Alt blogger conference draws wide audience.

• Author: Christensen, Lisa
• Position: Around Utah: SALT LAKE AREA

Salt Lake City -- The crowd at ALT might look like the epitome of internet style and design, but make no mistake: these people are serious about what they do. "Don't let the shoes fool you," says Alt organizer Sara Urquhart. "This is a business conference."

Six years ago, Urquhart and her sister, Gabrielle Blaire, were talking with family members about real-world opportunities for networking and improvement for bloggers. Blaire, who runs the blog Design Mom, says she was frustrated with the topics existing blogging conferences addressed. "There are a lot out there, but none of them had the speakers I was looking for," she says.

Urquhart does not blog, but has made a living organizing events. Together, Blaire and Urquhart, both Utah natives, combined their respective talents to create Alt.

The first year, the conference drew around 200 bloggers (and, notably, Pinterest founder Ben Silverman, who, Urquhart says, calls Alt the "cradle of Pinterest"). Attendees latched onto the idea, Blaire says, and sponsors took note.

"Once the sponsors saw that there was a good number of people, good speakers, they said, 'Oh, we want to be a part of this,'" she says.

Since then, the conference has bloomed into a twice-yearly event, with an attendance cap to keep the crowd small enough to allow for communication and collaboration between attendees and presenters alike. This year's winter event had 650 attendees. The roster fills up so fast registration begins months in advance.

"We've been careful to not grow too big," Blaire says. "We don't just want to double the size of this conference. If we double the size, we lose the intimacy, and you don't get the...