Alt NYC 2013 – Finding One’s Place

All awesome photos by Justin Hackworth. All less awesome shots by the camera on my phone.

I had an amazing opportunity to attend Alt NYC this year and I had a FANTASTIC time! I was able to go because, by some miracle, I won the Airheads Valentine competition this past February with these Airheads Valentine Message Treats and the prize was a ticket to Alt NYC!! Actually it was two tickets and I chose two for Alt NYC so I get to go next year too!! I am so so thankful I was able to go and here’s how it went.

On Wednesday evening, I attended a dinner at Tia Pol hosted by Atly, a brand new online teaching platform, and its founder, Adam Ashton. The food was delicious, the company, fantastic. Below are the lovely flowers that were on our table. An added bonus of the night came by way of a new blogging friend/NYC BFF, Elizabeth from The Note Passer, when she taught me how to hail a taxi after our meal (I actually helped to hail three of them!). Now that I know, I feel like I could hail ’em with very truest of New Yorkers. Thanks, Elizabeth!

I liked Atly before I went to the meal but I will love them forever for this darling iPad bag made by Clyde Bags. I mean seriously, I adore it!! Plus, I got to bring home the flowers from the table. Thank you, Atly!!

The conference itself was held at Martha Stewart’s headquarters in this gorgeous space. It’s like every dream you ever have about throwing the most smashing party – this space is it. Those windows!

Alt NYC differs from Alt SLC (I went back in January) in a big way by the number of attendees. We spent the day in the same space, going back and forth between the presentation area and the ‘lounge’ area. It has a much more intimate feel and it was a lovely space to spend the day. Like the SLC conference, the attention to detail and visual appeal was apparent in everything from the backdrop of the presentation stage to the gorgeous food layouts (and food itself). The Alt Summit team works very hard to make their conferences top notch. There are a number of conference recaps that go into detail about the panels and keynotes. If you are interested in reading more, here is the Alt NYC 2013 Pinterest board. 

That’s me in the back row in black chatting it up.

And then the one they call Martha stepped into the room. In a flash, all phones in the room were up.

My phone was up too, I couldn’t resist. I was at the way back, enjoying some shoe-free time on the comfy carpet. I circled myself in red. Even though her visit was short lived, it was very cool to have her in our presence.

At the end of the day, a hallway was opened up and we were invited into a gorgeous, sunlit room for an after party. Again with the details and amazing-ness! This colorful, sugary sweet table sat in the middle of the room and I still cannot get over how absolutely gorgeous it was/is.

As you can see, everyone loved it. I have three bags of candy as a souvenir. They aren’t overflowing or anything, I only took like two of each kind in each color and I have three bags because I couldn’t completely mix them. The red, yellow and pink are together, the green and blue are together and the white/silver is all by itself. It made my OCD feel better. :)

The decorations were lovely and the bar served a wonderful lavender lemonade.

I scooted behind the bar to take these shots of the city. Pretty nice view, in my opinion.

We were also invited to go up on top of the building as well. A rooftop party in NYC at Martha’s place? Yes, please. Anytime. That’s me in the black on the left.

Again, I tried to capture the view with my phone. The quality is lacking but you get the idea. Down to the left is the Freedom Tower, Lady Liberty, Lower Manhattan. And across the way is Staten Island and New Jersey.

I don’t think there could have been a more perfect ending to the day. I didn’t want it to end.

But what were my take aways?

The speakers were wonderful, the keynotes were inspiring but what I loved most about attending this conference, and the others, is the camaraderie. Most days, I am alone (not literally) with my computer and my supplies. There are emails, tweets, comments and such but, for me, seeing and being with others in this field is second to none. There are conversations on everything that falls under the evolving occupation of content creation like work flow, editorial calendars, coding, SEOs, the ever changing social media platforms, styling, branding, advertising and list the goes on. The people at the conference understand the amount of work required to do this thing we are doing and where there could be crazy competition and throat slashing, there is support, guidance and hands out stretched to help.  Me and the indelible, Ali Hedin.

And these women (there were a few men in attendance, but I’m really talking about the women) aren’t just content creators or business women or entrepreneurs, many of them are also mothers. And to be with and connect with and share with other mothers who are trudging through this time of life, like me, oh, it’s like my soul grew a pair of wings. They know what it’s like to stay up really late working just to rise early when the little ones awake. To make time for play dates and trips to the park and tea parties while writing proposals, creating content, researching opportunities and connecting with our audiences. Goofing around with Ali, Audrey from This Little Street and Katie from Land of Nod, all mommas!

The part of the conference that touched me the most came in the 9×5 panel. During the 9×5, 9 speakers spoke for only 5 minutes on their subject; it was an invigorating and fast-paced panel. My favorite of the panel, and really the whole conference, was presented by Keenan Cummings, a product designer. He spoke about how the internet has made it possible for unlikely artists to find a place for themselves online when it might not exist in their real lives. What got me was how passionate he felt about finding one’s place. When he shared some of the ‘improbable artists’ that really inspire him, he got choked up which prompted me to as well. These artists, who might struggle and face hardships in their offline lives, have soared to amazing heights because of the internet and Keenan sees the beauty in that.

His point hit home for me because I am one of those people – I feel like I found my place and ‘my people’ through on online outlet. My artist/creative path has been bumpy one; my passion for creating didn’t come with a road map. I tried to fit into other more conventional molds only to have it wreak havoc in my life. For a long time I wished to be anyone but myself so I could fit in somewhere.

An amazing photo opportunity for me with thee Design Mom, Gabrielle Blair and two other contributors: discovery editor, Koseli Cummings (wife of Keenan) and Amy Hackworth, the fabulous discussion column writer and wife to Justin, the amazing Alt photographer.

But finally, I found my place or, more like, it found me (that’s another story for another day). Every single day, I am enormously thankful for the opportunity to do what I get to do. And despite the fact that there is no road map for this either (I’m honestly making it up as I go along), I have the incredible freedom to figure it out and I am extraordinarily happy with that.

If you have the chance to go to an Alt Summit, do it. If you are a creative searching for your place, give this conference a try. It’s not just a conference, it’s a community. A supportive, encouraging and passionate community who believes in its members and loves a good and beautiful party. :)

P.S. I fell in love with NYC while I was out there and I’m putting together a post on the touristy part of our trip too.