Last Wednesday I headed north to attend the Problogger Training Event Gold Coast 2013. Along with a fantastic team headed up by Darren Rowse, I am an organiser of the event. My role is to curate the content, that is to organise the speakers, their content and the schedule for the two day event.
Today’s post is different to my usual posts as I thought I would share some photos from my time away!
I was lucky enough to spend my first night in Queensland with a friend who used to live near me. We had a wonderful time catching up in Brisbane and then she very kindly drove me to the Gold Coast where we had lunch at a gorgeous cafe called Bumbles. It was so lovely to eat good food outside in the sunshine!
The venue for the conference was QT Gold Coast. One of the best hotels I have ever stayed at.
So many nice little touches. It had a funky edge to it, which gave it a warmth and vibrancy.
I aim to eat well while I am away from home, so once settled into the hotel it was off to the supermarket!
With an early start on day one for the conference team, it meant early rising to fit in my morning exercise. I really like running in new place, think it is a great way to explore what the city has to offer.
The Problogger Training Event has grown over the last few years and this year we had over 400 attendees. As well as moderating a panel each day, I spent my time moving between the sessions (at times there were three different sessions on offer) to obtain a feel for how everything was going.
The networking party on Friday night was held at the Gold Coast Hilton and was lots of fun. The days are full on for me, so it was great to have the chance to catch up with some lovely bloggers in person and have a good chat.
Shelley from Tourism and Events Queensland did an amazing job working with the Problogger team to make the event as much fun as possible for attendees. Something I think all attendees appreciated.
And Darren Rowse left attendees with an important message at the end of the event. I have already made a couple of small changes myself and look forward to making some more from what I learned over the two days.
The final day of the event was all about experiencing what the Gold Coast has to offer and there wasn’t one theme park in sight! The morning started with Vinyasa yoga on the beach with Lauren from Essence of Living.
This was my first yoga class. Lauren was fantastic at making sure I was getting into the correct positions and talking through the effect of each move.
Along the beach where we did the yoga there was a lovely little market. I bought delicious macadamias and curry powders to take home with me.
The stand out activity for me was the raw food demonstration, I loved every minute of it. It was taken by Alessandra Alfredo from The Healthy Gourmet. You can find out more about what Alessandra does via her website and facebook page.
All the food made was raw and incredibly delicious. We tasted:
- Green Smoothie
- Green soup
- Zucchini pasta & tomato, sundried tomato and capsicum sauce
- Chia Squares (pictured above)
- Kiwi cheesecake
Then we finished up the day with a stand up paddling session with Brad Holmes Surf Coaching. I was surprised that I only ended up in the water a couple of times! It was great to round off the day with some physical activity and enjoying the sun.
If you read my newsletter, you will have seen the preparation I did leading up to going away. But the support I receive from my husband is fantastic. He took leave to be the primary carer while I was away and had the house looking great when I returned home very late Sunday evening.
It has been a gradual build since Mr I did his first supported week at home being the primary carer. You can see his reflections on the experience here. It is only because he is able to step into the stay at home dad role, that I can pursue work opportunities like this. While I thank and acknowledge this to him, I also wanted to publicly let Mr I know how much I appreciate his support – we make a great team!
How do you run things at home? Do you swap the roles with your partner at times? How does this work for you?