I type this semi-tipsy on a 4 hour train journey home from Leeds after an amazing day with Ice Lolly at their #blogatthebeach event.
If you couldn’t make it to the event, here’s exactly what you missed! Please excuse the dodgy camera quality, apparently, I was too engaged by the talks to grab my proper camera from my bag and settled for my phone instead (something I NEVER do, so the talks must have been good)!
Introduction
First up, we were treated to an introduction talk by the lovely people of Ice Lolly, telling us more about their brand and how they want to work with bloggers going forwards – really interesting and you should definitely check out their website if you’re looking for a cheap holiday – I’ve just found some fab deals!
Growing Your Instagram – Rhianna (Rhianna Olivia)
First up was a talk by Rhianna on how to grow your Instagram organically (no bots or follow4follow here)!
Let’s face it, Rhianna has defied all odds by gaining almost 10,000 Instagram followers within a year organically, so she’s probably the best person to advise on the matter!
To be completely honest, with all of the changes that Instagram has gone through recently with algorithms etc. I’ve completely fallen out of love with the platform. Sometimes I go through posting sessions, but more often than not, it’s a dormant account. But, after this talk, I feel like I probably should up my Instagram game!
My favourite tips from the talk were:
Lunch & Challenges
Next up, we took a break for lunch and made a start on our “challenges” for the day. Ice Lolly set us a bunch of challenges that we needed to complete by the end of the day for the chance of winning an Instax camera – Gina and I took this very seriously and were on the case! Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but massive congratulations to Ashton who did!
Creativity for Busy Bloggers By Jen (She Gets Around)
Next up was a talk by Jen – who by the way is one of the most energetic people you will ever meet. I wish I had that much energy and I almost felt tired just watching her!
Her talk was all about exactly how to spark creativity and enthusiasm for blogging and is something I really needed right now!
At one point during the talk, Jen made us all pick an object in the room and write a poem about it to get our creative juices flowing – naturally, I wrote a poem about a light bulb, begging Ice Lolly to let me win the trip to Ibiza, and here it is….
Oh that light bulb, how bright it shines,
Like the trip to Ibiza,
I wish that trip was mine.
The light bulb brightens the day,
Oh to go to Ibiza I pray,
Ice Lolly, please send me away!
Gina can confirm that I did write this masterpiece in the 5 minute time frame given at the event rather than as a ploy whilst writing this blog post, ha!
My top tips from the talk were:
Making Money From Your Blog by Jess (The Travelista)
Let’s start off by saying that Jess is an unbelievably beautiful human inside and out. Many people shy away from the topic of monetisation as it can be a touchy subject but Jess was inspiring, down to earth and completely natural/honest.
Jess runs a luxury travel blog full time which is incredible in itself, but when she started speaking, that’s when I realised quite how much of a great entrepreneur she is. #girlboss and all that.
Have I made it clear how big my girl crush is on Jess yet? Yes? Good, let’s get to the nitty gritty then, my top tips from the talk were:
The Alchemist
After rounding up the talks and some more mingling, we headed over to The Alchemist for some 2 for 1 cocktails which were amazing as always!
It was lovely to meet everyone and all three speakers were really inspiring. A big thank you to the Ice Lolly team (especially Emma) who threw a great event!
Now to catch some zzz’s on the train home – looking forward to the next event!
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I was invited to the event by Ice Lolly and had a genuinely great time!
This is such a good post! Love that you put your poem in!! Glad it worked 😉 can't wait to see your pics from Ibiza! xxxx
Haha I never thought it would work!! Thanks lovely, I am sure I will be doing LOTS of blog posts on Ibiza! xx
[…] After a long period of writers block, I’m suddenly really excited about my blog and writing (this might have something to do with the very inspiring Blog At the beach event that I attended with Ice Lolly – read about my day here). […]