03 Oct Type-A Parent Conference Wrap Up – A Sponsor’s Perspective
Another year, another opportunity for Large to take a client to the best blogging conference and community in the world — the Type-A Parent Conference (#typeacon). In case you’ve never heard of Type-A Parent, or the original Type-A Mom Kelby Carr, the conference is in its fifth year of existence and hosts 500 attendees over the course of three content-rich days to help bloggers grow professionally and personally. After being held in Asheville, NC for the first three years and Charlotte, NC last year, the conference has found a new home in Atlanta, GA and will return there next fall for their sixth gathering.
This year, like in some years past, we had a client sponsor the conference. It allowed me to see many, many of my friends from the blogging (and now Facebook) world in person while introducing them to our client’s latest campaign.
There certainly are other blogging conferences clients can sponsor or attend: BlogHer, Mom 2.0 and Blogalicious, to name a few. There’s been some consolidation in the blogging conference world, with the recent — and surprise — announcement that Blissdom will no longer continue, and even smaller but popular conferences like Evo closing up shop. So why has Type-A continued to thrive? The answer is specifically due to three C’s:
1. Community
The Type-A community is one that hasn’t changed very much over the years and has matured significantly into a powerful voice and force. I’m seeing some of the same bloggers that I did at the first Type-A Conference – many of whom I’ve worked on campaigns with – but also new bloggers who’ve been welcomed into the community with open arms. In year five, there were still plenty of first-timers and “I can’t wait to finally meet you”‘s! making an offline connection. The community respects the conference sponsors and makes a point to come and speak with each and every one of them, and the community continues to grow from a few hundred in year one to 500 attendees last week. Impressive.
2. Content
The content at the conference continues to impress, improve and stay relevant with the needs of the community. Embracing multiple ways of monetizing your blog, specific ways of improving your content and professional appearance and a dash of inspiration left the attendees I’ve spoken with and whose blog posts I’ve read with a laundry list of tasks and projects to take on. Also, the speakers at the conference (full disclosure, I lead a session on Creating A LinkedIn Profile That Sells) aren’t the same people that speak at every other conference rehashing the same material; the ability to combine relevant subjects with powerful delivery makes all the difference. Finally, unlike other conferences where attendees only go for the social aspect and ditch the sessions, Type-A attendees are engaged with attending sessions well as engaged and accessible to sponsors.
3. Carr
Finally, the biggest reason the conference works is the one-woman show and superhero, the original Type-A Mom, Kelby Carr (see what I did there to make it all C’s?). She’s not only a power in the blogging community but a savvy businessperson who understands not only what her community wants but also how sponsors can engage and play with that community in a way that doesn’t feel forced or cheesy. She was beyond flexible with my client and agency, and her team went above and beyond to make sure everything was taken care of before, during and after the conference. Shannan, Melanie, Jenn, Amanda, Emily on the conference team and the crew at the Westin Buckhead left no detail behind and even helped a certain agency owner recover a certain celebrity’s very precious notebook. 😉
Next year’s Type-A Parent Conference will return to return to Atlanta, from September 19th through September 21, 2014. If you’re a brand interested in getting involved with this wonderful community now, you can also sponsor a regional Type A Bootcamp as well. The next one is just a few weeks away in New Orleans.