that what if I or someone else was pregnant? I feel water should have been served along with the alcohol.

So here's my personal opinion: while overall I think the conference was nice and I learned a little bit and met some very nice people, I felt that the conference was more for people who sell something. I didn't meet one blogger who does what I do. There could have been one there but I didn't meet her. There was an abundance of interior designers, artists, and jewelry designers. So I guess I was a little disappointed that I didn't get more of what I wanted out of the conference especially paying what I paid. When I got back I actually compared my agenda for the conference compared to the agenda for the Alt Summit conference. Probably shouldn't have done that because it just made me more upset and po'd and I'll tell ya why.

First, did I mention that after the Alt Summit sold out, I got put on a waiting list just in case someone backed out and I could attend before I found another conference? So I had booked the Southern C Summit at the end of October and got an email in December or I think the beginning of January that a space opened up for the Alt Summit. Ugghhh! <Insert angry face emoji> Being that I had already booked my flight, hotel, and purchased the conference ticket nor did I have the extra money or vacay time from work to attend both, I had no choice but to decline! So yeah, pretty upset. Anyways, here are the reasons why I was more upset. The Alt Summit was not only an extra day longer but the ticket was cheaper than mine. $255 LESS than what I paid! And I thought the schedule was more in depth and had a lot more of seminars that I needed and wanted to take and pertained more to what I do with this blog. If you go to the links I provided you can go to the agenda/schedule tabs and see the difference. It may not seem like a lot of reasons but for me the price and what is offered makes a huge difference for me.

So I try to look at it this way. It was a learning experience. I took what I could out of it. I'm not saying the conference was bad in any way, just that it wasn't what I thought in terms of MY expectations and what I need or am looking for. I still got to meet nice people, eat some great food, and got a nice grab bag full of stuff!

Scroll down to see some pics!

This is the back view of The Cloister