Society Spotlight: Ana Flores

There’s a special place in heaven for women who launch blogging conferences. On the one hand, it seems easy as pie – pull together a group of super social women who love to blog, invite them for a weekend at a swanky hotel. Realistically, there’s so much more that goes into it – you have to invest your own time, energy and dollars into an idea that you hope will attract sponsors and attendees; then once you have them all there, you’ve got to keep them entertained and fed! So frankly, when I heard that my good friend Ana Flores was organizing We All Grow, an entirely new blog-conference aimed at her Latina community, I thought she’d lost her marbles!

I like to joke that Ana is your classic under-achiever. She’s a published author (having written the authoritative book on raising bi-lingual children, Bilingual is Better), the founder of the premiere Hispanic influencer community Latina Bloggers Connect, co-founder of the on-line community Spanglish Baby, has appeared on The Today Show, been featured in Parenting Magazine, and even graced the cover of a Corn Flakes Cereal box! That’s not all! She’s been heralded by sites like Babble as one of the Top 100 Mom blogs and is a doting mom to the most adorable daughter ever. So with all that “underachieving”, I’m shining the Everywhere Society Spotlight on Ana, whom I still sometimes refer to as LA Flowers, her original Twitter handle.

I recently caught up with Ana and asked her about We All Grow:

Q. What’s your inspiration for launching We All Grow?

Ana: Well Danica, as you know, you and I first met at a blogging conference. I’ve always navigated both cultures that way. Over the years, I attended so many general market blogging conferences and I took away so much from those experiences to help grow my blog and my business. I wanted to bring those same kinds of connections and the learning that takes place in the general market back to my community, the Latina blogging community. I very much so wanted to create a similar environment and provide a space where Latina bloggers can truly learn and grow their skills.

Q: How will this be different from other blogging conferences?

Ana: Truth? I’ve been grabbing inspiration from the best of the best blogging conferences for a while now. I’m hoping We All Grow will be an incredible mix of all these amazing blogging conferences I’ve attended over the years (like Blissdom and Evo, which no longer exist or Blogalicious and Mom 2.0). My plan is to take what I’ve learned from my favorite conferences and combine it with a healthy sprinkling of what we bring from our culture.

Q: What one thing do you hope bloggers who attend your conference take away from We All Grow?

Ana: I hope they walk out and say, “I have a skill set that I now understand and I’m taking this skill set with me back home to implement immediately and help me grow my blog.” I also hope they walk away and understand, “This is a business.”

Q. How do you find the time?

Ana: I’m never going to find the time. I find the right people. Because there is no more time! Finding amazing people is how I invest back in my business.

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Hopefully by shining the Everywhere Society spotlight on Ana Flores, it will help her find the right people to attend and help cultivate, We All Grow. I’ll be there supporting the conference in LA come February, will you?