This year I had the honor, the absolute honor of attending the Blogalicious 2012 Conference. But it didn't end there, no it had barely begun. Early in the year with on the recommendation of a fellow blogger, the tech officianado, TechSavvyMama, I secured a slot on the conference agenda as a speaker discussing the topic of storytelling --- something I do here everyday. But trust, I don't say that as if storytelling is easy or blahze, but rather I'm glad to be in the position to now be able to share something I have bled and sweat through.

But it didn't end there, no it truly hadn't begun. I also had the pleasure of securing the position of Official Conference Photographer on the recommendation of another Blogger, the super duper Travel Mami, my hermana from another mother, Carol Cain.

By now you should be able to see that if used for good, social media can be a very edifying, gratifying and potentially financially lucrative experience. So rather than continue to type and narrate I want to tell the story of my first trip to Vegas, albeit a working trip, via pictures and video.

I got the ball rolling a week in advance by introducing myself to the #Blogalicious World in an effort to build awareness and buzz around me, my brand (blog) and me as the photographer.

On Friday of last week I boarded a plane and headed to New Orleans for the Niche Mommy Blogger Conference. I've attended social media conferences before, heck I host a monthly social media meetup, but this was my first blogger conference...and I was speaking, another first. And I was very nervous. I had the honor and pleasure of being on a panel with fellow bloggers and social media titans, Fred Goodall of MochaDad and Jeff Funk of Brand Dynamite. While I was there I was also able to shake the hand of Ted Rubin, a man I've known for some time online. Besides exuding intoxicating positivity, he is about as New York as a New Yorker can get. As soon as we met we hit it off as if we had known each other since the second grade. We romped around the French Quarter over the weekend.

But when it came time to work, Jeff, Fred and I got down to business and bared our individual souls about content and storytelling and how to give it your all.