And why the blogging industry
is still thriving
Last weekend was Traverse15, one of the UK’s largest blogging conferences, and for the third year running it proved to be a fantastic event with everyone having a great time (or at least it looked like they did).
Last year I was walking around the fields of Elstree with my camera in my hand at Blogstock, and this year I was lucky enough to be asked to be the photographer at Traverse15, an event I always love shooting at.
With well over 200 people there, Traverse is quickly establishing a name for itself as the number one blogging conference in the UK, and it is an event that everyone seems to relish with so much to be learnt.
One of the things that I found so refreshing about this year’s conference was the number of new people I saw. Approximately 50% of tickets sold were to people who had never gone to a Traverse event before, which means that not only is it getting more popular, but that more and more people are getting into the blogging industry.
I remember when I first seriously got into blogging in 2012 (I originally set up my first travel blog four years before that), I was a complete newbie. I saw these people who had been blogging for years as bastions of the industry, and I never imagined my friends or myself being among them.
But as with any industry there is a constant turnover of people getting in and getting out, and as some of us are moving up the ladder it is great to see new people starting off at the bottom.
If there’s one thing Traverse highlighted, it is that blogging it still thriving, and for those of you new to the industry, keep on doing what you’re doing, keep on expressing yourself, and you’ll do great.
Once again I flitted from room to room without much opportunity to listen to any of the talks or seminars, but I did sit in on a really informative talk by Greg Brand of Travizeo all about video (obviously something we hold close to our hearts at A Brit and A Broad).
I’ve heard Greg talk a couple of times before, and every time people have come away saying “fucking hell, I wish I could produce videos like that but I just don’t know where to start.” It’s safe to say that unless you already knew quite a bit about video, his talks were quite complex and intimidating.
However, this time around Greg stripped everything back and basically ran an in-depth Q+A session. People sent in their questions beforehand and Greg went through each one in detail.
I actually really liked this format for a session, and as there are some many different questions you’re always guaranteed to learn something.
At the end of the day, there’s only so much one person can teach you about video – or about photography or blogging for that matter – in a one hour session. If you really want to learn all about it you’re more likely to take a Lynda course (an online video tutorial and training programme) or find the info elsewhere, but with a Q+A session it’s a good opportunity to debate one or two things and to use a bit more creativity.
And that’s what’s so great about Traverse – it’s a hotbed for creativity. Every year people come away having learnt something new with the desire to put that into use, and it still remains to be an incredibly exciting industry to be involved in. I would be writing this post otherwise.
