altitude design summit recap

I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to attend Alt Design Summit last week in Salt Lake City.  I can’t possibly recap all the goodness that was packed into the four day conference, so I’ll share some of the highlights beyond the delish food, amazing hotel, beautiful city and fun parties ::

• Rooming & connecting with a good friend from Long Beach – that I haven’t seen in a year – Beth Giles – owner of Salvage Life.  We had such a great time together – catching up on our personal & professional lives – lots of laughs – midnight room service – and time inspiring each other in our businesses.  I miss her already.
• Hearing Ben Silbermann speak – co-founder of Pinterest.  So engaging!  I love hearing stories about the journey of following your dream – it was a good reminder that there are always trials & slammed doors along the way.  He talked about how he feels like he lives at the intersection of terror & joy.  I can definitely understand that space. Terrified is a good word for how I feel when taking bel kai designs to the next level {like right now, actually}.  So, yeah, I’m a bit terrified.  And yet, joyful at the same time, when I think of the beginning and where we are now.
• Moving on…
• Dinner with Danielle & Allison – the fab ladies from Sway Group.
• Meeting new faces…Nicole Balch from Making it Lovely, Erin Loechner from Design for Mankind, Brooke White from Girls with Glasses Show, Gabrielle Blair from Design Mom to name a few.
• Reconnecting with some of the amazing artists I have collaborated with over the years – meeting some face-to-face for the first time… Tracey Clark, Karen Walrond, Sarah Jane, Marisa Haedke.
• So, so much good information.  Too many brilliant panel speakers to list – my head is spinning with inspiration and new ideas.

And the final highlight…coming home to my two loves…

So, if you can’t tell, I highly recommend Alt Design Summit if you are in the design, e-commerce, blogging world.  It’s really great to have concentrated time with other creatives, away from home…to just feed off each other.  Light bulb ideas flashing all over the place.  Personally, I desperately needed a re-charge and I most definitely got one.  I think 2012 is going to be a sweet year around here and I’m really excited to start sharing more and more with you…yes, that means that I’ll be blogging again and consistently.  I miss it – last year was hard to make it a priority, but I’m putting it back on the front burner.  We’ll be sharing more about the behind-the-scenes around the shop, new products, bits of inspiration and we’ll have some other contributors from time to time.  And please let us know if there is anything else you would like to see!  We love to hear from you.

Okay, signing off for now…see you soon!!