Last month marked my first Alt Summit, a three-day conference designed to inspire and motivate (primarily female) bloggers of all backgrounds. Alt Summit’s goal is simple: show (and tell) bloggers how to transform their hobbies into paying businesses.

The sessions – much like the impromptu fashion shows made possible by the attendees’ ensembles – were colorful, diverse, and, at times, made for great photography.

The journalist in me cannot thwart the ongoing urge to take notes nearly all of the time. I planned for this, of course, relying exclusively on Evernote and my iPad for each session. (An aside: I first discovered this effective and easy-to-use note-taking app from my good friend, Andy Peters, at BarCamp Omaha a few years ago. When I learned that Evernote could be accessed on a variety of platforms, I fell hard and quickly became a user for life.)

Each Alt Summit session gave me something to consider for this very website. My first on Thursday morning, Collaborations With Sponsors, got my head spinning in the best way possible. Today’s bloggers can build successful relationships with brands of all sizes, yielding increased traffic, sponsored content, and user engagement like never before.

Our panelists included Camille Styles of Camille Styles, Merrilee Liddiard of Merg Mag, Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook, and Mitra Morgan of Joss & Main.

In the spirit of sharing my Alt Summit notes with you, I opted to take a different route for each session. Below you will see a nifty online presentation built using Haiku Deck. This free iPad app truly puts PowerPoint to shame, with a seemingly limitless image library to accompany each slide. (Best of all? Haiku Deck slides can be shared effortlessly and saved forever.)

But enough about the tools I used! Let’s talk brand collaboration by way of Camille, Merrilee, Jenny, and Mitra.

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/B5V1Bh8aYg/alt-summit-slc-2013-collaborations-with-sponsors

Successful blogger/brand relationships that were also mentioned included The Girls with Glasses Show and kate spade, and Erin Gates and Joss & Main. What collaborations have caught your attention? Have a success story to share? We’d love to hear the details!