This past Saturday I said stuff it to my anxiety and attended my first Blogger Meetup held at The Pub in Tampa International Plaza!

 My sister-in-law, Denise over at RunDMT, had learned the Tampa Blogher Meetup she’d attended in previous years wasn’t going to occur this year and graciously decided to step up and make it happen. 

 I looked over the list of people attending wondering if I’d recognize anyone and was excited to see Morningside Mom and Clarisa from TBO who I follow on twitter.  I was a complete bundle of nerves at the thought of meeting them both in person as I’m a fan! Truth be told  I was giddy at the chance to meeting all of the bloggers!  I felt much like a kid on their first day of school all excited and nervous at the same time.  

So with Susie from Hide N Go Scrap and my sister Karen from If I Could Escape in tow we headed off to Tampa! 

 Upon our arrival we were greeted by our host Denise and introduced to Cheeky Sweetie and her hubby for the first time, who were both lovely.  I was equally excited when Caroline aka Morningside Mom arrived along with Erika from Southern. Fried. Lives as they both were fabulous and I immediately started to feel more at ease.  

Slowly other bloggers like Clarissa from TBO, Maria from Uncharted Waters, Raffi from Running Betty and her hubby Brian of Digital Running trickled in I knew it was going to be a great experience!   An ice breaker in which you had to guess the blogger behind the blog made getting to know each other that much easier.

Our guest speaker was Chris Angulo of Vology Data Systems who talked to us about branding our blogs so that they become relevant in search engines and even touched on the ever so hush-hush Google+ which at the moment is only accessible by invite!  After he was done we were all encouraged to share what we’d learned, mingle and ask lots of questions.

Meg-a-moo and her cousin were also there having dinner with their daddy’s and patiently waiting for it all to be over so they could drag us through the mall! They made a few appearances to show off their spoon balancing skills.

 Did I already mention how amazing everyone was?  Well… they were! *Grin*

They were all so down to earth, fun and easy to talk to which made my first blogger meetup unforgettable and reinforced my belief that Tampa Bloggers have got some swagger!

Ooo speaking of swag… 

Some local businesses were kind enough to hook us up with some freebies!

 

So a very big THANK YOU to:

Suncoast Running
blo Hair Studio & Color Cafe
Pain Relief Centers
Kelly Noel Photography
Florida Title Services, Inc
mix1
evos
Crystal Mango
California Pizza Kitchen
Mia’s Therapeutic Massage
Fit2Run
Chick-fil-a
RDesign