Haven Conference 2014

I recently attended the Haven Conference, a conference specifically geared toward Home & DIY bloggers, here in Atlanta and I wanted to share a recap of my fun experience there. You can check out my recap posts from the last two years here, here and here. By the way, please excuse the grainy iPhone pictures in this post! I didn’t have my good camera with me.

This year I had the privilege of speaking at the conference — I taught a session on Blogging Trade Secrets along with Dusty from All Things G&D, Laura from Finding Home, and Jen from Balancing Beauty & Bedlam. (I’m the short pregnant one.)

We crammed as much information as we possibly could into our hour and a half time slot each day. We thought for sure that no one would show up on the first day since Mike Holmes from HGTV was speaking at the same time in another room, so we were pleasantly surprised when our room filled up past capacity with people spilling out into the hallway and sitting on the floor in the meeting room.

Wow! Thank you so much to all of you who came, and if you have any questions at all or would like more info on the portion I covered in the session, please feel free to email me. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to take as many questions as we were hoping to, but we really wanted to send everyone home with as much info as possible.

Thank you to my sweet friend Donna for this photo!

Now, for those of you who did not attend, here’s a little rundown of what it was like. The conference opened with a keynote presentation from Chip Wade of HGTV. He has a new show called Elbow Room which I’m really excited to check out! It films here in Atlanta and they are doing all sorts of innovative, creative home remodels and designs I would have never even thought of.

My presentation was at 10am each morning, and after that we had lunch and enjoyed two more classes in the afternoon on both Friday and Saturday. We could visit with sponsors throughout the day, and it was a lot of fun checking out the brands and what new products they have to offer.

Here I am with Karen and Erica.

In the evenings there were cocktail parties, and while this pregnant mama was way too exhausted by the end of the day to do much partying, I did enjoy dinner and shopping with my sweet friends, Erica (also my roomie), Christina and Angie.

The RYOBI and Home Depot party didn’t disappoint, as usual. I couldn’t stay long as I was running out of steam by that point, but I’m so glad I stopped by. These are two of my very favorite brands anyway, so I was happy to show up and support them. The dessert tables were phenomenal! Wow! There was an ice cream bar with tons of toppings to choose from, and a fondue bar with chocolate fountains and yummy goodness as far as the eye could see. They truly know the way to a pregnant woman’s heart. 🙂

Of course there was oodles of free swag, and some fun goodies I was able to bring home to my boys, like teddy bears from Rust-Oleum, candy from Scout & Nimble, cookies from Moen and so much more. Let’s just say I had some happy children when I got home!

I learned a ton, met so many wonderful people, and just had an awesome time in general. I came home with what I call a non-alcohol induced “Haven hangover,” and was exhausted in the best possible way.

I’m already looking forward to next year and attempting to plan the logistics of being able to attend while having a nursing baby at home. I really don’t want to miss it!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this conference a success! The Haven team, sponsors, fellow speakers, and of course all who attended. It was so much fun!

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Thanks for visiting!

-Erin