Are you sick of my talking about Alt Summit yet? Well, hang in there for a few more posts and then I promise on to new things. If you were following along with the conference at all you know that the business cards were a BIG deal. You wanted to meet people just to see what their cards looked like.
I brought TONS of cards home with me and it took me until yesterday to feel ready to go through them. It was super fun to remember where you met the person or why you clicked with them. There are a bunch of sites that I can’t wait to dive in to based only off the business card. And lots of follow-up that needs to happen. I’m slowly getting to that.
We all know that Jenny from Hank and Hunt is rad.i.cle but how freaking adorable is this! She paired a simple white letterpress card with her contact info with gold animal candle holders. Surely I would lose a finger if I tried to do something like this. And she made a ton of them. I am really starting to wonder if this girl sleeps.
Some were simple, some had awesome graphic design. Some came with swag (that pen right there is my FAVE! Thanks Love Creative!) Some were done by hand and some were gorgeously printed.
How adorable are these cards?! I was so happy to finally meet these ladies. Andrea lives about 20 minutes from me but took going to Salt Lake City to finally get together. And Laura is in LA which seems like world’s away sometimes. Both of these ladies and cards are totally my style and I hope I get to know them better!
You are my Fave brought it with her slide out card. Not sure if you can read that tiny writing but it says “Hi. I’m Melanie. I quote Liz Lemon at…” She’s hilarious.
And then there was this card that made me the happiest. I love aromatherapy and at times throughout the conference I would get the most amazing waft of lavender smell. But I could never tell where it was coming from. Then during one session, I look over and Lauren had this “card” sachet in front of her. I snatched it away and didn’t give it back. Turns out her blog is awesome too, check it out!
I had seen these marshmallow cards on instagram a few days before leaving for Alt and I loved the idea. But I don’t know The Faux Martha or what she looks like. I had been keeping my eyes out for another gal I wanted to say hello to and approached Melissa and asked if she was so and so. She wasn’t. Awkward. But when I asked what her blog was and she said The Faux Martha I became visibly excited. She handed over this pillowy cloud of a marshmallow and it made my day. I may have traumatized her but I think this is such a cute idea for a card! Nice meeting you Melissa!
And here are the cards I decided to take with me to Alt. I had two ideas I was working with (well and Lauren too since she does most of my graphic design) but at the end, this is what I chose. Although after being at Alt, the other idea would have been better. But you live and you learn right! And I’m still super happy with how these came out. I ended up doing these myself and was pretty dang impressed with myself since my illustrator skills are remedial at best.
I wanted it to be a visual elevator pitch of my blog. And I wanted it to have a photo of me so that people would remember who the heck I was when they got home. But I’m also kind of a nerd and I don’t love things that aren’t standard business card size so I included that too.
And in case the card became separated from the outer card my contact info was on there too. So really you can keep one for yourself and give one to a friend. My pal Ryan printed these for me and was so great to work with as usual. And a big thank you to my mom who put these together for me the night before I left so I didn’t have to stay up all night doing it. You are the best!
There were so many other great cards to share but I think I will cap it off right here. And I think I was the first person to get one of Lauren’s cards and somehow it is nowhere to be found! It was a little party kit and it was super cute! I don’t want to wait another year until Alt!
If you saw my post from yesterday you know that 
Cyd and Jenny were speakers on panels at Alt. My roommates were pretty much rock stars. Not sure how I ended up with that group but so glad I did. Jenny was also responsible for decorating 2(!) of the Wednesday night brand dinners (the 
Then Lauren and I headed off to dinner hosted by 
It was a great night until we learned that because the entire town was crazy busy with conferences the taxis were next to impossible to come by. The restaurant suggested we walk across the street to the mall valet where we might have better luck. So we did. And just about froze to death. I’m not sure I have ever been that cold. We didn’t think we were ever going to get home. We huddled up in the Cheesecake Factory and remembered that the hotel had a car service. They came and got us and we were finally able to thaw out. Have you heard? I’m from California. I don’t really own socks and the cold pretty much just laughed at my jacket. Side note, how cute is Lauren’s phone case?
Day one of the panels was amazing. Jenny spoke about shooting great DIYs along with 
This is what lunch time looks like at a table of bloggers. I promise they were not rude and we actually did have a great time.
And then it was time to party. Night one is one big hosted party. This year 
I had such an awesome time with 
Day 2 I made sure to visit all the lounges. I had seen some 
Night 2 brought a bunch of mini parties. This is such a fun idea and I kind of want to do this for my next kid’s party. Each room is so different and it is another chance to hang out with all your new friends and the brands who are hosting.
And there was a 
But if I had gotten nothing else out of Alt, finally meeting my boo, 
Then: The night before I left for Alt, I had a dream with special guest star, 
Finally we get to Alt. 600 people there to learn, mingle, do business and just have fun. It was exhausting. It was useful. It was worth the money. And it was the final piece that helped me figure out the future of the blog. There was so much inspiration and so many great panels. There were late night talks with the world’s best roommates and interacting with brands in lounges. Being that close to the brands without knowing what you should pitch to them was almost paralyzing at times. I didn’t want to chat with someone and be super to generic and then want to work with them in the future and them to have the wrong impression of me and what I do. Yeah. I over think everything. But I also only want to work with brands that fit my new, tighter focus. And Alt made it perfectly clear that it is up to me to make things happen.
Last week I traveled to Salt Lake City for 
Aside from learning a ton, I fell in love with the city, met loads of the best gals in person and met some truly remarkable brands who are doing big things. I’ve got a bazillion photos to get through and you know I like to share…I should have some posts ready to go next week!
