Haven Conference 2014: Part 2

Back today with the 2nd part of the Haven Conference.  It takes us days to catch up on sleep and I just might be getting back to normal right now.  It’s amazing how a conference like this will wipe you out.  Heavy planning for 6 months is required to pull this all off and then it’s countdown til the day arrives and Haven begins.  Our team arrived on Wednesday and we were geared up for being busy the whole time and believe me, we were.  It’s exhilarating and exciting all at one time and we are thrilled when things turn out like we imagine them to be and everyone is walking around with smiles on their faces.  As you can imagine, it takes a lot of planning to execute a big conference and it’s so fun to see all those thoughts and ideas come to fruition.

We had great speakers this year and some wonderful classes.  One thing about a blog conference like this, you can’t take all the classes, since there are about 6 choices for every time slot.  Attendees have to decide what is the most important to them and choose accordingly. This year, we had lots of great classes and learning experiences, both on the blogging side of things and the DIY hands-on classes.

Excuse my pics, they were rushed and not the best!

(The Haven team:  me, Sarah, Beth, Cristi with Chip Wade, Chris, Kristin, Traci)

We kicked off the first day of the conference with a keynote from Chip Wade, well known design guy from HGTV’s Elbow Room and his sidekick, Cristi Holcombe.  They were a fun addition to Haven!

Opening with Chip and Cristi.

We have the most incredible sponsors and vendors at Haven and this year saw the addition of Southern Living Plant Collection.  They set up a beautiful potting station and did some classes on container gardening with my friend, Carmen.  Everyone loved it, of course!

Thompson’s WaterSeal has been with us for a couple of years.

Scout and Nimble was a new addition this year too and created the most beautiful candy display at Haven this year. With little bags to fill with these treats, everyone LOVED this!  (Sorry for the blurry pic!)

Home Depot was again our platinum sponsor and created a DIY hall of fame where bloggers got to display their best work.

And here’s their room space, all decked out with astroturf.

Osborne Wood products was in attendance.

And D. Lawless hardware was a fun addition too.  They have some really cool products.

Ryobi is another one of our big sponsors and have a nice presence with their tool class, where attendees can get hands-on help with power tools.

Lacefield Designs here in Atlanta was also there for the first time.  Beautiful booth space they set up!

I only took my point and shoot camera around to take some pics, so they are not great, but I got a few shots.  Mike Holmes of HGTV fame, Holmes on Homes, also made an appearance with one of his brands, 3M and did a talk and took lots of pics with attendees.  I happened to see him as he was leaving.

Bruce and Michelle from Minwax.

The FrogTape folks have sponsored us from the beginning too and we are always happy to have them.  Of course, I’m a little biased since I work with them.

They brought in the Duck Tape this year too, which has lots of fresh colors in case you didn’t know.

Moen had a kitchen countertop and faucet set up.

GMC has been with us for 2 years and had a cool display.

We love the Online Fabric Store folks and all those beautiful fabrics they bring in.

RustOleum has also been with us this whole 3 years and we are grateful to have them back us.

Back for the third year, Shaw Floors was our coffee sponsor and we had these great coffee machines pouring out all sorts of coffee yumminess for the attendees.

Ballard Designs was back once again sponsoring our living room and opening cocktail party.  We love their furniture displays that are set up around the ballroom.

These really make for a homey feeling in the ballroom and we call it the Living Room.

Beautiful furniture and we got to lounge on it too every night.

Great spaces to gather and catch up during the day too.

And this year they added a bedroom set up.  So pretty!

Ryobi is wonderful at Haven and they give away a lot of power tools to attendees.  We appreciate them so much!

Ballards also sponsored another challenge this year, with 3 teams for two days doing a coffee table challenge. Each team had 5 participants and the winners of each day got $100 Ballard gift certificates.

It was fun seeing them all be creative and try to win.

I didn’t get good pics of both days, but you can get the idea.  Ballard Designs put pics out on Facebook and had folks vote for the winners.

There were lots of creative displays going on and I know they had fun.

In the Ryobi class, this kitchen island was built and Minwax stain was used for a decorative stencil on top.  How cute is this?

Ryobi tools waiting to be used.

Kreg Tools was there too, getting hands on with attendees and letting them get comfortable with power tools.  We love the mix of blogging classes and hands-on that Haven provides.

For lunch on Saturday, P&G sponsored a beautiful lunch for everyone, with these gorgeous blue and white balloons.  It was perfect in this atrium space and everyone loved it.

Walking down the stairs to the lower level café, bubble machines were blowing out bubbles and really adding to the atmosphere.

Bright Ideas from P&G.

That’s a little bit of a recap on what you can expect at a blogging conference.  Lots of great sponsors and vendors, hanging out with kindred spirits who love blogging as much as the next girl, parties, informative classes where blogging topics are taught, as well as hands-on DIY and tool classes and even a couple of design classes.  It’s a fun and informative 2 and 1/2 days and we love doing it.  We’ve already set the date for next year at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead again, July 16-18, 2015.

Hope you weren’t too bored with my Haven recap, but even if you aren’t a blogger you might be interested in how these blog conferences work.  They are so much fun and very tiring as well.  It takes me days to get back to normal after one of these!

One more thing I’d like to share with y’all!  We are partnering this year with Habitat for Humanity here in Atlanta for a blogger build day on July 26th. We have committed to raising $5500 for this effort and are selling Hands of Haven T-shirts for $18.  If you’d like to buy a shirt or just donate to the cause, you can find all that information on the Haven Conference Hands of Haven day!

Our Haven team member, Traci, is so creative when it comes to music and she put together this fun Happy video that really shows what Haven is all about.  Enjoy!

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