I just got back from #FinCon14, and it was a BLAST. I met a ton of bloggers I haven’t met yet, and I reconnected with bloggers I met at FinCon13.

The sessions are always great at FinCon, but I have to say that the networking and relationships you can create can’t be beat.

FinCon is nothing like your average conference. I used to attend conferences all the time when I had my day job, and they were the worst “events” ever. Which is kind of funny because those were financial-related conferences as well. They were horrible though and I cannot even describe how miserable they were. Most of them would even keep attendance because they know no one wants to be there (but you have to go anyways because your employer paid for it…).

FinCon is completely different though.

You WANT to be there.

You don’t want to sleep because you are afraid of missing out. FOMO at its best.

In fact, I already bought my ticket for next year.

Thursday at FinCon14.

On Thursday, there wasn’t much going on for FinCon14 if you just had the base ticket, but there was the welcome reception which you never want to miss. It’s a great spot for networking and meeting everyone. There are usually free drinks and snack foods, and it’s a lot of fun too!

After the welcome reception was over, I went down to the hotel bar with a bunch of other bloggers. After that, I went out to Frenchman’s Street with a bunch of different bloggers and we danced and talked the night away.

Friday at FinCon14.

I went to a few sessions on Friday, and I went to the Expo Hall to see what companies were at the conference.

After that, I went to a dinner with a bunch of awesome bloggers, such as J.D. Roth and Farnoosh (I love them both!), that was set up by Melanie from DearDebt and Tonya from MyFabFinance. There was a fun trolley ride and a dinner thanks to A Perfect Circle Jewelry Insurance at NOLA Restaurant, which was delicious (and free!).

Saturday at FinCon14.

On Saturday, I went to a few sessions but my main focus during the day was my mentoring session and listening to the keynote by Farnoosh.

I was a mentor to Leah and I won’t lie, I was extremely nervous. Mentoring someone in person for some reason always scares me! Luckily, she was great and the mentoring session was great. We talked for the whole session and I was able to help her out in a few areas. She has an awesome blog and she writes for some big name websites, so I would definitely check her out if you haven’t yet!

After the keynote from Farnoosh, the Plutus Awards started. I didn’t win anything, but other awesome blogs did! It was fun, and I was the drink ticket girl for the Plutus Awards after party. This was a fun event, and it was nice talking to a bunch of bloggers on the last night.

The last event for FinCon14 was the after party/closing party at the Beach on Bourbon Street. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of dancing.

Sorry to anyone who saw my sad dancing skills because I was dancing for a good four hours!

Networking.

I met so many amazing bloggers, and it would probably take days for me to list out all of their names (around 600 people attended FinCon14!).

I will say I loved everyone I met. There wasn’t a single person I didn’t like, and everyone is extremely approachable and fun.

How much did FinCon14 cost me?

FinCon14 wasn’t too bad for me. I spent around $630 on it. We stayed in a rental house about 1.5 miles away from the French Quarter so that we could bring our dogs (yup, I’m a crazy dog lady).

• FinCon14 ticket – $150. I bought the Super Early Bird ticket.
• VRBO home rental – $275 for three nights. We brought our dogs with us 🙂
• Gas – $100. Gas is cheap in our new car!
• Taxis – $30. I ended up taking a taxi to the conference on Friday and Saturday (and back from the bars) so that I didn’t have to pay the ridiculous $40 parking fee that the conference hotel charges PER DAY. I split a cab a few times with Stephanie at TheBrokeandBeautifulLife which also saved me some money because her rental was next to mine).
• Food and drinks – $75. This is probably higher than what I actually spent. Breakfast and lunch is provided by FinCon on some of the days (for my ticket it was provided on Friday and Saturday), so that helps bring the cost of food down.

 

Did you attend FinCon? Would you attend in the future?

 

P.S. For some of you who do not know, this is Michelle from MakingSenseofCents.com, in case any of you are wondering who the heck DiversifiedFinances.com was at the conference 🙂