Disney Social Media Moms Conference #DisneySMMoms

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the most sought after conference of the year. The Disney Social Media Moms Conference in Disney World!

I wanted to bring the family in the worse way this year. But after doing the finances and seeing what it would cost us all to fly here, and eat and stay at least 1 more night (in a less extravagant hotel), we realized we just couldn’t swing it. Ugh!

So I came by myself and Zippy Sandler from Champagne Living is going to meet me here tomorrow and have fun with me and the rest of the gang.

I got in today (March 17th) and came to the Grand Floridian Resort. omg! This place is beauuuttiiful!

This has always been one that I have seen when I have been to Disney and thought to myself, wow…. I’d love to stay there!  lol (yippee!)

Look at the view from my room!

Then out on the balcony

I got a short nap in, but long enough to miss the beginning welcome reception that took place before the presentation.

Off to the Wedding Pavilion I went.  We were given Minnie Bride Ears (loved that!) and got to go into the place where Disney Magical Dream Weddings take place.

There were brides everywhere!

We got to hear the Vice President of Alfred Angelo Wedding Dresses; Michael Shettel speak.  Then we got to see the new Cinderella inspired wedding gown. (although because of where I was sitting, I didn’t get any good shots of the dress.

Look at all the cameras us Social Media Moms have! lol

Walking back with Michael Shettel

We got to hear from Carley Roney from www.TheKnot.com and we also got to see and hear David Tutera from a show called My Fair Wedding. (I’m going to have to find that and watch it now!)

Then we got to witness a vow renewal from a couple that was married here 2 years ago.  She had always wanted a Disney wedding in this chapel ever since she was a girl and saw it looking down from the monorail.

But it wasn’t just any wedding vow renewal. This was a “flashmob” kind of wedding, with dancing down the aisle!

Here comes the bride

It was fun watching a real life wedding.

What I loved was the Cinderella carriage picking them up. How cool!

Wouldn’t this be fun?

Here they go (after fireworks as they came out of the pavilion)

This event was being run my Fronk the Wedding planner and his assistant

Then we were off to dinner on the Grand Floridian lawn.  It was so beautiful there. The families were invited to this event.

So guess who was there for them to see and take pictures with? And those of us who didn’t get to bring our kids…. got to be kids too!

I took this picture of Goofy for my Z. He likes Goofy!

Kim @craftyMamaof4 and I

Here were just a couple pictures I took of the table decorations.

They were just so pretty

Thanks so much Grand Floridian for hosting such a wonderful event!

Organizing in a Hotel Room

Do you even bother to try?

I know for some a hotel room is a free ride to be messy! No worries that neighbors will drop in, someone will make your bed for you in the morning and bring you fresh towels…

What do you do when you stay at a hotel?

Do you put your clothes away or live out of your suit case?

This is what I normally do to stay organized in a hotel room.

I like to unpack right away.  When I first get in, I like to get my clothes out of my suitcase as soon as I can to keep them from being more wrinkled.  I hang them up and use the drawers to put them away.  I think like to hide my empty suitcase in the closet.

I get my toiletries and put them in the bathroom, set up the needed electronics for my computer and phone by my bed.

I like to try and keep my room neat….but you know what? If I’m in a hurry..I too have been known to just throw stuff on the bed or not put clothes away if I am running in or running out of my room. I am certainly not neurotic about it.

This last week it was almost impossible to be organized. There were 3 of us in the room and we were racing from one event to another…..literally we might be in to grab something or to change like a quick change artist and run back out to our next event.  Of course all the while dropping off bags of swag that we were given.

I did unpack when I first got there.  My roommates prefer to just open their suitcases and live out of those.  That is fine…that is how they like it. You take that….and 3 people in a small bathroom with no counters and tons of swag bags all around and you don’t have an organized Hotel room…you have a very messy one.

