By guest contributor Erin Loechner.

I’ve been to millions of conferences (exaggeration), and Alt is, hands down, the conference that draws in the friendliest folk (not an exaggeration). Looking for a mentor who shares the same affinity for stripes as you do? She’s at Alt. Craving someone to copy edit your new portfolio when you head home? He’s in the ballroom (without the revolver, lucky for you). Alt is filled to the brim with creative, kind, and super friendly faces. Chances are, you’ll want to connect with a few of them. Here’s how:

1) Get pre-social
Before you head to Salt Lake City, send out a Tweet or update your Facebook status announcing that you’ll be attending Alt. Ask your followers/friends if they know of anyone else planning to attend the conference. You’ll most likely find someone else as nervous as you are to attend. That’s the first thing you’ve got in common. Build on that and make plans to meet each other on day one.

2) Have an eagle-eye
Look around the room–do you spot someone with the same neon day planner you have in your bag? See a stylish gal that’s rocking your favorite patterned pants? Introduce yourself! If you have the same taste in footwear, why shouldn’t you share other similarities?

3) Fake it
Sure, you might be so nervous that you’ve pitted out 4 shirts – and it’s only 10am. Put on that dashing smile and pretend you’re the most confident girl in the room. Because everyone else; they’ve likely pitted out 5 shirts.

By guest contributor Helena Swyter. Photography by Travelfoodartanddesgin.

Hosting a giveaway on your blog is a popular way to gain followers and build relationships with sponsors. However, there are tax consequences. There are always tax consequences!

Tax Requirements
Your requirements as the host vary depending on the value of the prize. If the giveaway prize is valued at $600 or more – or if one person wins multiple giveaways, and the total prizes awarded in the year exceed $600 – you are required to send the winner a Form 1099-MISC.

Check with your sponsor, as they may take care of this for you. If not, the ball’s in your court.

What is a Form 1099-MISC?
This form is purely informational. You submit it to both the winner and the IRS. It lists the cash value of the prize so the IRS can expect to see that amount on the winner’s income tax return for that year.

To complete this form, you need the winner’s name, address, and social security number. You are required to send them the Form 1099-MISC by January 31 of the following year (e.g., prizes won in 2012 will be reported on Forms 1099-MISC, due January 31, 2013). The IRS provides Forms 1099-MISC for free on their website, but be sure to order early to avoid delays. The IRS expects to receive their copy of the Form 1099-MISC by February 28.

By guest contributor Melissa Coleman.

Now that we have the basics down, let’s play with the Illustrator tools. There are a lot of different tools in Illustrator, but today we’re going to focus on the ones you’ll use the most. Next to each of the tool labels you’ll see a letter or a character. That’s the keystroke you can use to toggle between tools. You can click the tool itself, but as you become more familiar with Illustrator, you’ll want to use the key strokes. The highlighted tools are the ones I find myself using most. Add these keystrokes to your brain first.

You can probably guess what most of these tools do from using the standard Windows Paint program, so I won’t bore you with long descriptions. Below are a couple things that you may not know: