We were supposed to reach the bloggers conference at around 8plus in the morning and at 7.15am, I was still struggling to leave my bed. Have to wake up earlier than workdays leh, it's a miracle that my eyes were already open at this hour. Haha.
Didn't select my clothes nor packed my bag the night before so I rushed like mad. While putting makeup in the car I was feeling so sleepy, my eyes kept closing themselves. Hair still wet, I was hoping that it would magically dry in 15 minutes. Haha.
Reached just in time to eat one Egg Benedict before the conference start!
Goodies on the table! ❤️
Nice gifts from sponsors: Bath and Body Works, Ministry of Print, and Hotel Jen Tanglin!
Wah! The thumbdrive so chio!
The blogcon started with an introduction of Hotel Jen Tanglin, who was a sponsor of the event and generously gave each of us a room for the night! Will blog about the staycation another day :) Today, I wanna share my thoughts on some of the things shared during the conference.
The first speaker was Boss Ming, who touched on so many points that got me nodding along. I may sound a little incoherent here... I am just putting down all the thoughts running in my head now!
He mentioned that 2008-2009 was the golden age of blogging. Yes! Those days I could get more than a 100 comments on each blog post (sad because I used an external commenting system which closed down afew years back so I can reminisce the comments anymore).Not many bloggers were in the scene during that time because most people can't keep up with writing long articles day after day. It was a time-consuming hobby, but I enjoyed it very much. People those days followed bloggers for a peek into their personal lives and I was happy to share. Now when I read back on my older entries, even I feel shock at how much I reveal about myself. I tend to self-censor nowadays.... I've grown up to hate being involved in drama.
Then twitter and instagram came. Twitter was quite fun for awhile, before Instagram took over. Instagram was an easier way to share. Just post a photo and a caption. Most people can do this. Success is easy as long as you have a pretty face, glamorous and jet-setting lifestyle, or have a consistent photography style/filter. People are no longer interested to read mundane lives, they want to see beautiful people, luxurious lifestyles, or photogenic food.
I was never good at Instagram. I was never instant, because I didn't like posting raw-looking photos. Also, I can't edit or filter my photos consistently enough to have a pretty feed. Plus, I always run out of captions for food pics or my ootds. Haha. But instagram is nice to look at, and I enjoy the ease of scrolling through all the people I am following, without the need to load individual sites.
Back in the heydays when blogging was more 'alive', most readers come in daily so a fresh entry every day is welcomed. But now, I think people just visit around once a week? I know this because I also usually read other blogs like only once every three months. Haha. And some of the bloggers post just a couple of times a month! But I cannot leh! I got so many backlogs I can't catch up if I don't post regularly. I still have stuff from six months ago!
Sometimes though, I think I shouldn't blog so often because my entries get pushed down before any one even get to read it? Although blogging is mostly to keep memories for myself, it's also abit wasted if nobody reads lah hahahaha.
I've been posting more on my Dayre nowadays but I still prefer typing on my laptop so I leave the elaborate entries to this blog.
After the rise of so many other social platforms, I still love blogging the most. I like long-form sharing, I like sitting down infront of my desktop and dedicating my entire concentration towards a blog post. I can spare some time in my daily life to take photos for a blog entry later because it's quick and doesn't distract me from enjoying the moment, but I can't instantly post up a photo and think of a caption, without neglecting all the people and happenings around me. To update something, I must be sitting down doing nothing else, with nobody around me. I can't multitask.
I blogged about this previously here: http://www.estherxie.com/2015/06/catching-up-with-social-media.html
Boss Ming also showed us a video of the instagrammer called Essena O'Neill. I actually rolled my eye when I initially heard about her and her antics. Then I forgot about her immediately after. Boss Ming mentioned afew things that I agree so much, it fueled me enough to wanna share my views too.
First, all the things she blamed Instagram for, I feel that she should point the blame at herself instead. The problem lies with her, not Instagram. Even without Instagram, she'd still starve herself to look like magazine models. Does that mean magazines are evil too? I have no idea why she let a mere social platform define her and bother her so much. She was the one who went to extreme lengths to look good, Instagram didn't ask to make sure she looked perfect in that bikini photo, nobody forced her to it. I am sure not every successful instagrammer inconvenienced themselves just like she did. She was the one who chose to do it, she was the one who wanted the approval.
Second, a person who truly is tired of the public eye would just quietly exit. Not make it so dramatic, and then open another channel for her new-found followers. That's not quitting the scene at all.
Another thought: Would you notice if an instagrammer you follow quits instagram one day? Probably not. Would you notice if your favourite blogger stopped blogging? Yep. This is because, most people don't read captions and it's not easy to feel attached to an instagrammer as compared to a blogger, who may be more personal about her thoughts in her entry. Instagram is a nice side app, but blogging is what allows readers to know you more as a person and follow your life more indepthly.
So anyway, Boss Ming also discussed about the topic of whether blogging is fading off. Nope, blogging is evolving. Lifestyles are different now, and many people spend more time on social platforms using the mobile instead of a desktop. Gone were the days that people log in to 3-5 blogs a day regularly. Nowadays people scroll feeds, and that's why Nuffnang created Dayre. I've also been quite active on it too! You can download the app and follow me on: https://dayre.me/estherxie/
I wished that I can combine the content on dayre and my blog though, and also continue to blog on desktop because it's not easy to blog on the mobile for me. Haha. I work faster on the laptop.
The panel of speakers besides Boss Ming also includes: Sherwayn (spoke about vlogs), Audrey Phoon from Elle (spoke about having a personality), and Simon Kemp from We Are Social (Crisis management), answering questions from the ground.
Time for lunch at Ah Hoi Kitchen! I've been telling everyone about the awesome promo, $12 per person for 12 dishes, refillable!!! Where to find such good deal? Plus the food were really tasty and good. I wanna visit again! It's available during weekdays lunch.
Happy me cos I love the food!
With the girls - Nadia and Fioloh.
Afterwards we went back for two workshops. Some chim SEO stuff by Jeremy from Digital Marketing Centre and photography by Ivan from SGIG. All very relevant to blogging!
We had a break midway through for candy buffet!!
Adorable emoji cookies!
Titbits laundry! Such a cute idea.
The red velvet cake was too irresistible!!! Love the cubes on top. I would eat cakes alot more if they came in cubes like this.
Mountain of chocolates!!!! Wow!
Cotton candy madness!
And lots of donuts! Hotel Jen Tanglin really knows how to pamper us! #thatjenfeeling
Love the top which I wore that day! It's available at www.lyraminn.com if you are interested.
The warm hospitality from Hotel Tanglin Jen and the effort put in by the organising team from Nuffnang was evident. Enjoyed myself alot.
Will be back next with photos from the staycation at Hotel Jen Tanglin! (and also the photography workshop by the pool which resulted in many nice photos so I shall lump it together with the staycation entry!)
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