Thursday 11 July 2013

#LDNBloggersParty Review

Who doesn't love London!? 
I thought i'd be seeing an overwhelming amount of posts about the LDNBloggersParty but I really haven't so please leave your links below if you have written a post on it! Mine will be, well... lets just see how it goes. 

I heard about this event a few months back but because I was pregnant at the time it was being planned, I wasn't sure whether i'd be able to make it or not! It come to about 3/4 weeks before and I realised I was good to go so I contacted Scarlett and asked if there were anymore spaces... Luckily there were so I was off to London to meet some lovely bloggers. I booked my train ticket and was looking forward to the event, like most people chatting about it on Twitter, but... I'm afraid (for me) the day didn't live up to it's hype and I was really disappointed by the whole thing. 

Scarlett had done an amazing job setting up an event in the middle of London, don't get me wrong. And there is nothing personal going against her at all for this, but (like many others apparently) I feel that the day was bigged up to be this very exclusive, big branded event with lots of companies attending and different opportunities for you to meet brands etc on the day. There was also set to be a live #bbloggers chat that sounded really cool! Unfortunately, none of that happened! 

Venue:
To start things off, an hour or two before we were due to meet, the venue was changed (due to a confirmation email not being read) so this left a few people confused/worried that they wouldn't be able to find it. We soon arrived though, after being haulted by the London Gay Pride Parrade, at the lovely little cocktail bar 'Dirty Martini' in Hanover Square. The venue looked small but once inside it was very chic and modern. Very niiiice. It got super hot in there though and everyone was crammed in one tiny square of it which made navigation with a cocktail very difficult. We were also told 'to arrive early as there will be canapés'... Again, no sign of these! 

Drinks:
We were promised 2-4-1 cocktails at £4.50 each to only find that it was 'Happy Hour' and the cocktails we had the choice of were from a selection of 9 or 10 Martinis or Proseccos and weren't 2-4-1 either... Due to me being 'sober' for 9 months, I had a few sips of my cocktail and didn't have another one!

Structure:
As I said, we were promised lots of brands and opportunities to speak to brands whilst at the event but this didn't seem to be the case. When I managed to clamber through everyone, there were only 4 brands that were there to speak to. For a central London based event and something that has been planned for months, I was very disappointed. There was also no talk from Scarlett thanking everyone for making the effort to come (bearing in mind its over an hour and a half and £37.00 for me to get to London!!) or even letting us know what was going to be happening as the event took place. There was also no sign of the #bbloggers chat... Just a screen with a slideshow of everyones blogs. 

Goodie bag:
Now, I am definitely not one to be ungrateful and I really am not being ungrateful about anything that Scarlett put together. The goodie bags were a treat for anyone that had attended, filled with samples of products to try out and vouchers for money off various websites etc. Again, I have seen other events that have had goodie bags filled to the brim with products, samples etc... I was just expecting something a little more varied, that's all! 

Once the event was finished, people collected their bags and left. I don't think there was a formal goodbye from Scarlett, again... Something so simple makes a big deal and I know I spoke to her personally, I just think if you create an event, you should take some form of lead role in ensuring your guests are welcomed and depart with thanks. 


Overall, if it wasn't for meeting the people there that I did (including Annie, Kimberley, Ellie, Shay, Charl, Jess, Sophia and lots more) and the lovely weather whilst we walked round London, it would have been a waisted trip for me. I really did expect more as it was hyped up to be 'the event of the year' by lots of other bloggers. 

I do want to thank Scarlett though for going to the effort and arranging it for us all, like I said, it must be so hard to organise an event... I just wish things weren't promised to us for us to be let down. 


7 comments :

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  2. To an extent I do feel exactly the same, it would have been brilliant if I lived in London and just popped on the tube across to the bar. But no, I spend 3-4 hours on a coach, got angry at not being able to cross the road(due to pride!) then spend a few hours in a basement with not a lot going on haha. But yeah I imagine arranging events is super super hard. And if the emails weren't hyping it up no one would have gone! I think it was all a bit meh, but I did get to talk to meet some new people. Not a complete loss, apart from my time and money to get there :(

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    1. i agree! :/
      i was kinda meh about it, it was just too small really!

      rosielouiselove.blogspot.co.uk
      Rosie xo

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  3. Kinda glad I didn't go now! I thought I'd missed out on something great, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's always frustrating when you spend money on train tickets etc and then find yourself disappointed. You're right though, it must be so so difficult to organise an event! I wouldn't like to try it haha. I'm sure Scarlett will learn from this and other people's feedback so that if she does organise another event it will be more structured! :) xo

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  4. Hi Emma,

    I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed by the event, as the general consensus from others seemed to be that they enjoyed it. Unfortunately a few things changed last minute, which meant that the speech I had planned (and the presentation) went out of the window a little bit. I fully accept responsibility for this, as it was my fault and I have learned from the experience - but considering I'm a blogger and not a PR who organizes events on a regular basis, I was sort of pleased at how it came together in the end.

    I think the main jist of the event was always going to be to network, rather than brands - as I said from the very beginning I wanted it to be un-branded and informal rather than having a set structure that everyone had to abide by and stop their conversations for. With regards to the canapes - the venue had promised these, but for some reason they didn't materialize. And the live #bbloggers chat was running throughout the event on the presentation (in between slides of everyone's blogs - to make it feel a bit more personal).

    Again, I'm really sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as you'd hoped. I know that not everyone lives in central London and I really really appreciate the effort everyone made getting to the venue and coming along! I did try and get round everyone to thank them personally.

    I do really appreciate the feedback though, and I will take it all on board for the next event! I guess with your first event, there are going to be certain things that don't quite go to plan, which I was very worried about - but I'm glad you didn't think it was a wasted journey after all.

    Scarlett xx

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  5. i wrote about it here! http://rosielouiselove.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/ldnbloggersparty.html x

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  6. Hate to admit it but agree with everything you said but it was so so lovely to meet you and the other girls! That really made it worth while for me :) xx

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Thank you for leaving a comment - I can’t reply right now but will get back to you soon! x