August 30th, 2012 
photo credit: Victoria Barnaby
The Healthy Living Summit, an annual conference for bloggers writing about healthy lifestyles, made its way to Boston this past August. The 3-day conference held at the Hyatt Regency was sponsored by a number of companies such as Wild Harvest and Reebok. The conference sought to bring together the vast network of bloggers who write on topics such as fitness and nutrition in order to encourage the community to interact and share ideas with one another.
A number of panels and sessions were offered over the weekend where subject matters ranged from blogging photography basics, to how to run blog challenges, to how blogs should interact with brands. One of the highlights from the overall agenda was the session called “Blogging with Brands; It’s More Than Just A Product Review.” This session was led by moderator Lauren Podolsky of Say What You Need to Say who posed questions to a panel of prominent bloggers as well as a panel of brand and communication representatives. Those representatives were Kelly Olexa from FitFluential,Valerie Elston from Porter Novelli and Laura Stanton from the Dancing Deer Bakery.
The discussion primarily revolved around how best to develop a mutually beneficial relationship between your blog and a brand while satisfying the brand’s need to promote their product or service. Laura Stanton from the Dancing Deer Bakery urged the audience to remember that the blogger collaboration is valuable not just from a product review or brand promotion standpoint, but that the relationship is equally valuable when a blogger shares information about the brand’s core values and philanthropic activities.
Naturally this comment inspired me to learn more about Laura’s company Dancing Deer. The Dancing Deer Bakery is a company that bakes and sells all natural goods. They donate 35% of their retail sales from the Sweet Home line, year round, to One Family Inc. This Massachusetts nonprofit strives to eliminate homelessness by providing scholarships to families in order to encourage education as a means out of poverty. After sampling their delicious treats at the conference and now learning more about their philanthropic efforts, I’m certainly more inclined to purchase Dancing Deer goods in the future.
The Healthy Living Summit is not only an opportunity to learn about the blossoming blogging community but is also an opportunity to meet community influencers face-to-face in an inspiring environment. The Summit has visited cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago in years past, so make sure to put this event on your list for 2013.
