Sewing Summit 2013 Recap

I returned from Sewing Summit last week and it was a blast! If I were to describe the experience in three words they would be: pleasantly overwhelming, inspiring, and exciting! Pleasantly overwhelming because of the 300 or so skilled attendees/instructors whom I had to introduce myself to and how much there is to learn about everything sewing, inspiring because of all the cool projects everyone was working on, and exciting because of how big the sewing community is and to be part of it! 

Because I was a Sewing Summit newbie, here's what I'd suggest for the first-timer going.

Sewing Summit Newbie Tips:

• Step out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself! This was probably the most "overwhelming" aspect of the event. Many of the attendees already knew each other and were busy chatting away, so it took some courage to go up to people and introduce myself, but it's worth it! The next point in this list may help with this as well.
• Do some prep work of who's going. Start to look at the blogs of the class instructors and of some of the other attendees so that when you get to meet them in person, you'll know a bit about them and maybe get to expand on common interests. 
• Make business cards! This seemed to be common knowledge as everyone would swap business cards with either their contact information or their blog site upon introducing themselves. I didn't have one and wished I did! See some of the cool ones I received below!   

• If you want to buy fabric, be sure to sign up for Shop Hop! You can sign up online beforehand for a spot on the shop hop bus tour of some cool fabric stores. I thought there would be other opportunities to go fabric shopping, but I did not have a car and there were not many fabric stores walking distance from the hotel or ones that were open after our classes. That was probably better for my wallet though! 

Sewing Summit 2013

I'm going to Salt Lake City, Utah tomorrow for Sewing Summit 2013! I can't believe it's finally here. I first heard about this sewing/blogging conference last year, but it was too late to sign up so when registration opened up this year, I hesitated a bit (only because of the price, tickets are like $300) but ultimately decided to go. I don't know a single person going, and I've never been to Utah but I am excited! 

What It Is

Sewing Summit is a 2.5 day (half day for registration and opening reception) sewing and blogging conference for the modern sewist. There are hands-on workshops, networking events, lecture-based classes, and speakers. The first conference was in 2011, so it's only their 3rd year doing this. 

Who Goes

Anyone in the online sewing community, or with an interest in sewing. Their FAQ section even encourages people who are traveling alone to go, which also spurred my decision to go. Whenever I tell my friends and coworkers about the conference, they immediately think it's going to be a bunch of grandmas, but it's really not! I'm ok with grandmas being there too though! Just by looking at pictures of past events and who the teachers will be, it's mainly a group of I would say 20-30 something year olds who go!