A big thank you to everyone who came to the webinar Katy and I did of our Fitbloggin' presentation on Wednesday night.

I know some people weren't able to make it though because of various other commitments, so as promised, here is the videocast of the webinar.



I think for our first webinar we did a pretty solid job.

If you want to catch some of the other Fitbloggin' presentations in webinar form, I know Katy is working to get a bunch set up in the coming weeks. In fact, there will be another webinar today on breaking into health and fitness blogging at 2 p.m. Eastern for anyone who is interested.

Defintely check Katy's blog if you're interested on the schedule for upcoming webinars.

And on that note, I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

After an amazingly fun Friday at Fitbloggin', I trekked back up to Baltimore for the last day of fun on Saturday morning.

Katy and I presented during the first session. I expected to be a bundle of nerves getting up and speaking in front of everyone, but I actually wasn't nervous at all. Our presentation went really well and we got some great questions from the people who attended or session.


Thanks to Fitbloggin' for the photo (Source)

I especially loved hearing from people afterward that they learned something new or walked away with something to try on their own sites. We wanted to share lots of action items and I think we succeeded on that front.


Me and Katy

If you missed the presentation, you can check out the slides or you can catch Katy and I presenting again via webinar. We have a tentative time set for next week, but I'll share more details as we hammer out the exact time.

I spent the rest of the morning chatting with other bloggers, answering follow up questions about the presentation and hanging out with guys in hazmat suits. The hazmat conference was taking place at the exact same time as Fitbloggin' so the hotel was swarming with firefighters and first responders.


Katy, me and the guys in hazmat suits

I had to leave Fitbloggin' right before lunch to get to my cousin's wedding, so I missed a lot of great afternoon sessions, but live blogs from the sessions are posted on the Fitbloggin' site, so if you're interested in a specific session definitely check there for a summary.

I was so sad to see Fitbloggin' come to an end. I loved every minute of my time in Baltimore hanging out with my blog friends and meeting new like-minded people.





I can't recommend this conference enough. If you've never been, it's definitely worth putting on your to-do list for next year.

Fitbloggin' was amazing from beginning to end. From the people I met and the new friends I made, to the things I learned and the things Katy and I hopefully taught others, it was a great conference.

My favorite thing about this year's Fitbloggin' was that Roni expanded it to two days. Friday was very fitness centric and Saturday was very much blog centric.

Friday:

I opted to not stay at a hotel in Baltimore because I figured driving back and forth from D.C. wouldn't be that bad, and would save me some cash. Wrong. I will not make this mistake again next year.

I had to wake up so insanely early on Friday to beat rush hour and get to Baltimore in time for the 5K.

It was totally worth it though.


Official Fitbloggin' photo

Running along the harbor early in the morning was gorgeous. Made me a little bit jealous that Chris gets to run there every day.


Early morning view of the harbor


Running past boats on the docks

Everyone was laughing and having fun and I eventually fell in with a small group of people going my pace: Luke, Jenny and Heidi.

The course was an out and back, but only Jenny was familiar with the area. If it weren't for her we totally would have gotten lost.


Jenny and Heidi running on the docks


What I got to look at while running


Jenny leading the way


Me and Jenny at the end of the 5K

We made our way back to the hotel, grabbed some breakfast and got ready for a day full of fitness sessions.

The first session I attended was all about kettlebells.


Photo courtesy of Jenny

It was fun watching the ladies demonstrate all the things you can do with kettlebells. The presenters looked so strong. It was a nice reminder that I need to get back on the strength training wagon.

I followed kettlebells up with a trampoline fitness class. Turns out jumping on a trampoline for a really long time will make your legs very tired and your calves really tight, especially if you've already run a 5K.


Me and Heidi (on the right, grey shirt, pink shorts) playing on trampolines. Official Fitbloggin' photo.

After lunch there were some great sessions on building community and working with brands, and the evening wrapped up with the Fitbloggin' social.


