What do you do when your family includes a wonderful pet and you are involved in the online community?

Why you head to BarkWorld of course!

 

 

 

 

 

Even though I occasionally blog about my pets, Thor and Loki, I don’t consider myself a pet blogger. I wasn’t sure if I’d even fit in to a pet conference.  But when i5 publishing reached out to me and offered the chance to attend BarkWorld on a scholarship, I jumped at the chance.

 

 

 

I was very pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the Loews Hotel in Atlanta. (Read about my stay here.)I was treated as if I had been a part of the family of pet bloggers for years instead of a the newbie that I am. In all honesty, I was very stressed about my numbers being too low. That did not make a difference to these great people! I was not just a set of numbers to them, I was a person! How great is that!

 

Speed dating was the first event I attended. I got to sit down one-on-one with many of the great sponsors or Barkworld. I found them all to very friendly, warm and open.  I’m looking forward to working with many of them in the future.

 

That evening was the premiere party for Lucky Puppy Magazine whose motto is Live Well. Do Good. Be Great.  I am excited to see what they will have in their first issue!

 

The following morning, Gus Kenworthy gave the opening Keynote about saving the Sochi Dogs. It was quite interesting to hear about how his story went viral through social media. It was because of the social media attention that one of the audience members also adopted a Sochi dog. We were thrilled to witness this impromptu meeting of Gus and her Sochi dog.

Later in the day, the guys from Animal Planet’s Treetop Cat Rescue  gave a great presentation on how they rescue cats from trees. Tom Otto and Shaun Sears run Canopy Cat Rescue and actually rescue these cats free! They rely on donations and never turn anyone away because they can’t pay. The best advice they gave? Call a professional arborist or tree surgeon to help, don’t climb a big tree by yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dogs of Instagram team was next. They were very informative and spoke about how important it is to stay true to your brand. Quality pictures are important to them instead of quantity. I guess they know what they are talking about. They have over 2.3 million followers on Instagram!

 

Rounding out the day was the app release pawty for Kuddly.co With this app you can communicate with a vet without having to go to the vet.  Have one of those pressing questions for a vet, but don’t want to spend the $ for a vet visit? Give this app a try!

 

 

Well that was the end of day 1. Stay tuned for part 2!