The last day of Alt Summit and my Biggest Takeaways
Alt Summit: an inspiring and fun experience.
Day 2
Tuesday morning started off with a stop motion workshop with Trisha Zemp. If you didn’t know, my corporate job is actually a motion graphics designer so I was very excited for this session. It was so great seeing Trisha’s process, learning some tips, and easy ways to make stop motions—there’s an app for that. Isn’t there an app for everything now? She even made a quick stop motion of a car moving through a desert scene. However, I cannot ignore that as Trisha was taking stills for the car scene, the people in the workshop started talking very loudly. It started as one group whispering to half of the room loudly speaking. It was extremely disheartening how disrespectful some of the attendees were acting. *major eye rolls* Anyways, after the session, I introduced myself to Trisha and let her know how amazing and inspiring her work was!
Next stop, I headed over to the expert help desk for some help with my newsletter. The expert help desk is exactly what it sounds like: group meetings to ask an expert any specific question. I need to grow my email list and that is my focus at the moment. The line was quite long but while in line, I met the ladies who run Glad and Young. They have very cute leather bags and awesome marble prints. Then behind me, I met An of The Useless Crafter. We had a great conversation sharing our businesses. She is having an upcoming crafting event that is a wedding and baby shower theme!
Remember what I said about never knowing who you’ll meet?
It felt like the stars aligned for this to happen. I’m still coming up with ideas on how to be part of her crafting event so it is TBD but I’m so excited to be part of it!
After getting some guidance on my newsletter, it was time for lunch. And sadly, this time was disappointing. Both of the lunch lines ran out of the vegetarian option so I was going to eat a sad salad and two delicious chocolate chip cookies. The lunch situation just felt like a mess. I met a few vegetarians who just grabbed the chicken sandwiches and were going to pick out the chicken. Then the server finally came over and said they were preparing the falafel sandwiches. But there would only be 20. Um what? There were obviously more than 20 people waiting. It was very unfortunate that Alt didn’t correctly calculate the amount of food needed. Meh. It also wasn’t a falafel. Turned out to be veggies in a pita sandwich—it was good though.
Next was a workshop about running ads. Biggest takeaway: run the correct type of ad depending on the goal. Continuing the social media knowledge workshops, the next session was all about building an engaged audience.
I was looking forward to the closing keynote with Bobby from Queer Eye. Since it was raining, Maleka and I enjoyed the keynote from her balcony. It was great. Hearing from Bobby was very interesting. But it didn’t feel great that this summit, which is mostly women—I only saw 3 men in attendance—chose a man as the closing keynote. It was cool because I love Queer Eye but sort of felt like a woman should’ve had that spot… preferably a woman of color. But it was fine.
The evening ended with a meetup with creatives of color hosted by Aria! It was really cool meeting everyone and having a space together. The group was so diverse and included authors, career coaches, family bloggers, artists, and others that I can’t remember at the moment. We shared our goals, whether short or long term, and what the group can do now to help us reach those goals.
The next meet up was creatives of Southern California, which was hosted by Chelsea Stratso who just moved from Hawaii to SoCal. Much like the previous meetup, we spent time sharing our stories and goals, really making connections and building meaningful relationships.
Biggest takeaways from day 2:
Not everyone knows how to stfu
Talking to strangers in line can be very beneficial—not sure if this applies outside of Alt. ha
Understanding the type of ad to run based on the goal of the ad
Photography by Kristen Loken
Check out day and heading home
The last morning at Alt, I quickly got ready and headed to the round table talks. The first one I sat at was about being an influencer hosted by Britta Borden-Tabor and wow, I did not expect this talk to be one of my favorite sessions at Alt. Britta’s energy, light, and joy was just amazing to be around. Her story is simple: she posted photos in clothes and her social media account just blew up.
But it is the way she presents herself and her excitement that really helped create her community.
The round table talk lasted about 45 minutes; I went in not knowing who Britta was and left being a huge fan.
The second round table I attended was about building an inclusive business hosted by Nadine Fonseca. She originally had plans to go over a presentation she prepared, but instead, we just talked to each other about challenges as a marginalized group. I absolutely loved being at this table. If there is ever a chance to talk about the frustrations of cultural appropriation or navigate conversations to call out racist jokes, then I’m all in.
After the round table ended, I left my roomkey on the table, closed my pink door, loaded up my car and headed home to LA.
Takeaways from the last day:
Didn’t expect the round tables to be so beneficial
Top 3 favorite sessions at Alt Summit
Trisha’s stop motion
Britta’s round table
Nadine’s round table
Overall, I really enjoyed Alt and would like to attend next year! I went in with low expectations, a few must attend workshops, and an open mind.
I’m so excited to implement what I learned at Alt into my calligraphy business and better serve my clients!
Are you ready to work together? Let’s chat!
Catch up on my previous days at Alt Summit:
Day 1 at my First Alt Summit in Palm Springs
What I learned from attending my first Alt Summit in Palm Springs
