Being a dad at BritMums Live

BritMums Live is over for another year and from the look of all the post-event blogs I’ve read, a great time was had by all. What, however, is it like for the small number of dads that go along and why on Earth do we attend?

I’m not sure exactly how many blogging dads attended this year, but the figure I’ve heard is seven. That’s seven dad bloggers versus several hundred mum bloggers. This was my second year of going and I have to say I’ve never felt unwelcome, quite the reverse in fact.

So why go along? That’s very easy to answer; it’s all about blogging and the bloggers. The quality of the speakers is superb. I came away with a huge number of ideas for improving what I do in terms of what I write, how I promote it and what skill gaps I need to fill to improve my technical knowledge.

It’s also a great opportunity to mingle with the brands and see how they wish to engage with bloggers. A few of them, however, were a little surprised when I wandered over to their stands for a chat. I don’t think they were expecting to see any dads at all!

Back in 2013, when I’d only been blogging for seven months, I was, to my amazement, asked to speak at a BritMums panel session about successful blogs. A year later, I have considerably more experience and would take back a lot of what I said at that time.

Despite that, I made the one comment that I stand by; although there are more dads blogging than is perhaps acknowledged, we’re smaller in number and the scene is not as cohesive and galvanized as the mum blogging one is. There is no BritDads, if we want to share knowledge and experience specifically with other parent bloggers, we have to attend events like BritMums Live.

The other reason is to mix with a bunch of incredibly talented, creative people who have claimed some of the Internet as their own. I just love meeting other bloggers and it’s fantastic to have the opportunity to meet face to face with people you often only converse with on social media.

So what’s it actually like being a dad at BritMums Live? This year I went for the full two days. That was a huge amount of time in the company of many strangers so I was, of course, a little apprehensive and nervous. It was also oddly emotional and by the end of it, tiring.

I was possibly so tired because I had an immensely enjoyable meal with the guys from Kiddicare on the Friday night following the Brilliance in Blogging awards (BiBs). I sense, however, that most attendees thoroughly enjoyed themselves during and after the BiBs so I don’t think I was alone.

More than anything, BritMums Live was fun and I had a great time. I didn’t really feel that being part of a tiny minority was an issue at all. In fact, several people came up to talk to me simply because I was a dad.

I’m not going to name all the bloggers I met and spoke with because I’ll only go and accidentally overlook someone. Suffice it to say, you were all marvellous. I’d like to congratulate all the BiBs winners, thank BritMums for organising a superb conference and hope to see you all in 2015.