RsTheCon Recap

{First Day of the Conference after arriving at the Hotel!}

What is RStheCon?

Otherwise known at The Reward Style Conference, RStheCon is an invitation-only, influencer conference held by Reward Style, which is the parent company and creator of Liketoknow.it! It happens every spring, and is held in Dallas at the Crescent Court Hotel! It’s weekend full of mixers, brand meetings, classroom session, speakers, parties and more!

How do you get invited and How much does it cost to attend? 

To be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure how the invite list is put together, but from my understanding, it has to do with sales and conversion rate. Not your following!!  The conference itself costs $350, which covered classes, brand meetings, lunches, and parties. The rest of the weekend (travel, hotel, clothing, food) is all on us! That’s why so many girls try and get roommates!! It may seem like a hefty price to pay for the weekend, but the contacts and the face-to-face meeting with all of the brands makes it 100% worth it.

Had you been to the conference before?

Yes! This was my second year going.

{Thursday Nights Opening Pool Party w/ Sole Society}

How did you get paired with your roommates?

Roommate picking situations can be awkward because you never know who has been invited or not. You don’t want to send out a ton of messages asking girls to room because if they haven’t been invited, you don’t want to hurt their feelings. This year, I didn’t even know where to start but thankfully, my friend Michelle from MrsSimplyLoving (we met two years ago standing in line at Fashion Week and have kept in touch ever since!) sent me a message asking if I was going and if I wanted to room together since she knew I went the year before. She was also already talking to Caren and Amanda at the time and it all jut sort of fell into place.

What was your schedule like? 

DAY ONE

2–4 PM Check-in, Brand + Influencer Happy Hour
5–7 PM Rooftop Pool Party w/ Sole Society

DAY TWO

8:30 AM Grab & Go Breakfast
9:30 AM–12 PM Key Note Speakers
12–2 PM Courtyard Lunch w/ Mary Kay
2–2:45 PM How To Build a Team Classroom Session
3–3:45 PM Working Smarter: The Art of Selling 24/7 Classroom Session
4:30–4:45 PM Sole Society Brand Meeting
6–8 PM Cocktail Party w/ Ebay

DAY THREE

8–10 AM Grab & Go Breakfast
9:45–9:55 AM Garmin Brand Meeting
10:00–10:45 AM Heart to Heart Classroom Session
11–11:45 AM LIKEtoKNOW.it All Classroom Session
12–2 PM Garden Lunch w/ JCPenney
2–2:10 PM Banana Republic Brand Meeting

2:30 – 2:40 PM Bonobos Brand Meeting
8–11 PM LIKEtoKNOW.it Finale Party

{Friday after a morning full of Key Note Speakers and lunch with Mary Kay}

Favorite Parts of the Conference?

Brand Meetings

Aka – Brand Meeting Speed Dating lol. Okay, it’s not actually speed dating but it can feel like it! At the beginning of the weekend, all of the girls are paired with different brands for specific brand meetings and are basically given 10 mins (usually less) to pitch themselves and discuss collaborations. These meetings are super important because you are paired with these brands for a reason and this is where they are basically making their decisions on who they want to work with throughout the next year.

Last year, I was super nervous but ended up landing collabs with every brand I met with!

The Key Note Speakers 

During this portion of the conference, everyone is seated in the hotel’s event hall and we get the opportunity to hear from a ton of different speakers. This year we heard from both Baxter and Amber Box (the founders/creators of Rewardstyle), the engineering team from Rewardstlye on the upcoming Liketoknow.it features, Charlotte Jones (Daughter of Jerry Jones and Chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys) and then had a Q&A Panel featuring a few of the brand reps from Wayfair, Ebay and Express!

Influencer Happy Hour / Brand Hall

The Brand Hall aspect may be my favorite part of the conference! Throughout the weekend, all of the brands at the conference have a booth set up in one of the event spaces, which gives everyone the opportunity to casually visit with all of the brands at the conference & make connections with their reps! This part is really cool because we don’t get to actually choose our individual “brand meetings” so if there is a brand you’re dying to work with, this is your opportunity to get to know them and grab their contact information.

{Friday nights party with Ebay}

 Biggest Tips/Takeaways for Blogging & Instagram?

I’m not going to lie, I feel as though I learned more all around “blogging tips” last year… but in the conferences defense, they weren’t there to teach us “How to start a Blog”. All of the girls who were invited already have a grasp on the industry so everything we were taught was more on the basis of maximizing profits and expanding our current business practices. Still, I did walk away with a few tidbits that might be of interest to some of you!

(1)

Real Life/In the Moment are > Picture Perfect Professional/Editorial Photos

I have known this for awhile, but the conference just really confirmed this whole practice and showed the numbers behind it. Editorial photos are great to mix in every once in a while but at the end of the day, your audience wants to see what you are doing now, in real time.

“Keep it interesting- Keep it Real – Keep Reinventing Yourself”

(2)

The True Importance & Difference between Instagram and the Liketoknow.it App

 When people are on Instagram, they are there to see their friends and families photos. They are on the platform to keep up with their favorite celebrities and influencers, they are there to inspired, they are there to laugh and to be social.  Your audience on Instagram wants to see you, your life and of course what you’re wearing but the key difference between the two apps is that when people go to the Liketoknow.it app, they are there specifically to shop! So while you should be posting once daily on Instagram, you should be posting 3-4x on the app. These posts could be previous items you have posted that are currently on sale, accessories, shoes, flat lays, collages , recycled photos and more!

(3)

The “Influencer Bubble” isn’t popping anytime soon

If anything, it is just starting. Major brands are finally pouring more and more of their budgets into influencer relations and are seeing immediate results.  Yes, the industry will change and evolve throughout the years  (I mean, it has changed so much since I started 3 years ago!) but the industry itself isn’t going anywhere.

{Saturdays look for classroom sessions, brand meetings and lunch w/ JC Penny}

Brand Meeting & Networking Tips?

Brand Meeting Tips 

Walk up to the brand with confidence. Smile, introduce yourself, shake their hands and ask them how their day is going.  Tell them about your blog, what you normally blog about, why you started, how you started, what makes you stand out from the others and most importantly – tell them about your audience!! They can like you as a person all day long but they have to make sure your audience aligns well with their brand before they can decide if they want to work with you or not. Also, understand that they are just like you! They aren’t sitting there judging everything about you. They want to get to know you and they want to like you… so my advice is to talk to them like the normal people they are. Just talk to them and ask them questions too!

Networking Tips

Don’t be afraid to walk up and introduce yourself. Always be confident and friendly. In regards to this conference (& all conferences in general, no matter the industry) the brands and companies that are there, are there for a reason and paid a lot of money to be there too! They want to meet you and they want people to like their brand! Don’t just stare at them waiting for them to speak, talk to them!! Ask them questions about themselves, their travels, where they are from and etc. My biggest Networking Tip of all is to ask them questions until you find a common ground you can relate to them on and make a connection with.

Was there a difference between this year and last year?

I was less nervous all around and felt more confident in myself and in my blog. I was a complete mess last year, like truly so nervous and the cattiness of the girls really threw me for a loop….but this year, I was just me! I did my stuff, I made great connections for the blog and left feeling really positive and super thankful for the whole experience!

If you have any more questions, just leave them in the comments section below!

xo,

Lauren

Related Post: 10 Biggest Takeaways from RstheCon