SheCon Lovely: Lela Davidson

After attending my first conference, SheCon in Miami, I decided that I wanted to give you, my readers, as much information as possible, to share with you all of the fun and educational experiences I had. 

I realized I couldn't do that alone. I don't want to only give you my perspective. What better way to share the experience of the conference as well as introduce you to all of my new friends than by interviewing each of them! 

This new SheCon Lovely feature will run long enough to introduce you to as many of my SheCon Lovelies as possible. They are ALL fantastic and I can't wait for you to get to know them and to learn from their conference experiences as well! To read the previous SheCon Lovelies posts, click here.

Last week we met Rachel. Today please meet the fabulous Lela Davidson!

*Tell us a little about yourself and your blog.

My name is Lela Davidson and I write (among many other things!) a blog called After the Bubbly. My blog is about life after the thrill of weddings and baby showers are distant memories. It celebrates the humor in the mundane moments of family life. I also contribute to dozens of magazines in the United States and Canada, and my first book, Blacklisted from the PTA (Jupiter Press, imprint of Wyatt-MacKenzie) launches this summer. The title came from a particularly popular blog post!

*Have you been to any other blogging or social media conferences before? If so, which ones?

SheCon was my very first blogging or social media conference. I usually go to writer’s conferences, so this was quite a bit different. However, some things remain the same – I still meet Trekkies at every one of these things. 

*What were some of your reasons for attending SheCon?

I really wanted to connect with bloggers who write for the same audience of Blacklisted from the PTA. As Managing Editor of ParentingSquad.com, I was also there to promote our Top Parenting Blogs list, which was developed to help bloggers track their stats, as well as for vendors to find great bloggers.

Lela with Ted Rubin

*Who were your favorite speakers and why?

I enjoyed Lee and Paul Reyes-Fournier from CoupleDumb for their energy and honesty. I learned cool techie stuff from by Aliza Sherman and Adam Edwards. But by far, I learned the most just observing Ted Rubin work the room, and his phone and iPad! 

Lela with Adam Edwards

*What do you think is the most important thing you learned from the SheCon presentations?

For me it was more about the informal networking—with bloggers, vendors, and PR firms. Probably because I’m not a traditional blogger (is there such a thing?), meaning, I’m not necessarily looking to directly monetize my blog. I use the blog as part of my overall writing platform.

*What do you think is the most important thing you learned from the conference as a whole?

That my Texas hair does not work in Miami.

*What were your favorite events/activities?

Just hanging out after hours is always my favorite event ;) 

*What advice would you give to someone who has never attended a conference and is considering one in the future?

Go with an open mind, a lot of energy, and several packets of Alka Seltzer.

Karaoke (singing Love Shack!) with Aimee (The Coupon Diva), me (always the short chick) , Rachel (Life After Daycare), Sara (The Football Wife) and Lela.

Big thanks to Lela for taking the time to share her experience with me to share with all of you, my friends! I hope you enjoyed hearing from her and that you'll enjoy her blog and her BOOK as well! I received a blogger's preview copy and although I haven't had a moment to read all of it, I had some time to read a few chapters and it is HYSTERICAL!!! Even if you're not a parent, this will make you laugh.

I hope you all have a FABULOUS Friday and an even better weekend!!!