South Florida Blogger Awards 2019: The Results

By Barbara Chaney @https://twitter.com/nightwriter · On February 24, 2020

February 9th, 2020 was a beautiful day for the South Florida Blogger Awards, with a cool breeze at the lovely grounds of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

South Florida Blogger Awards at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

We’re excited every year to celebrate the achievements of our bloggers and the constant support and collaboration amongst those in our community is truly great to see. All of our work throughout the year culminate in this fun event celebrating our love for the creatives who inspire and amaze us.

Scroll to the list below to see the award winners who’ve inspired us in 2019.

Ceremony Excitement Indoors

As attendees arrived, they strolled the Montgomery Garden House lawn to a large sailcloth tent housing food stations, tables and floral arrangements. This, with sponsor booths, creative backdrops and the garden house itself all made for a beautiful indoor/outdoor setting.

When it came time for the awards ceremoney, Paola Mendez, our founder, kicked off the excitement on stage and talked about her admiration and gratitude for our community’s achievements in 2019.

She has worked hard to grow the South Florida Bloggers and The Blogger Union nationally and it shows. Keep an eye out for more blogger awards shows around the country in the future!

By the time our MC took over, our audience was excited and ready to see the top bloggers. Our MC, Amber Kemp-Gerstel of Damask Love, kept the energy high Her usual humor and sarcasm had us all laughing throughout as award presenters named the top bloggers. (See the list of award winners below.)

Influencer Panels

The garden house hosted our afternoon panels as well. This is the second year we’ve added speaker panels to the event and our bloggers have enjoyed them.

The first panel, Influencer Marketing Trends of 2020, featured PR professionals who shared trends they’re seeing and carrying out for their brands. Jose Resendez, a Marketing Consultant & Digital Strategist chaired the panel, which included Mariana Esquinca, Global PR manager for the Brown-Forman Tequila portfolio; Melanie Neff, Account Executive of Carolyn Izzo Integrated Communications; and Meredith Westheimer, Director at Moore.

The second panel, Influencer Growth Strategies, was also popular as Mei Jorge of Blame It On Mei, discussed strategies to grow your blog and your social media with bloggers Daniela Ramirez of Nany’s Kloset, Lilibeth Ramirez of Recetas Lily, and Lilly Jimenez of The Creative Heart Studio.

Sponsor Fun Outdoors

After the ceremony, we enjoyed lunch and activities outdoors. It was a feast for the senses with beautiful flowers and delicious flavors, ranging from burgers to quinoa bowls, ramen noodles and desserts.

Our food sponsors brought their best and we were all delighted by the options from…

Bocas House Doral, Boxed Water, Bunnie Cakes, Della Bowls, Kow Restaurant, La Croix Water, Nani’s Healthy Food, Shake Shack, Yip Miami, Yummy Yummy, and gorgeous flower decorations by Hi Zobe.

Our attendees also got to chat with several brand representatives about possible collaborations in 2020.

Booth sponsors brought their A-games, with cocktail mixing classes, photo opportunities and more.

Capital One, our title sponsor, offered one-on-one money coaching in their booth, while AARP connected with a younger audience .

Herradura Tequila and Chambord Liqueur brought their own blend of humor and fun. Their “Ring the Bell for Chambord” booth caused many laughs.

Herradura Tequila also set up a luxurious open bar, while Chambord hosted cocktail classes. Bloggers sipped on Boston Mules, learned how to make strawberry margaritas and had lots of fun along the way.

The goodie bags were award worthy as well, with a mini bottle of Herradura Tequila, a full-size Boxy Charm box, a Brosway necklace and many other goodies from Capital One, Pop Sockets, Shake Shack, Baptist Health, Niklaus Children’s Hospital and AARP.

Other event sponsors included wework, Korbel California Champagne, and Sonoma-Cutrer. And let us not forget Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, which has been so generous to us!

Our Crafty Creatives Set the Scene

The day would not have been the same without the creative backdrops and scenery from our partners and volunteers.

Vintage Unicorn Design and Dapper Animals deserve their own awards for designing the wonderful stage backdrop and sponsor logo wall. A big thanks to them, as well as to the Florida Crafts Club for their fun backdrop photo station.

We’d also like to thank Hitched Affair and Hi Zobe for their adorable camper decorated with balloons and their floral creations.

A huge thank you to all of our sponsors, chapter officers, and volunteers who made the awards possible. Without their support, we couldn’t have held such a wonderful event. Thank you also to our members, who make The Blogger Union such an amazing and supportive community of creatives.