“I want to be a part of it New York, New York” | Blogger Bash 2016 Recap, Review, and TOY Giveaway!

I received a complimentary ticket to Blogger Bash 2016 as an ambassador with Acorn Influence. No other compensation was provided. 🙂 

A couple weeks ago, Amos and I hopped on another plane and headed on up to one of my favorite cities in the world: NEW YORK CITY for Blogger Bash 2016! While I have never lived in NYC, I have spent many, many days and weeks there over the years. I have a cousin who lives there (among many friends) and back when I did comedy, I would go up to NYC and stay for weeks at a time taking classes and doing shows…

It has been almost six years since I was last in New York, so I was really excited to go! I was also really excited to check out Blogger Bash – a really unique blogging conference!

Amos and I got in a day early and played tourist for the day. Since I’ve been to New York so much, the one thing I really wanted to do was go to the One World Observatory observation deck at the Freedom Tower! Freedom Tower was still being built last time I was there, so I wanted to see it and go to the top!

Freedom Tower is LITERALLY amazing.

Sorry not sorry for all the views from the top!

The views from the observation deck are breathtaking.

After that, Amos and I were pretty wiped after a day of travel and walking the city, so we went back to our hotel and hit the hay and then got ready for a busy day the next day! (PS: We stayed at Yotel and it was AWESOME!)

I will say this off the bat… Blogger Bash is a totally unique conference experience (in my opinion). In the past decade of blogging, I have been to a lot of conferences and Blogger Bash wasn’t like ANY of them.

Day one of Blogger Bash started off at espace in Hell’s Kitchen for the Care Bears #ShareYourCare breakfast.

Thank you to Blogger Bash for some of these photos! There are a good mix of photos of mine plus Blogger Bash’s photos in here…

The afternoon of Blogger Bash featured speakers from Blogging Concentrated! This was honestly the most “workshop-y” part of Blogger Bash. It was really interesting and learned A LOT about blogging as a business. I also love learning from other people and how THEY approach blogging as a career.

With Hannah and Katy from Acorn Influence. I LOVE them.

Amos was the best conference partner.

After lunch and a little rest in the hotel room, Amos and I headed over to Pier 81 to board the Majesty Yacht for Sweet Suite 2016!

Sweet Suite was really unique. It featured TONS of the biggest brands in toys and they were all exhibiting their newest and best products. It was a great opportunity to get face-to-face time with these brands and see what they’re doing.

Checking out some new products from VTECH.

I mean, he’s cute… right?? 🙂

Day TWO of Blogger Bash featured celebrity speakers like Ginger Zee, JWoww, and Snooki in addition to so many other awesome things.

So I am a HUGE fan of Ginger Zee (she’s the meteorologist on Good Morning America and was on Dancing with the Stars). And I got to meet her! She was so sweet! She is the epitome of #momgoals.

The afternoon we heard from Jwoww and Snooki. It was cool hearing their perspectives on what it’s like to be a mom and business owner. They have come a long way from Jersey Shore!

The afternoon was all about Babypalooza and the New Products Expo. There were nearly 100 (maybe more??) companies there from 4Moms to Tula to Fisher Price, etc. featuring new products. It was great getting to see them up close and personal and getting to network with so many amazing brands!

Then, at the end of the day, the Majesty Yacht left the dock and headed around the Hudson and we got to experience beautiful views of the skyline and Statue of Liberty. It was a great time!

Tired Amos.

And… funny story… so on Friday before we left town, Amos and I went to visit my cousin who works in the 30 Rock building (she works for a TV station). Well, LONG story short, turns out she works with Ben Aaron who just so happens to be Ginger Zee’s husband!! I met Ginger Zee on Thursday and totally by coincidence I met her husband Ben on Friday! HOW WEIRD IS THAT?!?! Like, Ben works with my cousin!! So crazy. Ben was a fan of Amos. Small. World.

Anyway… My takeaways from Blogger Bash:

1. It is SO MUCH FUN
2. It’s extremely unique in that, as a blogger, it gives you A LOT of opportunities to network DIRECTLY with the marketing and PR reps for some MAJOR brands.
3. In a lot of ways, it is geared towards bloggers who are moms / dads / parents. It also does have a heavy focus on the toy industry, but I think they do a great job of making it applicable to all bloggers (not just toy or parenting bloggers). Also, I think they’re trying to branch out and appeal to bloggers who aren’t parents as well!
4. BRING BUSINESS CARDS!!
5. There aren’t a TON of “blogging workshops” like other conferences, but that’s okay! I think it’s a unique experience and loved it.

If you’re looking for a conference to really help you hone in on your networking skills and meeting great brands, Blogger Bash is for you!

As something fun, I have teamed up with Acorn Influence and some awesome toy companies to giveaway an amazing toy prize pack! Check out the giveaway below…

What do you think? Have you been to NYC? What about Blogger Bash?