Meet the Blogger Masterclass

Sorry everyone, I've been away for a few days :) The weather in the Netherlands has been extremely nice this weekend and I've decided to just enjoy it for a day and a half - and not feel guilty about it. We Dutchies are very funny when it comes to the sun: even if it's just a few rays of sunshine we'll all be on the city terraces in large numbers -- with our winter coats and scarves ;) But today I even went outside bare-legged! It's great to see that everyone has a smile on their face :)

This thursday I went to a Meet the Blogger Masterclass in Hoofddorp in the grand and beautiful Sanoma building. This company hosts several inspiring get-togethers and masterclasses every year (check them out here). In june the location will be a little more exotic: in lovely Copenhagen where the talented Wendy from Beeldsteil will teach you all about photography :) (I showed you her fantastic house here).

This time video blogging and personal branding were the main focus of the day. The first part about video blogging was given by the very inspirational Katrina Tan-Conte from Zero the One. I'm still not wholly sure whether there's a place for video on interior blogs; photographs of interiors usually will give you an illusion of a very large space without the more ugly details like electrical sockets and televisions etc. It's a lot less easy to 'lie' with a videocamera -- and given the most popular photos on Instagram and Pinterest we do seem to love the illusion ;) But this lovely lady was so enthusiastic and during the break everyone seemed to agree on how inspiring she was! She really made me think about myself, my brand and blogging in general.

The lunch in between classes was very nice because we got to speak to our fellow bloggers. This wasn't just a day for interior bloggers, there were also food bloggers, fashion bloggers etcetera! I met this really nice lady, Kat from Belgium, who owns the vintage shop My Ex Boyfriend. The idea behind this title is that even though you might be done with your ex-boyfriend, this doesn't mean that someone else won't be extremely happy with him :) Make sure to visit her shop, which will also include items by Bloomingville! Other bloggers that I met that have really nice blogs are Jessica from Costello Decorating, Lisa from Ballerina's, Brownies & Babes and Janet from Planet Janet. Make sure to take a look :)

The second part was about personal branding and this was my main focus of the day. It was given by two wonderful ladies: social media guru Kirsten Jassies from JustK and Jantine Vaantjes from April and May. Jantine is a true inspiration to me and she and her work partner Vivian are an authority in the Dutch interior community. Together they made us a beautiful box with inspiring quotes (see photos) to make us think about who we are as bloggers (and brands) and how we evolve during time. She urged us to really turn it into our box, to make it our own by adding and removing items and to revisit it in a year or so to see if it still represents who we are. I loved hearing about how she started April and May and how she turned it into a successful brand - most importantly by remaining true to herself and her taste, without compromising. (Update: Such an honour: Jantine used my photos in this post on their blogpost on the masterclass, take a look at them here :) )

Kirsten Jassies offered us a view into the marketing perspective and taught us how to become social influencers. I assure you: this lady knows everything about social media (and branding) :) I loved how enthusiastically she spoke about it and she offered us several examples of successful bloggers who effectively used social media in their road to success. For me it was also a reaffirming masterclass because it showed me that apparently I have been using the modern media in a good way, being the computer nerd that I am ;) Although I did learn about some new platforms and tricks :) Kirsten also urged us to figure out what our true passion was and to consequently find our little niche in the blogging world.

I didn't make any photos of the speakers by the way because it felt a little too intrusive for me, but if you're interested to know more about these people: make sure to check out their websites by clicking on their names in yellow in this post :) All in all it's been a very inspiring day and it was great to meet all these people (including Desiree by Vosgesparis!) who actually understand you when you say you're a blogger ;)