I just got back from the trip of a lifetime. The whole family and I went down to Orlando. After going to the Teachers Pay Teachers conference in Las Vegas last year, I knew I really wanted to go again this year. And this year did not disappoint.
When I was there last year, I made a lot of good TPT friends and it was great to reconnect with them again this year. I got to meet up with some TPT rock stars, and I also got to meet a few people in real life (IRL), who I have become facebook friends with over the past year.
This year I also came with my family, so once the conference was over we spent 5 days in Disney and had a great time (but that’s another blog post on another day).
The conference started out with the Cool Kids Meet and Greet put on by Kayse Morris and Sherri Tyler. After that we went to the Florida Bloggers’ Meetup. After that, a group of us Canadian TPT sellers hopped on a bus and went to Disney Springs to have drinks on the dock and watch some fireworks in the distance.
The next morning was early for breakfast and then the keynote by Amy and Adam from TPT and Jen Bengel from Out of this World Literacy. After that the sessions started. I attended 4 sessions each day. Let me tell you, they were all fantastic, and they were all SOOOO informative and right now my brain is very full of all the information I learned.
The second night I went to the big Blogger Meetup and won $100 of Creative Clips swag! Then I went out for dinner with some Canadian blogger friends. I skipped the breakfast the next morning as it was outside and even at 7am it’s flipping HOT in Florida in July. So I slept in and had 4 more sessions and then went to the Happy Hour put on by TPT as a wrap up and good bye. I was really sad to say goodbye to everyone that I connected with, but then went out for dinner and to EPCOT with my family that night.
Instead of boring you with the little details of the conference I thought I’d summarise what my takeaways from the conference were.
1
COMMUNITY – The top sellers were all very friendly. Whenever I met one, they were always happy to pose for a photo and spend a few minutes talking about TPT.
COMMUNITY – The top sellers were all very friendly. Whenever I met one, they were always happy to pose for a photo and spend a few minutes talking about TPT.
2
FIND YOUR NICHE!
This one was drilled home to us in almost every session that I
attended. And after much time and thought, I think I may have found mine. (I’ll leave that for now, and see if you can figure that out after a few more posts from me next week).
FIND YOUR NICHE!
This one was drilled home to us in almost every session that I
attended. And after much time and thought, I think I may have found mine. (I’ll leave that for now, and see if you can figure that out after a few more posts from me next week).
3
TIME MANAGEMENT – plan out your TPT time. This is one that I am terrible at. I tent to just go with the flow when working on TPT and seriously, I need better time management. I can manage my time really well in the classroom, so why not with TPT?
TIME MANAGEMENT – plan out your TPT time. This is one that I am terrible at. I tent to just go with the flow when working on TPT and seriously, I need better time management. I can manage my time really well in the classroom, so why not with TPT?
4
SOCIAL MEDIA – it’s extremely important. Find one or two platforms that you are comfortable with and then manage your time appropriately. Learn all you can about them, but don’t waste
your time on them. Personally I can get totally sucked into facebook, and it’s such a time waster.
SOCIAL MEDIA – it’s extremely important. Find one or two platforms that you are comfortable with and then manage your time appropriately. Learn all you can about them, but don’t waste
your time on them. Personally I can get totally sucked into facebook, and it’s such a time waster.
5
VIDEO is the way of the future. Get on the bandwagon now. Learn how to put video in your posts on social media and your blog.
VIDEO is the way of the future. Get on the bandwagon now. Learn how to put video in your posts on social media and your blog.
I can’t wait until next year to meet up with all the friends I connected with this year, and I can’t wait to develop the product line that I have in mind.
Great Post 🙂
It was SO great to finally meet you in person! Can't wait until we can get together again! 🙂
~Erin
Mrs. Beattie’s Classroom