Blogger Events And Why They’re Great For Bloggers

Inspired by the Nordic blogger experience NBE Finland, I decided to write down a few reasons why attending blogger events like this is a good decision for any blogger who wants to take their craft seriously.

Last month a handful of Finnish host bloggers welcomed 44 international travel bloggers to spend some quality time in Finland. The occasion was NBE Finland and with it came the Helsinki travel fair MATKA. We started the incredible week by dividing the group into smaller groups, each containing at least one host blogger and a few people from other countries.

Here are my favorite six things about this week full of fun stuff to do and super creative, fantastic new friends.

Six Reasons To Attend A Blogger Event

1. Networking

Well, this one’s sort of obvious. You meet new people, make new friends, your network grows. That’s good for your blog, as more people get to know it and possibly link back to it; and good for you personally because hey, what could be cooler than having friends around the world you can visit while traveling? During NBE, we also met some of the industry professionals and we’re really looking forward to possibly working with some of them. So, there’s the professional side of networking as well, definitely. We know now that it’s so much easier to talk to people in person instead of desperately trying to impress them over email.

During the week we had many fun activities. This one’s from a lovely evening party organized by Forenom.

2. Learning a lot at blogger events

During NBE Finland we not only learned a lot about travel blogging in general by attending a few workshops, but we also learned a lot from each other. It’s inspiring to hear other bloggers’ stories about their routines – what they write about and why, how often do they update, what’s their niche. Also, attending our very first travel fair ever really taught us a lot. We know now what the point is about these events and how to make the most of it.

One of our workshops during the MATKA Travel Fair was about blogging as a business.

3. Inspiration

If you spend a week with hard-working bloggers, it’s pretty impossible to go home and not want to work harder on your own blog. We’ve always known it’s hard work, but after the NBE week it became even clearer. If you want to be a professional blogger and turn your thing into an actual business, you need to be serious about it. Content, quality, SEO, collaborations, your own niche, how you attract visitors and communicate – all very important things that you need to learn, and the learning never stops. We’ve already been doing this for two years, but it feels like we’re only getting started. There’s so much to learn and so much to achieve. And after hanging out with professional bloggers, you’ll certainly get the inspiration to push yourself further.

Inspired after an NBE day and working late in my comfortable hotel room at Radisson Blu Seaside in Helsinki.

4. A real blogger confidence boost

When you’re a creative professional, it’s hard to ever be 100% pleased with your own work. You might feel like you’re not creative enough, not talented enough, not hard-working enough – it’s a problem that’s been torturing artists and creatives for centuries. But when you hang around with similar-minded people and realize that even though we all struggle sometimes, we also have our own unique strengths and weaknesses. We all need to work hard. When you really get this, it makes you feel like less alone and give you courage to pursue your dreams even harder.

5. Seeing your country through other people’s eyes

I have to be honest. Me and Satu have both seen *so much* of Finland, that it’s really hard to find anything impressive, exotic and therefore, worth writing about anymore. I know that’s silly (and we’re indeed planning to write about Finland in the future, too), but NBE Finland forced us to see our own homecountry through other people’s eyes. I was really impressed and moved by NBE’s Instagram, where they shared some of the best shots from every blogger attending. All of a sudden, Finland looked fresh and new, and definitely something super beautiful to be proud of.

This is Finland! as seen by talented travel bloggers from all over the world.

6. Making new friends

This one needs a completely separate topic, because I need to introduce you to a crazy fun bunch that I can now proudly call my friends. I think this is the perfect example of how you’ll meet people and bond with them. With these guys, we’d never met before before NBE, but after a few days’ trip to Sweden we became tight as thieves.

My fellow Finn Otto / OTTOIzakaya.com lives in London and writes about lifestyle stuff and travels… and he makes me laugh. Such a happygolucky fella.

The cutest and bravest girl in the world, Eva / Una Idea, Un Viaje, writes in Spanish and is into responsible traveling. She also traveled solo for a year and shared stories from along the way.

Michael / Blog Bohème is from Germany, loves sneakers, lifestyle, pop culture and travel, and writes about it all quite professionally. A really fun guy with a loud laugh.

Our lovely Denise / Inhetvliegtuig is a hugely creative writer from the Netherlands and is not only good with words, but graphic design as well. She writes about affordable luxury and design hotels.

Another new Finnish friend who blogs about travels: Arna / Cocoa Etsimässä. She and her partner Arto blog about their adventures all over the world together in Finnish. Really cool people!

With this group we’re planning some future shenanigans which I’m sure you’ll hear about when the time is right!

From the left, clockwise: Eva, Otto, Denise, Michael and yours truly.

I’d never participated in a blogger event in this scale even though we’ve done some collaborations with different companies and groups before, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. It was pretty surprising to notice all these cool things to happen within just one week.

I feel more inspired than ever to continue working on our very own Fangirl Quest and to develop it into something bigger; I feel thankful towards the NBE Finland organizers for all the hard work they’ve gone through, but most of all, I feel like the luckiest gal in the world to have met such a big bunch of lovely new people.

Love you guys! Keep creating ♥