During the month of November, Danielle from Bloggers Love organised four Bloggers Love Hub events. Once a week she gathered together a variety of brands and a host of bloggers in two of London's particularly trendy clubs, Mahiki and Kanaloa. The Bloggers Love Hub events represented opportunities for brands, PR representatives and bloggers to meet one another (often for the first time) and to network. I would definitely stress that I think the main value of the Bloggers Love Hub events lay in the networking opportunities. It's not often that you get the chance to build face-to-face relationships with so many bloggers and brands. I found that I was introduced to brands that I'm now really interested in but whom I may never have considered based on their social media profiles or product descriptions alone. The Bloggers Love Hub also represented a particularly valuable opportunity for smaller brands to share their ethos and products to a captive audience, and it was a great way for established brands to target new markets or find new bloggers to work with. I've included two "success stories" below.
At the Bloggers Love Hub on Monday November 10th (and again on the 24th) I had the opportunity to talk to representatives from Umberto Giannini who made personalised recommendations of products that I should try. I haven't tried much from the brand before and they're not a brand I'd normal purchase. However, after being gifted products specifically for my hair needs I found a product that I really, really like and would definitely recommend and repurchase. It's opened my eyes to the rest of the brand's range and as a result the brand and their products will definitely be featuring on my blog and social media.
At the Bloggers Love Hub on Monday November 24th I "discovered" the brand Vita Liberata who I had originally dismissed as merely a "tanning brand" based on their twitter profile. However, at the event I had the opportunity to see their skin illuminators in action and was seriously impressed at the quality of the product and way that it combined a skincare and makeup element. I'm not really interested in working with the brand and based on my experience at the event I'd definitely recommend the brand as one to watch in relevant twitter chats etc.
Less established brands have also really impressed me - In Situ's bespoke skincare system is a wonderful discovery, Glow Beads offer some really beautiful jewellery that I've already shared a number of times on my Instagram and twitter, and I was impressed with a face mask I tried from Charcoal Spa and it will definitely feature in an upcoming skincare post.
For bloggers, the Bloggers Love Hubs offered great opportunities to meet new people, as well as offering a place to socialise with bloggers that you've met before. I found that although I tried to make the most of networking opportunities I still thought of the weekly events as fun more than anything else, and as a place where I could catch up with blogging friends. The atmosphere was easy, friendly and not too formal. It also offered great blog content as there were fashion shows to photograph, people to ask questions and many products being given away for blog reviews (both beauty items and fashion items). When items weren't being offered, there was always the chance to get on a brand's mailing list which is a fantastic opportunity to start relationships with brands and PR representatives. I attended three out of the four events and found that each one was better than the last and I have every hope that they'll keep on improving, benefitting both bloggers and brands. I wouldn't have personally travelled into London just for the event each week but I know bloggers did make long commutes to attend and I'd love to hear their feedback on whether it was "worth it". All in all, I've had a mainly positive experience with the Bloggers Love Hub events and I'd definitely like to attend similar networking events in the future.
Thank you to Danielle for all your hard work in organising everything, and another thank you to all the brands who gifted me items and spent time introducing me to their products. And hello to any fellow bloggers who found me via the Bloggers Love Hub events - I'd love to know how you got on at the events this month :)
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