Day 1 at my first Alt Summit in Palm Springs
Calligrapher going into her first day at Alt ready to learn and meet fellow entrepreneurs
Day 1
First full day of Alt, I woke up feeling refreshed! My bubbly, sweet roomie Kellie had already started her day early. I put on a white tshirt and a pair of floral pants, grabbed my red sunglasses, and met up with Maleka, of The Siren and Co, for breakfast: it was a build your own breakfast taco. After breakfast, we settled by the pool to grab a seat to watch Gabrielle Blair’s opening keynote. To be honest, I had no idea who she was until Alt released the schedule and I saw her name. Despite this, her opening keynote was so enjoyable and made me excited for the conference. It was the perfect energy to start off the sunny morning.
The first workshop I attended was about Instagram by The Design Twins. They went over how Instagram works: the algorithm, the importance of being on a consistent posting schedule, being specific with hashtags and keywords, and being flexible because yes, the algorithm is always changing and what worked 3 months ago might not work tomorrow. Whomp whomp.
Up next, I hopped over to Peg Fitzpatrick’s session about crafting a book proposal. I have been playing around with an idea for a children’s book but was never really sure how to approach it. Peg’s workshop broke up the steps needed to even get started and wow, was it overwhelming and A LOT. She did mention that children’s books are a little different and I connected with a few other published writers who said the same. So we’ll see where my children’s book idea goes. I guess that is the wonderful thing about Alt: you never know who you’ll meet, how they can help you, and how you can help them.
I headed downstairs to the Cantina room to attend Lacee Swan’s fashion illustration workshop. No surprises here, it was really fun and relaxing.
After some relaxing time drawing, I went over to see Alyce Chan (MomCom) and Rosie Nguyen (The Hustling Mama), where they talked about using humor to elevate your brand. I have very little interest in making funny content, but I really wanted to meet Rosie! We had chatted a bit on IG and she was just as lovely and funny in real life. Also want to note, that these two were the one of the few Asian women on the schedule so even if they talked about making dance videos on TikTok (I would never do this), I would’ve attended their talk.
I’ll always support my Asian and POC sisters.
The first day ended with a monochrome theme dance party. I dressed on brand and wore an orange two piece outfit from Tamga—seriously, check out this awesome sustainable brand. After a night of dancing and a glass of wine, I was ready to call it a night.
My biggest takeaways from day 1
Happy that I listened to the advice of picking 3 must attend workshops and a list of maybes for if there is time or I change my mind
As an introvert, staying at the Saguaro was great and gave me time to step away from the crowd and just sit in my room for a few minutes to recharge
People don’t buy from brands, they buy from people
Day 2 and check out day coming up soon and includes my favorite workshops from Alt Summit.
I’m so excited to implement what I learned at Alt into my calligraphy business and better serve my clients!
