If you read anything about Alt Summit, you know there are two things that are a huge deal -- business cards and fashion.
I started planning my cards a few months ago, and since I'd asked for a
wacom tablet for Christmas, I knew I wanted to try my hand at illustrating the back of my cards. My first idea was to do an illustration about pattern mixing, but when I mentioned it to my sister,
Janssen, she suggested I go with something a little more unique and unexpected, like my post about
how to layer with dresses. Brilliant.
Once my illustration was done, I teamed up with
Minted to create the final card. I looked through their selection of card fronts and chose this
simple watercolor card, which was super complimentary, but allowed the back to be real focal point. I also ordered them on the triple thick paper which I ended up absolutely loving (it shocked me a bit at first since I didn't expect them to be quite as thick as they were, but soon grew to love them, especially once I started handing them out and saw the weight of everyone else's cards -- I loved how substantial and legit it made them feel!).
When we checked in on Day One, everyone received a little Alt notebook. As I collected other people's cards over the weekend, I used washi tape to stick them in the notebook, and then wrote a little note next to each card to remind me of the person -- where I met them, what they were wearing, how they were pregnant with their first baby, or wearing an amazing vintage dress, or waiting for their boyfriend to propose...whatever would help spark a memory of my interaction with them. It was a really helpful system and I got a bunch of other people doing it by the end (although I have to admit it was
Miranda's genius idea -- not mine!)
The other thing besides business cards that I brought to Alt was my media kits. I heard from a few people that media kits were discouraged, and that companies would only want to see your business cards, but after talking to a few other people I decided it was worth it to bring them anyway. When companies are receiving over 600 business cards in a weekend, I think it's nice to have something extra to make you stand apart and give companies a bit more information about you and your blog that the few pieces of info you put on your card.
My media kits were 7"x7" and were four pages -- a cover page, an about page, a statistics page, and a page that covered my advertising options, pricing, and contact info. I got them printed at a local print shop on a thick glossy card stock, and they cut them and punched the holes in them all for under $100.
I brought 30 media kits with me, and ended up giving about half of them out (I gave everyone my card, but only media kits to those companies I really wanted to work with), but I saw a very positive response and the companies immediately opened them up and started browsing through them.
Now that I've handed them out and talked to companies about them, I've realized that my sewing projects and tutorials are a big part of my blog that is missing from them. They're mentioned on my about page as something I do, but all of the images I included are style related. Also, I wish I'd included press features as well just to give my blog more credibility when talking to these companies. I'll definitely be amending both of those items when I print more for future conferences!
A huge thanks to
Minted for my gorgeous cards! If you're in need of business cards, greeting cards, holiday cards, or really anything, they are absolutely the best to work with.
I'm not sure how much longer I can possibly drag out Alt Summit, but here we are over a month later and I'm still bringing it up. The last night was the mini parties, and for this night I wanted an outfit that was fun. I don't know where the idea came from, but suddenly a graphic top and a pleated striped skirt was stuck in my brain and not going anywhere. 