Did it freak me out…nope.  I was fine with it.  It was a crazy week and we had crazy stuff coming into our room. I didn’t fret or do my freak out thing (I can’t stand all this stuff!!!….aaggghhhh).  Now…if it was a long term situation…it would have been different. But it was just a temporary mess….

We had fun..and spending fun time with my friends was more important than trying to figure out how to have a neat room.

NAPO 2010 Conference

The NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) conference was in Columbus, OH this year. Yeah!! That is my home town. The NAPO Ohio chapter worked so hard on this whole thing. I am in the chapter but did absolutely nothing for this. (aren’t I great? LOL) Between working at the pediatric office on most of the days the meetings are on and my social media and traveling I have made it to very few meetings this last year. (bad NAPO member!)

But I decided rather than going to the sessions at the conference, since I was local I was going to sell the pouchees and now Card Cubby’s that I sell. I have had a blast the last 3 days meeting people and introducing so many of the Professional Organizers to both products. They are so easy for me to sell because I use them both and love them both.

The picture above is my marketplace table. It was so nice that they made this option available to us “little folks”. There are expo booths of course that Brands can use, but I could never have afforded that. So they did this option this year and I think they had a great turn out.

Thanks NAPO members for coming by to say hi.
I will post some more pictures tomorrow!

NAPO’s Amazing Race!

 

Napo stands for National Association of Professional Organizers

This post is for all those Professional Organizers who are going to be attending the NAPO conference in Columbus Ohio this week!!  The ladies at the Ohio NAPO chapter have been working SO hard to make sure that you all have a fantastic time.  They wanted to come up with something really fun and different and I think they have out done themselves!

The NAPO AMAZING RACE will be so fun!  There will be teams and you will have clues and have to go from expo booth to expo booth….remember having scavenger hunts as a kid?  You’ve got it!

I can’t wait to see you all.  I will actually not be in the sessions because I have a table in the Expo hall. But I WILL be a part of the AMAZING RACE!!   will be selling the pouchees purse organizer and also card cubbies (that aren’t even in my online store yet).  Be sure to stop by my table and say hi…along with getting a deal!  OR you may win one of them in the RACE!

Don’t miss “Amazing Race” NAPO – a new Networking Mixer at the NAPO 2010 Conference hosted by NAPO-Ohio Chapters

WHAT IS THE NAPO AMAZING RACE?
Teams of NAPO members will race against each other in the completion of tasks designed to get them to know each other and learn more about the exhibitors

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

All NAPO conference attendees

WHERE?

Expo Hall at the NAPO 2010 Conference

WHEN?

Wednesday evening 4/21 from 7:15 – 9:30 pm

WHY?

You’ve asked for a fun Conference networking event, plus we have awesome Prizes! Over 80% of our exhibitors are participating and FIVE winning teams will walk away with some pretty amazing stuff and I’m guessing some pretty amusing memories.

COST?

Absolutely nothing!

HOW DO I GET IN ON THIS?

Just make sure you’re at the exhibitor hall by 7PM that evening and stop at the Amazing Race table near the entrance!

QUESTIONS?

email Andrea Sharb, NAPO-Ohio President at agsharb@mac.com

Disney Social Media Moms Conference

Thoughts on the Disney Social Media Moms Conference

As I write this post I am sitting in the Orlando airport waiting to board my flight home from the Disney Social Media Moms Conference and I am reflecting on how much I got from it.  I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it due to the weather and some other factors…and after missing my initial “great flight that would have had me there by noon” I spent 12 hours getting to Orlando and got into my room about 11:30 pm this last Wednesday.  But it was worth it.  Getting home is another story since I had one of my “old lady brain farts” when I scheduled my trip and instead of arranging my flight for Saturday the 13th at 7:30pm I scheduled it for Sunday Feb 14 at 7:30pm. (Yes…Valentines day). I changed that flight so that I at least get home by 10pm instead of 11:30pm tonight. Just because I’m an organizer doesn’t mean I don’t mess things up. (for sure)

