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Monday, May 12, 2014

Business Cards :: Promoting Yourself at a Conference

     



What do you hand out at a conference?!

Last month I had the opportunity to {finally} attend SNAP conference as I have been wanting to go for a few years and it worked out this year for me to go. What is SNAP conference you ask? Oh just this uber amazing conference where a ton of creative women & a couple men gather to join forces and take over the blogging world. LOL . . .what you didn't believe that last line? ;) Seriously, we all gather in one place and spend about 4 days together learning from each other, connecting with brands, listening to amazing speakers, attending jam-packed classes, having dance parties, going on fun outings and just being ourselves all in a judge-free zone. Sounds amazing doesnt it?

Well it is. BUT. What the heck do you bring to one of these conferences to promote yourself??? I started keeping my ears open to hear what others were doing since this was my FIRST time attending SNAP, I really wanted to make sure to do something cool and fab right? PLUS I had just re-branded and given myself a small 'name change' so new cards needed to be done anyway! ;)

I heard "oh just bring the standard business cards as no one wants all the frills with the special ones". Special ones? What did they mean "special ones"? And then I found out that people design these amazing business cards and then gave a "special" gift along with it . . .ya know  . . . to make it memorable! 

The business design part was NOT a problem since after all, I am a graphic designer. Then I heard you should put your photo on your card so the brands you talk to and all of the people you meet will remember you. OK, photo on business card - check!

















Then I decided at the last minute that I SHOULD make some "special" business cards as I was so looking forward to meeting all of these amazing bloggers so surely I wanted to leave them with a special gift because after all, they will be my new friends right? So off to making art prints I went.

I have recently started sharing my hand lettering pieces with my fans, that I have been doing for years so I decided to make a mini one for everyone I met. AND I chose the word "CREATE" since it IS my "one little word" for the year! 
So this is what everyone received that I met at SNAP. It's the perfect size to put in a frame & keep it as a reminder to CREATE something everyday! ;)


(btw - I will have this CREATE art print available in my shop soon but email me if you can't wait ;)
 




But that's NOT all. I felt like I needed to do something just a little bit extra & then it hit me. Why not play up on my name! Ya know, the part of my name that says "candy"?

So I went and purchased packs of hot pink and neon green Sixlets to attach to the back of my promo package I was handing out to everyone. Because it IS all about branding - so the colors HAD to match! ;)

And if you met me at SNAP, I said something that went like this . . . 
"Hello my name is Laura and I designed you some eye candy, attached some candy and it's all from Eye Candy (creative studio)!"
Corny? YES. But I got quite a few laughs & people loved them. YAY me!







I really do love how they turned out & I specifically made 100 of them to hand out so it would force me to get out and meet & talk to 100 new people. I think I came home with about 10 left so that was pretty good. I did however have extra business cards as well that I handed out too so I DID hand out more then 100 business cards but just about 90 "special ones".



It was so much fun to see what other people did/used to promote themselves and make it memorable. I think after going, that doing a "special" card with an extra something IS effective when the item you are using to make it "special" is useful to people. I saw plenty of silly things attached to cards and I didn't mind them at all but someone else may have thought it unnecessary. I say do what you want. Make an impression whether it be silly or not, after all isn't that the point . . . to make YOURSELF memorable?


Have you ever attended a blogging conference and thought to create a "special package" to hand out to people? What creative ideas did you come up with? I would love to hear from you below . . . .






  

 


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4 comments:

  1. FUN!!!! and I must say I am a little jelly you got to go this year. I was soo excited when I heard it was in Utah this year. So close to Oregon and a perfect road trip. Sadly my job had a black out on time off for March-end of May so I couldn't go. I am absolutely going in 2015! So glad you got to go.

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    1. Maybe you will get a chance to go next year as it's soooo worth it! ;)

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  2. Girl, your cards match your branding to the T!! I'm especially enamored by your hand lettering. It takes skill and talent (to which I lack) to bust out your dreamy hand lettering!

    You were a total lifesaver with those sixlets I may add. Mid-afternoon crash was averted because of those bad boys!!

    So nice to meet you as well!!

    Trisha D.
    Black and White Obsession

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    Replies
    1. trisha you ARE the sweetest! Thanks so much for crushin on my hand lettering & your sweet words about my branding - it means alot. Girl I have some more coming soon to my shop ;) SO glad to know you now & we'll stay in touch. =)

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