Create and Cultivate Conference

This weekend, I had the absolute honor of speaking on a panel at the Create & Cultivate NYC conference. I had been looking forward to the conference for months now. My expectations for it were set pretty high because my friends who had gone to previous ones (especially Maxie!) had nothing but positive things to say.

That said… the conference was truly above and beyond anything I could have imagined. And I was only there for about a quarter of it!!!

I wish I had blocked off the entire day for the conference– unfortunately, I had to get back home for the dogs. In the future, I’d love to attend another one. My friend Alison and I have already decided we’re going to go to the next one together and make a girls’ trip out of it.

While I knew it was going to be a great event based on my friends’ recommendations and I knew it was an honor to be included as a speaker, I was a tiny bit skeptical too. (Can’t lie here guys.) I speak on panels every few months and a lot of times they’re for female-focused conferences. Normally the conferences are fine, but they do kind of all start to feel the same.

Create & Cultivate was so different though.

While it was beautiful and the brand activations were awesome (hello, there was a wall of LaCroix!), it was the ENERGY in the room that made it stand out from the rest.

Everyone there was invested in their success. So many big dreams and even bigger dreamers in one room. It’s hard to describe unless you were there, so you might just have to take my word for it. The vibe was so positive and so supportive. Sometimes it feels like there’s just not enough of that in the world and it was pretty incredible to be surrounded by it for a day.

(Thank you to everyone who helped me pick out my shoes! I went with these lace-up flats to go with my Tory Burch dress.)

Personally, I loved getting a chance to meet so many readers there (you guys are the best), reconnect with old colleagues and classmates (I knew more people than I was expecting to), and learning from people I look up to (definitely some fangirling moments). And I was only there for four hours. I can’t imagine what I would walk away with had I been there for the full twelve!

Anyway, I wanted to share my experience because I know the ticket price can be a little steep, but if you can swing it, know it’s definitely worth it. Seriously though… I can’t wait to find out when and where the next one is going to be! Hopefully, I’ll see you there 😜

PS If you can’t attend a conference, or can’t wait until the next one, they share a bunch of great interviews and career advice on the C&C Blog.

PPS I did a really terrible job at vlogging during the day, but there are a few clips from the conference (including the LaCroix wall, haha).