Guy Kawasaki giving his presentation

Guy Kawasaki – Founding partner of Garage Technology Venture & Co-founder of Alltop.com

Our first speaker of the trip was Guy Kawasaki. He gave me some new insights on twitter.   He discussed twitter  and how he uses it and how we can best use it to further our businesses.  He shared that he was originally against it, not caring that “Jimmy was drinking his coffee” , but realized that it can be an invaluable tool in your business.  Some of the tips that I gained from listening to Guy was that we should tweet out 4  times each thing we tweet.  He schedules them about 6-8 hours apart so that he doesn’t lose page views.  He states that more than 4 times is too much, but less than that we are losing valuable page views.  He also doesn’t tweet what he is doing during the day and he is not talking about tweeting out responses to people 4 times.  He is constantly searching for information that others will find interesting and informing us of that on which is linked to his All Top Site which of course then brings him more traffic.  The site is a pure meca of information!  He also stated that we need to have a tweeter-feed. So that each time we post something new…it shows up on twitter. (I need to do that)

Maxine Clark founder of Build a Bear

Maxine Clark – Founder and Chairman of Build a Bear

Maxine if my new idol I think.  She is the founder and chairman of Build A Bear. She shared with us how she has a love of bears and how much her bear meant to her as a child. Persevering and believing in your dreams and working to achieve them was her message.  She was truly amazing. She told us about her 2nd customer and how neat it was that a boy can get a Teddy Bear and dress it up in Army gear and it’s acceptable for him to get that and be a kid too.  She has kept in contact with these people. She listened to a little girl in Canada who e-mailed her and told her she would like a Build a Bear store in her town and why. That little girl was at that store on opening day along with Maxine. How cool is that?  She manages her own Twitter account, e-mail account and answers people back. She is a very busy running a Build a Bear empire….but she still has time to talk to her customers and friends…she is real. She is a gem.

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan – Eleven year veteran of Social media and Author of Trust Agents

To be honest I was excited to listen to Chris Brogan at our conference, but I didn’t know how entertaining  he would be. When I saw him at Blog World speak….he was on a panel with a few other people and no offense at all….he didn’t really get to “shine” like he did when he was on his own. I didn’t expect to be laughing as hard as I was. But he also passed on some really great information to us. Listening….Connecting…Publishing… The 3 pieces to Social Media that Chris spoke to us about and the importance of them.

Marissa Jaret Winkour

Marissa Jaret Winkour – Tony Award winning Broadway Actress and Veteran of Dancing with the Stars

You may remember Marissa on Dancing with the Stars. I never saw her in Hairspray the Broadway play she won her Tony for.  Since she was on Dancing with the Stars she has dyed her hair blond and lost a lot of weight and has a son. She told us she was due to have a baby 2 months after she was on Dancing with the Stars. She shared that she was a cancer survivor and before she under went her treatments she froze some eggs and her surrogate was 7 months pregnant with her child. She then went on to tell us about her life as a actress with a baby and how difficult it was.

Kathy Ireland – Surprise guest appearance

Kathy Ireland was not on our programs and we didn’t know she was going to speak to us. She came out looking beautiful as ever. She told us about her work ethics and a business she began going bankrupt, her 22 year marriage and her new book about daily devotionals due to come out soon. (She didn’t push her book, I think someone knew about it and asked her the question…and she answered)

Maryellen Hooper absolutely cracked me up.

Maryellen Hooper – Veteran in the world of Stand-up Comedy

I can’t tell you how hard I laughed. She was cracking me up.  Her act was about motherhood and life as a wife. She has a blog called  Stinky Flowers that you will have to go visit. You will have to get her DVD…she is really entertaining.

Disclosure:  I was not sponsored to go to Disney Social Media Moms conference.  I paid for the conference on my own. We did however get a discounted rate on the conference, our room and Disney tickets, and some of my meals as that was part of the conference package I purchased. I was not asked to blog on it, so any blogs or pictures I post are because I have chosen to do so.