I had the opportunity to attend the Fit Bloggin' Conference in downtown Indianapolis this past weekend. It was a great event! I am so glad that I took the time to go and it kind of pushed me outside my comfort zone.

I attended the conference from Friday through Saturday. There were great speakers talking about their own weight loss journeys, books they had written, TV shows they had been on, research they have been doing and tips for becoming a consistent blogger. I have attended a variety of conferences over the years, but most of them relating to nutrition/feeding conferences and so this was the first time I had actually attended a conference about something else. It was great to have a chance to meet people from all over the country and get to learn about how they organized their blogs/social media presence. I was encouraged to take the effort and become more consistent with my own blogging. I try to blog every week, but I am going to work to make sure that my blog comes out at the same time each week. I also was encouraged that my platform looks great and may not have as many readers as I would love. I am working on that and had some great ideas of search engine optimization.

It was great to be able to just listen and observe the people that I met. I have never been in the situation of trying to lose a large amount of weight, so I found it so good to be able to listen and have a better understanding of how to work with these individuals. I also was encouraged to continue to serve as that dietitian professional in my community as a resource of scientific evidence and hopefully provide a clear, and helpful message in regards to nutrition.

Favorite Parts/Memories:

Attending the fitness sessions each day. I had the chance to attend a total of 4 fitness classes that were offered over the 2 day conference. They were great and I loved everything that I learned. From using Valslides for the first time from Valerie Waters, to learning about the application Swork It, doing Zumba and attending a session hosted by Lifetime Fitness. It was great! I was so sore afterwards, but it was a ton of fun.
I enjoyed the breakout sessions and being able to listen to a great discussion lead by David Garcia who has the website Keep It Up David. To learning how to become a consistent blogger forever by Nellie and getting to learn from her and her blog Brooklyn Active Mama. I also learned so much about search engine optimization from Jessica Woodbury and her blog Don't Mind the Mess. I also loved being able to meet fellow dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner and get to speak a little bit with her. She has done was amazing things on TV and has a great website/instagram account - check her out!

Overall it was a great experience and Fit Bloggin' did a great job hosting this event. I was hoping to meet even more people, but due to some airline issues some speakers/attendees were unable to come. I am so glad that I had to chance to attend and for being made to feel right at home in a brand new environment for me. If you are a blogger and work in the fitness arena and want to attend next year, I definitely recommend it!

I am super excited to be able to attend the 2016 FitBloggin Conference in Indianapolis this summer. I didn't know much about this event until I was contacted by an acquaintance at the American Heart Association of Indianapolis. He reached out to me and told me about the event and thought that I might like to attend. He was right! I think it looked like a great event and something I love to be able to go to!

I had to share with you some of the topics at the conference that I am excited to attend:

How to Influence Your Community to Achieve Fitness & Health — Hear from a panel of successful writers, bloggers, social media users, and fitness professionals about the central tenet of why FitBloggin’ exists – how to influence your community to achieve their fitness and health goals. Moderated by Roni Noone, founder of FitBloggin’.
Be a Consistent Blogger…Forever (Blogging & Social Media Track) — Ten fool-proof tips and tricks to be the consistent blogger you have always wanted to be. Posting more often is the key to growth, so learn how to never lose your “blogging mojo.” SPEAKER: Schnelle Acevedo
Super Simple SEO (Blogging & Social Media Track) — Session will cover the basics of how the Google algorithm works, why blogs are gaining more search traffic than ever, and actionable steps to gain traffic for your posts through search. SPEAKER: Jessica Woodbury
Fitness for the Minority Population — Explore how the culture of minority populations affects their beliefs and practices on healthy living, diet, and exercise. We’ll also discuss how to communicate with minority communities. MODERATOR: Shera Strange

I have a passion for fitness & health and being able to communicate with people via social media about health and wellness. Being able to attend this conference is such a fun opportunity for me. I was able to apply for a scholarship to attend and I was picked! I really didn't think that would happen, but thankfully I was able to get most of the registration fee covered and I am super excited to attend the conference and soak up as much information about fitness blogging as possible.

If you have a blog and enjoy fitness, you should mark July 21-24th on your calendar and set side some time to attend the FitBloggin Conference in downtown Indianapolis! Of course I will be blogging about the event and taking lots of pictures so you will have to stay tuned!