The week before last I had the good fortune to attend Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City. If you follow all the wonderful design blogs I do, I’m sure you have read all of the gushing, unrestrained loving, and endless Alt praising by now. Some of you may be thinking, “Really? Was it really that amazing? Maybe if you’re a blogging rock star it was. What about everyone else?” To those that wonder, my answer is an emphatic YES! Yes, it really was that incredible. So I thought (finally) I would share my own Alt story:

First, I would like to thank twitter. Without twitter, I may not have heard of this wonderful event before it was too late. So thank you twitter. You are SO not a waste of time. As soon as my curiosity was peaked by all the Alt tweets, I clicked over to the Alt site, read the homepage, checked out the list of speakers and was sold. Three days in gorgeous Salt Lake City with my blogging heros? Where do I sign?! The next best thing that happened was receiving an IM from my good friend Ben Silbermann which read,”i was thinking about going to that conference you twittered about.” From there, we bought our plane tickets, booked a hotel and headed over (grateful that I had a travel buddy to keep me company and calm… I think I may have social anxiety disorder and a definite flying phobia).

It didn’t take long for my fears and anxiety to start melting away. Right off the bat I got to listen to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely, Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant, Jaime Derringer of Design Milk and Karey Mackin of Mackin Ink speak about their favorite design sites. Something about the way they spoke about their own love and admiration for other blogs and bloggers (some they knew personally, others they did not) made me realize some important things. These women are just like me! They admire the work of others and sometimes wish they had so and so’s great eye or writing style or photoshop abilities. They don’t have superhuman powers or large teams of people working for them. They do what they do because they love it and they do it at the highest level possible for them.

Lesson 1: You don’t have to have superhuman powers to excel at what you do. Passion will get you far.

That night began with some speed networking and ended with a glamourous opening party that included delicious food (I should say delicious looking, I was too nervous to eat), live music, and an open bar (dangerous!) I arrived to the speed networking session at the same time as Jean Aw from NotCot. In fact, we chatted a bit about how we were both very unsure of what we were supposed to do there. I decided to play it cool (like I didn’t know that it was Jean Aw from NotCot) even though I was thinking, “omg! I’m talking to Jean Aw from NotCot!” I know, I’m such a dork. The opening party was tons of fun! I got to meet the people that would  become my “Alt clique” for the remainder of the time: Mackenzi Farquer (Site Design NYC), Sara Jensen (Lost Bird Found), Aaron De Simone (I Heart Media Inc.), Mat “with one T” Thorne (who was there to speak on behalf of Blurb but is also a very talented artist), and of course my travel buddy Ben (Pinterest). With them, I was able to courageously approach Joy from Oh! Joy (Aaron was so red) and eventually make my way over to Maxwell of Apartment Therapy (who, btw, I had a a big Alt crush on). It’s comforting to know that he probably doesn’t remember the slightly tipsy little Latina girl that was stumbling over her words and staring way too wide-eyed at him. Maxwell, if you ever read this, will you consider my apartment for your next Apartment Therapy book? It’s worth a shot, right?

Lesson 2: Everyone has someone that makes them nervous. Generally, most people are actually quite approachable. Trust in your friends to get you through the uncomfortable times.

The remainder of the time was a huge blur of excitement and inspiration. Keynote breakfast with Grace (Design Sponge), Heather (Dooce), Jean (NotCot), and Maxwell (Apartment Therapy)… inspiring! Panel after panel listening to my blogging heros talk about how they do it… inspiring! Lunch with DJ Earworm… inspiring! Wait, this is starting to sound like that Priceless Mastercard campaign. Maybe because I actually got to hang out in the Alt Lounge having casual conversation about the time I lived in Berlin with Jeroen Bours, genius marketer and creator of the “Priceless” campaign! And yes, chatting about Europe in a beautiful room with Jeroen Bours… PRICELESS!! Did I mention I stopped in the doorway on my way out to chat (again) with Jean Aw and she actually remembered a post I had contributed to NotCot? Priceless! (geeking out again)

Lesson 3: Opening yourself up to inspiration can help you do things you never imagined you would and sometimes, you can even inspire yourself.

I have to say, some of the best experiences I had at Alt took place during the downtime. The little moments in between chatting with some of the most interesting people I have ever met, the dinner I had with my Alt clique, the evening I spent sitting in the lobby with my new friends listening to an awesome string quartet playing Kids by MGMT, and the conversations in the hotel’s Gibson Girl Lounge. I got to share a cab to the airport with Joy from Oh! Joy and laugh THE ENTIRE way home with Victoria of sfgirlbybay (I think we were high on Alt) and my amazing friend Ben whose energy and brilliance inspires me everyday. Ben, btw, won the ultimate grand prize of the weekend… drumroll… a trip back to Salt Lake City! Awesome.

Lesson 4: Always enjoy the little moments in between. They’re the BEST!

Thank you to all the hard-working, kind and generous people that made Altitude Design Summit possible. This experience was exactly what I needed to finally make some big decisions and commitments to my own business, LAMA. My newfound motivation has enabled me to make some enormous progress since I have been back to work. I have finally made the decision to take LAMA in a new and amazing direction (details to come at another time).

I can’t wait to go back to Alt next year!

Lesson 5: If you think it might be worth doing, DO IT.

** all photos taken from the Altitude Design Summit flickr page Next year I’ll bring a camera! **