In our ongoing Countdown to CyberMummy11, we hear from Claire McDonald who will be attending her very first Cybermummy. She is a CM virgin. We promise to be gentle with you Claire!
This time last year I wasn't on Facebook. Or twitter.
So it's pretty crazy that this year I'm going to Cybermummy. As a speaker.
I've just read that sentence back to myself, and it's very scary.
Last August I was finishing maternity leave after my second child and had to decide whether or not to go back to work. I totted it up...
Plus sides to working: money, being able to drink a cup of coffee unmolested, colleauges.
Down sides to working: no money, the actual work, colleagues.
I loved my job but I'd been doing a similar thing for 12 years. So after much umming and ahhing I decided to do something different. I took voluntary redundancy and left. Which left me unemployed, spending a lot of time with the kids and unable to drink coffee unmolested. It seemed like there wasn't an hour in the day when I wasn't either cooking, cleaning up after cooking, or planning the next onslaught/meal - four a day including breakfast. And despite the millions of recipe books and food books aimed at parents, I felt there wasn't anything aimed at me. I didn't want to make a fish pie with a roux sauce. I wanted to make something that would take precisely three seconds, using ingredients I already had in the fridge, which my kids would love and would be good for them. I chatted to my sister about it, discovered she felt the same way and Crumbs was born.
So last summer was a frenzy of social networking. I joined Facebook. And Twitter. And Blogger. And British Mummy Bloggers. And I kept hearing about this thing called CyberMummy. In my head CyberMummy was a bit like a very clever, very big robot with outrageous lipstick and a crazy perm, marching across the blogger landscape. "What is this Cybermummy?" I thought to myself. I soon discovered that it was very big and very clever, but it wasn't a robot. It was a conference and a chance for all those mummy bloggers out there to meet up in the real world, put faces to blogs, names to faces, and learn what makes a great blog.
And this year I'm going to see it all for myself. And I'm going to speak at it. And I'm going to wear outrageous lipstick. But I might give the crazy perm a miss. Wish me luck.
Claire from www.crumbsfood.co.uk
We can't wait to hear both Claire and Lucy McDonald share their experiences and keys to success in the Blogger to Blogger Inspiration session from 2:20-3:10pm. Be sure to stop into their session for some great tips and tricks to become a more inspired blogger.
