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To say that ChoppedCon exceeded my expectations would be an understatement. I left the conference feeling motivated, full of new knowledge and with excitement over having met so many wonderful blogger friends!
The Mission of Chopped Conference which was totally fulfilled was to “bring together different communities of people with a passion for food around the core ideas of love, family, and community, and finding ways to share that via blogging to a larger audience”, and took place in Kansas City at the River Market Event Place (this venue totally reminded me of where my husband and I had our wedding at the Milwaukee Public Market, so I felt right at home…a few states away). The whole conference had such a sense of community around it, everyone was so inclusive and nice, and I think that was all thanks to the wonderful host, the wonderful Marly of Namely Marly. Throughout the conference Marly spoke to everyone with such kindness, and put together a truly wonderful event.
The quality of the speeches, panels and level of the knowledge and expertise was just superb!
The best way for me to explain the conference? Through pictures of course (and you’ll have to please excuse me if I end every single sentence with multiple exclamation points, it was just that exciting!!)
Line One: Liz of The Lemon Bowl and I (she’s a healthy food blogger), cute food at the opening reception, Bjork myself and Lindsay from Pinch of Yum (I was so excited to meet them in person, I mean, Lindsay literally wrote the book on Food Photography that has taught me everything I know…and I got to meet her…and actually talk to her and her husband Bjork…they just know so much and I can’t even describe how great they are in person!! I was clearly so excited to meet them I didn’t care that my necklace picked up crazy light…consider it a lesson learned about beloved statement necklaces lol), and Christina from Dessert for Two and I (it was so nice to meet her in real life, she’s so sweet and talented…you guys, this girl,she not only has an amazing blog, but she has a cookbook coming out soon that I can’t wait to get my hands on!)
Line Two: Speakers and panels-Carolyn O’Neil, Kristen Doyle of Dine and Dish Christina Lane of Dessert for Two Bev Weidner of Bev Cooks and Dana Shultz of Minimalist Baker, Lindsay and Bjork of Pinch of Yum, and Kathryne Taylor of Cookie and Kate Ali Ebright of Gimme Some Oven Cheryl Sousan of Tidy Mom and John Shultz of Minimalist Baker. I do want to note that even though my phone was charged, it did die every two minutes so I didn’t get to snap pictures of all the wonderful speakers, I can’t wait until my new iPhone gets here, but take a peek at the full agenda here.
Line Three: Becky of The Cookie Rookie and I, a delicious soda with syrup from one of the wonderful conference sponsors Torani, Victoria of Love Laugh Cook Lynn of Order in the Kitchen Janelle of Bakes in Slippers and I (these girls were so awesome to meet…we still have a group text message going that is hilarious) and Liz of The Lemon Bowl Milisa from Miss in the Kitchen Lauren from Climbing Grier Mountain and I (so great to meet some of these bloggers in person that I have interacted with online before!)
Line Four: Ali from Gimme Some Oven and I (in her amazingly gorgeous apartment…um…can I move in? please?) Lynn from Order in the Kitchen Dana from Minimalist Baker and I (Dana was so sweet and funny, don’t cross her though or she’ll find someone to slash tires lol, totally kidding, right?) then another one of Lynn and I getting Lattes from Latte Land the last morning before going home (this girl,I totally bonded with her, we had such an amazing time and I’m so glad I met her…there were definitely words of love exchanged, not weird, right?) and then…I came home to my hubby making us steak for dinner (what a treat!!)
Even though I didn’t get pictures together, a special hello to some of the other bloggers I met: Krista from Joyful Healthy Eats, Megan from The Housewife in Training Files, Lindsay from The Live-In Kitchen, Kristin from Iowa Girl Eats, Ashley from My Midwest Table, Melissa from Bless This Mess, Jessica from Saucy Pear, and Erin from Lemon Sugar.
My only wish after ChoppedCon? That all future conferences I go to are as amazing as this one was!
Erin @ Lemon Sugar says
You are the sweetest! So lovely to meet you…how did we not get a picture? Look forward to keeping in touch!
Sweetphi says
It was so lovely to meet you too…we’ll just have to get a picture next year, right 🙂 I’m definitely looking forward to keeping in touch 🙂
marlymcb says
What a wonderful recap!! Look – you’ve even got me using multiple exclamation points! You know what I think made it such a wonderful day? Meeting you! And knowing that through ChoppedCon, we all got to meet and bond with some amazing people. xoxox!!
Ashley @ My Midwest Table says
It was SO great to meet you! And what a wonderful way you’ve recapped ChoppedCon. I still can’t get over how much fun it was. I can’t wait until next year. 🙂
Sweetphi says
It was so nice to meet you too! And thank you for your lovely comment, I can’t wait until next year either 🙂
cheri says
Hi Phi, looks like a really great time!
Sweetphi says
I did have such a great time 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to comment Cheri!
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan says
Count ME in too! I can’t wait until we go next year!!! : )
Sweetphi says
YAY, you’re going to love it, we should drive together (um, the conference venue was like over a mile away and the airport is 20 minutes away from the hotel lol, so having a car is super helpful 🙂 )
Lynn Lovejoy from Order in the Kitchen says
LOVE this!!! I had the best time meeting you! You are the most amazing girl ever! I’m so glad that we were able to go to Latte Land and spend so much time together and bond over cinnamon! I love you so much girl you don’t even know! I can’t wait for Chopped Con 15 but we better see each other before then! Until we meet again, I’ll see you on twitter, IG, snapchat, text, Facebook and everything else because we are already BFFs…miss you already!!!
Sweetphi says
Awe, thank you so much for your sweet comment lovely lady! I’m so glad we got to bond over cinnamon…so much cinnamon…I’m pretty sure it was laced with something because we’re already BFF…and I’m also pretty sure you’re going to be all over a cinnamon hot chocolate I’m posting next week lol! We’ll for sure need to see each other before next year…until then can we just keep on being awesome and communicating on on every social media and communication platform?
Andrea Rentea says
This Conferemce sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos. Every photo and the cooks on them look friendly and happy. Glad you had such a good time.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for the lovely comment, it was definitely a good time 🙂