Bloggers Brunch is an event run by Kids Business – a niche agency specialising in forward-thinking social media initiatives, word-of-mouth campaigns and public relations for products and services targeting mums. The brunch, which has been running since 2011, are primarily designed to build relationships between bloggers and brands. The brands present included Carman’s, Tasty Bites, Mamee, Brauer, Mitsubishi, Kambrook, Yumi’s, Wellaby’s, Higher Living Tea, IGA and Hallmark. Wonderful samples were aplenty and guests were laden with goodies and giveaways.

A great feature of the event was having babysitting services offered by Babysitters and More so that mums could attend without having to worry about organising babysitting for the day. Although this is a well-known feature of Kids Business events, it was new to me – this was the first event I have attended that has this service and I am sure it was very much appreciated.

After Christie Nicholas of Kids Business welcomed everyone to the event, Carolyn Cresswell of Carman’s Kitchen told her story of starting her business at 18 years of age with $1,000 and how it grew over the past 20 years. Her desire is to influence and make a difference in people’s lives.  I loved her quote about feeling organised: car, handbag and inbox – as long as these three are organised, the rest she can cope with. Isn’t this true for most of us! She also shared her motto, “drive it like you stole it,” which certainly made the audience chuckle and share a few stories.

Jessica Macpherson shared her story and explained why she set up St Kilda Mums.  This is an organisation that works with mums who need help with resources like clothes and nursery items all over Melbourne. The service started in St Kilda and now organises collections and deliveries all over the metropolitan area.  Her biggest motivators were seeing nursery care items in the hard rubbish collection. I think her story touched every mum in the room as people pondered how their items could benefit other mums in the community who have less resources.

Lisa Hayden spoke next about her journey over eight years dealing with treatment for breast cancer. Her story brought tears to our eyes as she spoke about “being enriched or being exhausted”. She wrote letters to her children to impart her knowledge and wisdom for when they grew up. Her rules include: eat chocolate, because the health benefits outweigh disadvantages; walk every day; have stillness in your life through meditation; and laugh a lot and talk more. Advice we could all benefit from in our day to day lives (not least the chocolate bit!).

Johanna Baker-Dowdell spoke about the power of crowdfunding. She used crowdfunding platform, Pozible, to fund her latest book, Business and Baby on Board, which is to be released soon in print and as an ebook. She shared her journey, showing just how accessible publishing is to anyone who wants to write a book.

Alli Price, founder of Motivating Mum, shared her project Mother Jumpers, teaming up with mums around Australia to shake up daily life with a skydive and raise money for Support for Mums at the same time. An amazing feat!

This was a fantastic event, very well organised and resourced. It was great to meet other bloggers who are passionate about their blogs, their readers and their communities. Seeing all these fantastic women supporting each other through life, business and motherhood is a great experience, and I know I’ll be back for more!

For more information about Kids Business and future Blogger Brunch events, visit www.kidsbusiness.com.au.

This post was written by Megan Iemma, founder of Tech Coach HQ

 

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