Last month Kravet brought together bloggers, marketing experts, design professionals and print magazine editors for the first annual Blogfest 2011 in New York City. This event gathered more than 100 design and lifestyle bloggers from across the US and Canada. All learned about it from engaging with Kravet on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which is how we announced and promoted the event. These bloggers chronicle the inner workings of the design world, from education to inspiration, through their blogs and we wanted to celebrate their influence at Blogfest.
Bloggers snapping photos during the Lee Jofa studio tour
In order to chronicle every moment of our exclusive event, I had the great pleasure of doing on-camera interviews with bloggers, designers and editors throughout Blogfest 2011. In doing so, I gained behind-the-scenes access to the industry greats who showed their support for Kravet during the event and allowed me to share their enthusiasm for the world of interior design.
Interviewing House Beautiful Editor-In-Chief Newell Turner, photo via Pretty Pink Tulips
I was a bit nervous at first about having interactions with my design idols captured on film, but their warmth and generosity of spirit put me at ease each time as they so effortlessly emoted a love of their craft and support of the blogging community. One thing that impressed me was that every person I spoke to radiated enthusiasm and passion, which always makes for a great interview.
Chassity Evans with Beth Greene
Abbe Fenimore and Eric Cohler
One of the attendees, Austin Handler, a Hamptons-based designer with Mabley Handler and blogger for Designing the Hamptons, expressed his excitement well: “If [Kravet] put together an event just for design bloggers, where we all got to meet in each other in person and interact, that would be worth getting on an airplane. But throw in our industry’s best magazine editors and top designers and tv personalities and this becomes an event that’ll be hard to top!”
Sarah Baynes, ELLE DECOR Editor-In-Chief Michael Boodro and Manvi Hidalgo
We've already started planning for next year and continue to relive all the fun and excitement of the event through the hundreds of blog posts we’ve seen so far. We are so impressed by the talent and unique perspective each blogger captures in his or her posts. We are inspired, humbled and, most of all, motivated to take Blogfest 2012 to the next level!
Stay tuned as we continue to recap some of the great moments from our Blogfest week and of course make the announcement about dates and details of Blogfest 2012.
-JP
