I went a couple of days early to try to switch myself over from Pacific Time; and switched hotels on Tuesday. This is the detailed version of what I experienced as a newbie and first-time attendee at FinCon. Here are the Highlights by Day (Part 1).
FinCon Day 0: Tuesday
Pre-FinCon Blog Party
This community meetup was organized by Raina (Community Manager for Montana Money Adventures, and Pete (Doyouevenblog.com), prior to the start of FinCon. Held at the Boardroom, it was drinks only, with the possibility to order in food. As I had been walking around town earlier, I picked up a yummy take-out box from Pret-a-Manager and ate it before walking down from the hotel.
This networking party was incredibly valuable. Not only did I meet many bloggers, everyone I met was welcoming and encouraging and ready to share information about themselves, their goals, and their experiences. The question I was most frequently asked was: “Where are you from?”, and “What do you do ?”. Time constraints limited people’s talk as they mixed and mingled around.
FinCon Day 1: Wednesday
Check-In & Swag Bag
Check-in for FinCon started late morning ~ 11AM, so I relaxed and enjoyed my morning and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. My first target was to attend the First Timer Orientation at 1pm. I picked up my bag of goodies, added “bling” to my badge (which consisted of mini buttons) announcing roles – Blogger, Podcaster, Youtuber, as well as a pin that indicated the number of years you’d attended – for me, 1st timer. I met several 1st timers while putting on my bling, and this marked the beginning of seeing many of the same friendly faces throughout the conference week.
Platform Connection (morning)
First networking sessions for attendees to meet others sharing the same platform for their creations – Small pods milled around the tables and randomly connected – Podcasters, Youtubers, Bloggers, Coaches, Authors, Freelancers, Speakers, Influencers, among others.
I floated around, and randomly introducing myself. I met quite a few passionate people who had very firm and specific goals and audiences; which was inspiring, and interesting. I re-acquainted with some people I’d met earlier, and took cards, and photos of badges as I practiced my elevator speech.
First-time orientation (afternoon)
The room was full and still people gathered on the walls, and pooled on the floor while we eagerly awaited the sage advice of Nick True, FinCon’s community (social media) manager. Supplemented by a few others who had attended other FinCons, Nick and his team gave us the rundown – where to go, what to do, how to behave – wear your badge everywhere, put yourself out there, figure out how you can help someone else. A list of places to be: the kick-off party, the close-out party, and everything in between including community meetups, and using the app – Know why you came, and what we wanted to leave with; and don’t feel that you have to “close the deal”. Enough said.
Interactions (afternoon)
• After a long wait and much angst, and Raina’s help, I disabled the Coming Soon page from my blog.
• I had bookmarked a meet up in the afternoon but decided against due to not wanting to miss out on the Kick-off Party. Buses were to leave at 6pm.
Kick-Off Party (evening)
I made a new friend on the bus ride over. The party was at the Smithsonian Native American Museum, and hosted by Robinhood. It was a warm evening (love it!). One of the best parts was the amazing view of the Capitol from the 4th floor patio:
Fun Finger food – Chicken Skewers, mini Reuben sandwiches, and sweet & savoury mini muffins with ham, and veggie pizza; complemented, by water and wine. The lines were long, but there were several tables of food throughout the museum; loud music, dancing, and good conversations. A good time had by all…and top off with a green-and-white donut, courtesy of Robinhood’s wall of donuts.
FinCon Day 2: Thursday
Keynote
Eye-opening and relevant, Ramit Sethi of “I will make you Rich” fame talked with us about “spending extravagantly on things you love”. I like this guy! I’m all in for abundance.
His main focus was to determine your point of view, and be unapologetic about it, and to tune out the critics. It’s a great start to the conference.
Breakout sessions
I went to two on Podcasting, and my friend went to the Networking for Introverts, and the Youtube sessions:
a) Podcasting 101 was just right for a beginner, although his examples were dated, and assumed we were all a lot older than actual. Jokes about fax machines and phone directories pretty much fell on deaf ears.
b) Jen Hemphill’s talk “7 things I wish I had known about podcasting when I started” was well organized and got to the meat of her topic right away. I had switched from a different session that was a panel answering questions, which was considerably slower.
c) Networking for Introverts focused on the use of the 5 languages of love to rewards connections related to your blog or business.
d) The YouTube Session (From 0 to 10K subscribers) provided some good techniques for growth.
Playing with FIRE Documentary Screening
A fascinating look at a couple/young family’s choice to turn away from the expensive trappings of life (nice cars/home) towards FI/RE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), complete with popcorn;
and a panel discussion afterwards with many major FI/RE players:
