Cybher 2012. My thoughts

I have never been shy about the fact that I am EXTREMELY shy. I mean I can projectile vomit at the mere thought of being in a room with people that I don't know (I will leave you with that touching imagery to do what you will)

But recently I have made the conscious decision to get myself out there and actually meet people. My blog has turned two this month and I can either carry on as I am or really make the most of doing something that I love.

So I agreed to speak at Cybher UK.

Now if you follow me on Twitter you will know that I have a habit of, how can I put it (chatting shit?) oversharing.

So I have been very vocal over the last couple of weeks about how nervous I was about doing this. (cacking myself I think is how I so succinctly put it in one tweet)


But from the minute I walked into 8 Northumberland Ave on Saturday I had a huge smile on my face.

(A leather satchel will do that to a girl)

We all signed in and I was happy to see that we were all given name badges not only with our blog names on but also our Twitter names. Brilliant idea, (Some of you ladies have awesome boobs by the way)

Everywhere I looked there were ladies in exactly the same boat as me. (stroking their satchels going they are soooooooooo pretty)

The venue was perfect for a convention, there was a central area for coffee, tea and meeting the great companies that were there such as Thinking Slimmer, The Leather Satchel Co and Palmers UK and then four different rooms where all the different talks would be held.

We all met in the ballroom to listen to the opening talk together, which I must admit a lot of which went straight over my head. But hey that is the whole point of a day like this isn't it? To learn.

Then for the rest of this incredible well organised day it was a smorgasbord of different experiences and talks that catered for everyone. If you wanted to learn about Podcasts you could go and listen to The High Tea, Portrait photography was the lovely Mario and if you wanted a casual laugh and some informal questions then you could have come to the Ask A Blogger session with myself, the lovely Tara Cain and Louise from Sprinkle of Glitter.

What I really liked about Cybher were the  breaks in between each session where you had a chance to meet lots of other bloggers. (Not as scary as I though it would be) I managed to put lots of faces to names and I didn't scare anyone off (I don't think) with inane chatter. (or vomit, always a plus)

What did I learn at Cybher?

I learnt that I have a LOT to learn.

In a way I think I am quite naive about blogging. I truly do it for the love of the writing. Of course if someone wants to pay me to write I'm not going to wring my hands at them and bleat about my integrity (I want to buy a satchel) but for me I think I have spent the last two years just floating and writing and I need to work out what I want to do.

I panicked about not having a niche for a while but I think I am my niche. my voice is my niche and that will never change or be diluted for anyone. (LIES, I'm open to negotiation.... I jest)

Another thing that I have learnt this weekend is that I LOVE to talk. I really enjoyed my session at Cybher and could have stood there for longer, I learnt as much from the other ladies on the panel as I hope the people in the audience did.

And most importantly I learnt at Cybher to have faith in myself. we come from all different walks of life and approach blogging in different ways and with different results but whether we were there to speak, to learn or just to be social and meet up with like-minded people we ALL took away from Cybher something that we can use.

And I think I have discovered that I can do anything I put my mind to.


and THAT is a damn good thing to learn.



Were YOU at Cybher or did you follow the hashtags on Twitter?

What did you take from the experience? Has it changed how you look at blogging at all?


Let me know


I'd love to hear your thoughts



Big Fashionista x x