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Highlights from ProBlogger Event 2012

Posted By Darren Rowse 19th of October 2012 General 0 Comments

Last weekend, over 300 bloggers converged at Etihad stadium in Melbourne to attend the annual ProBlogger event.

We had dreamed a lot bigger this year. This was the first year that we held the event over two days. It was the first year we had two different “streams” of content, and the first time we uploaded the presentations shortly after the sessions had finished for virtual attendees.

I think it was pretty successful. People loved how many different niches were represented—we had speakers from travel, cartooning, business, food, photography, fashion, parenting, and more. People also enjoyed having direct access to the team that has helped me grow my business revenue over the past two years.

From little things big things grow

This turned out to be the accidental theme of the two days. I started my keynote on Friday by telling the audience about my early experiences as a blogger—including the story of my now defunct printer blog (which I had no passion for … and as a result couldn’t sustain)!

I think the attendees appreciated hearing from people at different levels of success in their blog. We heard from bloggers who were focused on building a part-time business around other responsibilities. We also heard from bloggers who had enjoyed a lot of success within two or three years of starting their blog.

I think Elle Roberts said it best:

It is okay to shift, change, and maybe even completely flip your direction. You need to give yourself permission to stay true to who you are what you want today and stop holding on to what you wanted when you started your business.

Many bloggers told us that they felt reassured after attending as well as having specific “action steps” planned to complete after they had recovered.

Highlights from ProBlogger Event 2012

One of my favorite moments of the event at the end of Day 2 when we all went out into the 40,000 seat stadium to think about the impact we can have as bloggers – Image by Danimezza

Take small actions every day

Something else that really resonated with people was the idea of finding small blocks of time each day and using them to do an activity that improves your blog.

I spoke about how I created my first ebook by finding and using 15-minute blocks after the birth of my first son. Many people tweeted their own suggestions and followed up with blog posts:

Chris Guillebeau was one of the standout speakers. He received so many compliments on his kindness and sincerity. It was a real honour to share this event with him.

Highlights from ProBlogger Event 2012

The PBEVENT Team!

The day 1 networking drinks at Maha were another highlight. As you can see, we had a lot of fun catching up and posing for pics courtesy of Smilebooth Australia.

The Virtual Pass

This was the first year we made the presentations available almost live, and this was something that all attendees really responded to. People loved not worrying about missing information and being able to participate in the conversation virtually.

We also had 100+ others attend the conference from around the world virtually—it was great to see so many tweets coming in from participants in places like Serbia, South Africa, America, Canada, New Zealand, and of course many from around Australia.

It really added an extra element to the event, and is something we´ll look at expanding on next year.

The virtual ticket is still available if you are interested.

It includes 21 hours of great blogging teaching, all the slides used by presenters, and a recording of an hour-long Q&A webinar that I recorded with attendees after the event.

Get your Virtual Ticket here.

Do it in a Dress

I ended the first day by wearing a dress to the final session. Yes, a dress. The goal was to raise enough money for ten girls in Africa to attend school.

Highlights from ProBlogger Event 2012

Image by Misho Maranovic

We hit our target. You can still donate here.

Our 2013 Event

This year’s event was a real success, but we’re already looking forward to next year. We’ve just finished our debrief as a team and there are some further improvements and new features of the event that we’re looking to add.

Interested in coming?

Leave your email below and we’ll let you know where and when it’s on:

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Note: your details will be kept private and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Reviews of PBEVENT from attendees

There have been a flood of blog posts about the event this year. Here are just some of them—enjoy!

Thanks to our sponsors!

Thanks so much to our partners and sponsors at PBEVENT who helped make the event so great!

Lenovo, MYOB, Holden, Yellow Pages, Curtin University, Social Callout, Blurb, Coldflow, Zendesk, and Oz Blog Hosting.

Also thanks to World Vision Australia for helping out at the event with volunteers.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. This all looks great!

    The Problogger event looks like an event that would be fun to attend and to learn from.

  2. Thanks for these information.i like the photos you shared that’s really good and fun.At last wishing you great success for the year 2013.

    Thanks for a great information..

  3. Darren, I’ve just finished my post for tomorrow’s weekly blogging chat on my blog and I’ve called it: best blogging conference I’ve attended in my blogging career.

  4. Annabel Candy, Successful Blogging says: 10/19/2012 at 8:36 pm

    I have downloaded all the sessions including those I missed and those I went to. I too notes but couldn’t capture it all.

    Now the only question is how many sleeps until the next #pbvent?

  5. It was a fantastic event. I got to meet people I’ve admired for a while. Everyone I met was so generous with their time and knowledge.

    Will definitely be front and centre at #PBEvent 2013

  6. They are all great! especially when you dressed up like… :)

  7. Nice sexy legs there! LOL! Good luck on the NYC meet too!

    Thanks also for making the seminars available to people who can’t be there!

  8. interesting, awaiting for next 2013 events

  9. Really amusing. :)
    I hope i could be able to join 2013 events. :)

    Thank you

  10. Thanks for linking to my 20 actions post Darren. I love the fact that your “accidental” theme resonated with everyone in way that changed the way they viewed the rest of the presentations. That certainly happened to me anyway. You really couldn’t have planned that better!

    I also loved the fact that there were consistent messages from almost every presenter – be true to yourself, know your audience, take action – but that everyone remembers slightly different specific points.

    I’m already psyched about next year.

  11. FAbulous event! Thanks so much Darren to you and your team. Loved being a part of it and can’t wait till next year

  12. I tried to add my email so you guys would let me know about the 2013 Event, but after I added my name and email I got a response saying that the Mailing List Not Active :(

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