Melbourne ProBlogger Conference: Photos and Recap

My eyes are droopy, I am feeling a little blue and my head is zinging with so many great new ideas I am feeling slightly terrified to implement.

I’m recovering from the Problogger Conference event in Melbourne.

It was one of the best conferences I have ever attended: professional, intelligent, inspiring, efficient, warm and friendly. One of the reasons it was such a brilliant event is because it was run by a team of people who treat you as if you are one of the family.

Not only that, they really believe in you, what you are capable of, and run the conference based on the intention of making a difference and giving you the tools you need to create your dream life.

I am truly grateful for Darren Rowse and his team.

I just wish they were in my office space every day spurring me on even more. I was so inspired and have pages of notes I want to now put into practice. At the moment I am battling from moving from those big ideas to the smaller implementation stuff.

To overcome my procrastination, I am following the very sage advice of Darren to dedicate 15 minutes a day to completing a task.

This morning I spent about an hour finally finishing an email series I have been working on which will be released soon as a newsletter sign-on bonus.

If you want all the secrets to how you can travel the world, then don’t miss it!

The conference started off shaky for me with a stomach bug I had for four days previous, but by lunch time on the first day I had it all under control and the rest of the weekend shone brightly.

Here’s our Problogger Conference Happiness Highlights and lessons learned

Happiness Highlights

Exploring Melbourne

We love this city. And could live there. Melbourne is a great place to indulge in food, coffee, festivals, the arts, and sport.

Degraves Street is one of our favourite areas to hang out. We had lunch there on the first day and ambled around.

Spencer St Melbourne

Degraves st

Degraves st

Caz on Degraves street

Lunch on Degraves

Tram

Flinders street station

On Saturday evening a group of us hit the streets of Chinatown for a delicious meal (I loved Melbourne’s Chinatown) and then ended up at a German pub paying ridiculous amounts for steins.

Nicole, Christina and Jo in Chinatown

Great wine to enjoy with friends

Chopsticks to match the earrings. Chinatown thinks of everything!

Dinner

CHEERS!

We caught up with Craig’s best mate for breakfast on Sunday morning at Southbank. The sun was out and Melbourne was buzzing with people exploring.

Eggs benedict with smoked salmon

Crowne Plaza

The Crowne Plaza Hotel sponsored our stay and our room with views of the Yarra was perfect, particularly at sunrise and sunset. It was also centrally located so we never had more than a 10 minute walk anywhere.

our room at Crowne Plaza

our view (bad weather day!)

our hotel

Party Night

Part of the conference ticket included a party night at local Maha restaurant in Melbourne. It was awesome!

The finger food was delicious, the service was beyond outstanding, the wine was great, the conversation light and fun and the photo booth experience was highly entertaining.

with Holly Galbraith from ThinkSocial

mini falafal burgers

Smilebooth Australia brought in costumes and signs and everyone ventured in with friends for their silly photos.

With Brooke and Hannah

Inspirational Speakers

The speakers were AMAZING.

There were so many different panels discussing different topics on blogging such as getting paid to write, how to get brands knocking on your door, and how to build social community, which I was excited to speak on with the lovely Chantelle and Christina. These two are massive blogging powerhouses and I was honoured to sit beside them and learn from them. (I have crushes on these two!)

With Christina from @HairRomance, Chantelle from @FatMumSlim and Richenda our moderator. Photo: Nicole Avery

My favourite were the keynote speakers who just wowed me.

Darren Rowse as always kicked off the event showing us how great things can come from smallness.

Shayne Tilley had me fired up with all sorts of ideas for product creation.

James Tuckerman re-energized us all with his talk first thing the morning after the Problogger party. He had so much energy and a fascinating talk explaining three technology trends and how our imagination is based purely upon our experience so we need to find ways to lubricate our mind and create the unimaginable.

Chris Guillebeau what can I say. I was so impressed with just how genuine, humble and caring he is in real life. I love his story, I love his lessons and how in creating his own lifestyle he is having a much larger impact on the world, inspiring others to do the same. He has so much wisdom to share. I bought his $100 start-up book and am blown away already and I have only read the intro!!

meeting Chris Guillebeau

The conference finished off in a really great way with a talk from Sarah Wilson. I was so inspired and impressed with her story and the lessons that share shared with us.

Sarah Wilson

I was most excited by her talk purely because of the person that she is.

I’m happy to know that my daughters do have strong female role models like her to follow. She’s ambitious, yet soft and gentle, super intelligent and believes in the power of herself to enforce change upon her own life and make a difference to others.

I would be so happy for my daughters to grow up holding that strength, compassion and wisdom.

Biggest lessons learned

1. Be kind and kindness and opportunities will come back in immense amounts.
2. Take small steps each day: From little things big things grow.
3. Be humble: You are really very small and no more important than the person beside you.
4. Believe that anything is possible.
5. Honour yourself: There is nothing wrong with getting paid for providing a service. Honour the work and dedication you put into providing values for others.
6. Create your own products: This is high on my actionable tasks list.
7. Block out the noise and hold your head high: Don’t feed the trolls and the haters. Hold your head high knowing their opinion is none of your business. Stick to your plan and your greater ideals.
8. Be fresh, be unique: For God’s sake don’t copy people. Get ideas from others and use that as a way to create your OWN things. Don’t ride the coat tails of others hard work to try and short-cut benefits.

If you want to learn more of what we did at the Problogger Conference, you can purchase a Virtual Ticket to get access to the recordings and our special facebook conference group. (affiliate link above).

Did you attend the Problogger conference?

What were some of your lessons and highlights?