Heidi and I sipping Grey Goose Cosmos in our workout clothes. We were the most stylish ones at the party :)

The evening wrapped up with a fun trek across Baltimore to go to Frank and Nics with my new Fitbloggin' friends, Heidi, Luke and Matt. I have never been so happy to eat yummy bar food. I was starving after all the working out. After trying to convince everyone they should come see me and Katy present in the morning, I called it an night and headed back home.

The first day was absolutely exhausting, but a complete blast. I miss Fitbloggin' and all my bloggy buddies so much. Recaps of Saturday coming soon.

1. I can't believe Fitbloggin' officially starts tonight! It's been almost 9 months since Katy and I put in an application to speak about branding and social media and in two days we'll be presenting. We have an awesome presentation in the works, which I promise to share here for those not attending the conference in person. Katy and I present at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and I know our session will be live-blogged. I don't have any details on that yet, but if you're interested in following along, definitely check the Fitbloggin' site for a link.

2. I've been debating all week whether or not to head up to Baltimore tonight for the social mixer or to just wait and go up tomorrow morning. I'm not sure if I can handle rush hour traffic out of D.C. tonight, so right now I'm leaning toward waking up bright and early Friday to get to the conference in time for the 5K tomorrow.

3. I'm pretty excited that Fitbloggin' is a two-day conference this year. Friday is dedicated to learning all about fun workouts and I'm especially looking forward to trying the trampoline class. Saturday is dedicated to improving your blog and includes sessions on photography, design and of course social media. I think it's going to be a good mix of awesomeness this year and I can't wait to get there and meet everyone.

When Katy and I were chosen to speak at Fitbloggin' 2011, we wanted to get as many people involved in our presentation as possible, whether or not they were attending the conference. That's where we came up with the idea for our newest project to gather information about the healthy living and running blogger communities. I'm really excited to share it with you, and I hope you will all take a few minutes to help us out.

As part of our branding and social media presentation at Fitbloggin’ 2011, Katy and I are launching an extensive, anonymous and hopefully transformative survey. We want to know some of the reasons why you blog, how you do it and what goals you have for the coming years. The running blog community is very unique when it comes to the rest of the blogging world and we want to know more about why we all do what we do.

The results of the study depend completely on YOU and your response. Five surveys won’t help us. 500 will. 5,000 would be better. But to get that type of attention, we need your help.

What we’re asking:

• Please answer our survey as honestly and completely as you can. We’ve allowed you to opt out of some questions by saying “Rather Not Answer” but the more open you can be, the better.
• Please share the survey link with your friends, your readers, your social networks and anyone else you can think of. We do require that people who take the survey have blogs but there’s no requirement for how you blog, how often or whether or not you make any money.

What we’re providing:

• Totally anonymity. The responses that we collect will not capture your IP address or any other information. We are asking some personal questions and understand that if you are worried about being identified, you might change your answers. Neither Katy nor I could figure out who you are if we wanted to.
• Results, both at Fitbloggin’ and in data that you may use. We will be publishing the results and making them accessible to all. In addition, if you want to be notified about the results, we’re providing a way for you to leave us your contact information without attaching it to your survey responses.

Why you should do it:

• Because you're awesome and want to help us out!
• We truly believe that the more you know, the more powerful you can be -- in your posts, in your understanding of community and in your service to your readers. This will be a way for you to see where you fall compared to others!
• It’s fun! We have tried to make the survey simple and easy to complete. You’ll see a status bar letting you know how far you have to go, and eliminated certain questions based on your previous responses.

Again: YOUR ANSWERS WILL BE COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL, and no identifying information will be stored or shared. You'll be able to opt in to receive an electronic copy of the results, but if you choose to provide your contact information, it will not be connected or attached to any of your responses.

If you have any questions or concerns about the survey, please leave me a comment or send me an email to: jess@jessruns.com.

Take the survey!

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to be part of the project! And please spread the word!