Party in the Penthouse! And Other Problogger Event Highlights
When Mantra Hotels mentioned they would be hosting me and my travel blogging buddy Seana in their Sun City, Surfer’s Paradise penthouse during the Problogger conference we decided to throw a get together for all the travel bloggers.
Sure, I wanted to meet travel blogging friends old and new. Of course, I wanted to have a quiet get together with people and enjoy some longer conversations before the madness of a conference with 500 people. But mostly I just wanted to say:
“Party in my penthouse!”
So I did what you’re not supposed to do. I popped a party invite on Facebook and waited to see who’d turn up. The party was a movable feast with people popping in and out between 5pm and 9pm when this former party animal, now turned party pooper, was ready for bed.
Mantra Hotels kindly supplied wine and yummy nibbles and we took a quick photo of our travel bloggers party when the nibbles arrived. I’m the creepy looking one in the middle at the back!
As you can see the party was all women because our token man, Anthony the Travel Tart, cancelled at the last moment, but one man turned up unannounced after the photo was taken which was exciting. He was a black American man too making it even more thrilling, although I don’t have photographic evidence and can’t remember his name. Something beginning with W I think.
He seemed like a nice chap but I was concentrating on catching up with some old blogging friends. I have so many wonderful travel blogging friends that it’s hard to make room for any more, even when you’re staying in a penthouse. We didn’t need to throw any TVs out of the window to have fun.
The two day conference was crazy, overwhelming and inspiring in equal measures. It was my fourth Problogger event and what I always love best is meeting people in the flesh. I get very excited seeing my blogging heros and heroines in real life after following their blogs for so long.
I met some wonderful people including Chris Ducker who is very very funny, the super smart Rand Fishkin from Moz and Pat Flynn (pictured below) from Smart Passive Income who is adorable in every way. If someone made a doll out of him I’d buy it.
Of course I had to get my photo taken with Problogger too because it’s a tradition harking back five years now to the first ever Problogger conference in 2010. Some people never age do they?! Or change their hairstyles…
I wore my pretty silk Lola Australia dresses to the conference this year – the blue one on day one and the pink one for day two – and loved posing for pics at the penthouse while the ever-patient Seana photographed me.
I don’t get to stay in a penthouse every day but I think I made the most of my brief stay when the opportunity did arose. Including the chance to say:
“Party in the penthouse!”
Thank You!
Many thanks to:
- Mantra Hotels for hosting me at Mantra Sun City.
- All the travel bloggers who came to the party in the penthouse!
- Seana for taking lovely photos of me.
- Everyone at the Problogger conference who poked, chatted and posed with me at the conference.
- My husband for helping me set up my new website Marketing Business Lifestyle just in time for the event – and for looking after the Candy kids while I partied in the penthouse!
You all made me a very happy lady.
Did you make it to the party in the penthouse? What were your Problogger highlights?
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
24 Comments
Leave A Comment
Hot Stuff
Oh fun times!!! Cannot believe how fast the years fly between Problogger Events… and it sounds like another epic year was had by all!!!
Hi Se7en,
Oh yeah! Time does fly – it goes to show how precious every single moment is :)
LOL Annabel, it was a good night, travel bloggers have no trouble chatting! Your colourful dresses were a delight to see and I realise that I was very soberly dressed throughout. You and Johanna Castro need to give me a rainbow makeover. Next time! Mantra were very good to us, so cool to stay in a place with such amazing views.
Hi Seana,
It’s fun to have something to dress up for – sorry we didn’t get a pic of us together! Crazy really… Next time :)
What a swell party it was! I’m still reeling from that amazing view! Thank you Mantra Sun City :) Thanks for organising Annabel, and thank you to Seanna too :) Oh I don’t know about a rainbow makeover Seanna – all you have to do is throw on as much colour as possible! lol!
Hi Johanna,
That’s a good tip re the rainbow makeover – though I think you make it look easy to be bright and colorful :)
If someone made a doll out of Pat Flynn i’d buy it too!!
I think you mean Kerwin from Pass Rider.com
Great to connect, learnt so much and importantly was very inspired!!
Hi Holly,
I’d better get in touch with Pat to tell him about this hot new product idea ;) And thank you – yes it was Kerwin. Hooray! Well his name does have a w in it… I’ll tweet him too :)
Wow Anabel,
All of my fave blogging celebrities all under 1 roof.
Love the picture of you and Pat. He, Rand and Darren – and yourself of course – are all awesome bloggers. I need to do the event bit one of these days, committing to a spot well beforehand will help me build one of my trips around the event, instead of doing it the other way around.
Welcome to the penthouse…..how sweet. Lovely pictures, great meets, and eats…..thanks so much for sharing Annabel.
I’ll tweet soon.
Signing off from Savusavu.
Have a fun weekend.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
You’re so kind! Maybe if we all petition Darren we can have it in Savusavu next year so you can join us :)
I didn’t get to meet you at PBEvent but do recognise a couple of the travel bloggers from your penthouse party! I stayed at another Mantra – the Crown Towers – which was just across the road from the QT. Sadly not in the penthouse though! ;-)
Hi Janet,
So sorry I didn’t meet you there but very glad to see you here;)
Looks like a lot of fun – you are right you and Darren Rowse don’t seem to have aged a bit…
Hi Frenchie,
Lol that’s funny :)
OMG I totally want a Pat Flynn doll too. Let’s start a Pat Flynn doll Kickstarter campaign ;-)
Thanks so much for the lovely penthouse party Annabel – great to have lots of the travel types in one place, much easier than trying to find each other in the huge crowd that Problogger is these days!
Hi Amanda,
Yes it worked really well. I wanted to do it on the first night as I was worried I’d miss people altogether if I didn’t see them then :)
‘Twas a grand get together and a brilliant start to an amazing few days of learning and networking and putting faces to avatars –
Such a treat when we all spend so much of our lives in virtual worlds :)
Hi Linda,
It was! And I love your new avatar :)
It was great to catch up with fellow bloggers and party in the penthouse! thanks for facilitating a great networking event. I loved meeting fellow travel bloggers I hadn’t caught up with before. Thanks to Mantra Sun City too.
Hi Briar,
It was great to see you there :)
Hi Annabel,
it was so lovely to meet you in the flesh, after having followed your blog for some time now! Thank you so much for daring to put that party invite out there. As a newbie who still stutters when I call myself a blogger, it was wonderful to meet so many fellow travel bloggers and to hear so many different stories. Just wonderful, thanks for facilitating and generously sharing your penthouse bliss with us. And thanks also to Seanna :)
Hi Kerstin,
We loved having you there!
Annabel,
I’m laughing so loud about my description, I love it. I may have to use it in the future.
Sorry I missed the photo op. I was hanging with Hunter from Aweber. Fellow travel blogger Kristin had sent me the invite and I went to the wrong Mantra initially so that added to my tardiness.
You were a fantastic host, so thank you. I had fun meeting new folks and catching up with friends so thank you for the “Party in the Penthouse.” I don’t get to do that often enough :-).
Kerwin.
Hi Kerwin,
Haha, that’s a funny story too about going to the wrong Mantra. Well I’m glad you got invited and persevered to find us. I think we all need to go to many more parties in penthouses :)