The Vacation Gals Travel to the TypeAMom Conference

My good friend ColoradoGal and I had such a good time at the first (of hopefully many) annual Type A Mom conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Conceived and organized by Kelby Carr – with several cohorts and assistants running interference – this conference seems to me to have been very successful.

The feel was certainly different than that of the BlogHer conference in July; with around 300 women, this was smaller by a factor of 10, and a lot more personal and manageable. I spoke on SEO panels at both conferences and enjoyed doing so, but I can say definitively that everyone who traveled to the Type A Mom conference got their basic SEO questions answered before we ran out of time. That’s a good feeling. Thank you, Kristie McNealy, for being a perfect co-panelist.

Blogger Outreach, TypeAMom

The Vacation Gals led the travel blogging panel, which was also a much more manageable size than that of BlogHer. The questions came fast and furious – well, not furious, exactly, but with a lot of curiosity….So I should say, the questions came fast and curious. Type A Mom attracts some fantastic mommy bloggers, and some were interested in how to also become travel writers. One woman that was especially memorable asked and talked about associating homeschooling, field trips, and travel posts: I thought she had a great idea, and one I hadn’t thought of before.

LeeAnn Donnelly from Biltmore House (pictured above) was in the audience, and helpfully talked about the gardens, winery and grounds of George Vanderbilt’s famous North Carolina estate. There was a tour of  Biltmore House for Type A Mom conference attendees, too.  I was helping set up (and not very well!) when the Asheville tour was scheduled this year; I hope I get to see The Biltmore Estate next year.

Gardens of Biltmore House, Asheville NC

The other panels that I went to were outstanding. MommyNiri’s Nirasha talked about living ethically to blog ethically, a message I loved. The Blogger Outreach panel was lively and interesting, and Anissa Mayhew led a heartfelt session on writing with an authentic voice. Fantastic. Meeting Astacia Carter and Angela England in person were genuine highlights for me, too: I hope we stay in touch. Another breakout session I really enjoyed was about Power Tweeting, mostly because Lucretia Pruitt, Amy Lupold Bair and Sugar Jones were so engaging.

Great speakers, great conference…the only thing I could’ve wished for was great weather. IT POURED, basically throughout the whole conference. At least I got to know the inside of the hotel really well. Really, really well. I suppose that no matter how Type A a conference organizer Kelby Carr is, she can’t control the weather! Yet. Congrats, Kelby, on a terrific conference.