Several members of the Funny Women Team were delighted to attend BritMums Live 2013, two days of networking, debate and discussion, which culminated in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards ceremony on Friday 21st June.
600 parents from the Brit blogosphere were joined by BritMums founders Jennifer Howze and Susanna Scott, for an action packed programme and some downtime in the 'hub' with food, drink and a chance to chat face to face with other bloggers. Relationships were formed and consolidated away from the keyboard and screen, although many of the attendees still tweeted throughout!
Television presenter, author and homewares designer Kirstie Allsopp opened the conference with a keynote speech about her career and family life. She answered lots of questions – including one about her life changing decision to only wear dresses ('the only thing I can't do in a dress is ski') and what it's like 'on the road' with her Location, Location, Location co-star, Phil Spencer.
For those BritMums who wanted to hone their witty writing skills a workshop was led by Funny Women founder Lynne Parker on ‘How to make ‘em laugh’, where in true speed-mentoring style Lynne showed the audience how to create witty dialogue in just 30 minutes through the creation of ‘porn star names’ and conflict between characters!
Funny Women was very proud to sponsor the BIB ‘Laugh’ Award for the parent blogger that could make us laugh out loud the loudest (or LOL, if you prefer), or make us smile wryly to ourselves as we read about their hilarious adventures in parenting. We managed to whittle the entries down to six finalists and they all amused us hugely – it was a real privilege to celebrate and discover great funny bloggers. As Viv Groskop who presented the Awards said on the night, we look forward to the day when blogging won’t be seen simply as blogging, but as writing.
All six of the nominees Actually Mummy, Best Dad I Can Be, Goodbye Pert Breasts, Northern Mum, Not a Notting Hill Mum and The Kraken Wakes deserved their place on the shortlist, but on the night the Laugh Award went to Actually Mummy…The Diary of a Loquacious School Girl. Written in the voice of her eight year old daughter ‘Glib Girl,’ and her six year old son the ‘Bug’, Helen Wills made us giggle with her own amusing self-awareness of her parenting style.
In other breakout sessions from the day the Funny Women Team caught Eleanor Mills, Kat Banyard, Sonya Cisco and Clare Mulley discussing ‘the New Feminism’; whether the F word needs rebranding and rebuilding today and how this can be achieved through blogging. Aspiring BritMum authors could also learn how to sell themselves as a writer, what book agents do, how to get published, as well as how to spruce up their blog pages with photos, brand partnerships, how to get paid for blogging, and more – so next year the competition for Brilliance in Blogging stands to be even more brilliant!
For a full round up of Britmums Live 2013 along with details of who won all of the Brilliance in Blogging Awards visit Britmums HERE.
Watch this space for a special column from Laugh Award winner Helen Wills where you'll get a taste of what it's like to be on the receiving end of 'Glib Girl's' sharp tongue!
Pictured from top to bottom: The Funny Women Team and BIB 'Laugh' Award winner Helen Wills get photobombed by blogger Mammasaurus! All the BIB winners on stage at the end of the Awards ceremony.
