Disney World

Who Doesn’t Love to Go To Disney World?

Just about one year ago today I was posting about Disney World on a trip with Murphy USA and Collective Bias.  This post was originally posted on my Chat with Sandy blog on 1/30/11. Enjoy the sites of Disney again.

I was asked to attend the Murphy USA National Manager Meeting in Orlando FL (Disney world Coronado Springs resort to be exact) this last week, you might have seen my last post.

They asked six blogger to go to their meeting so we could help educate and sign up their mangers with whrrl and discuss how social media could benefit their business.

We were all paired up with a manager from Murphy USA that we would be traveling with. We were asked to be sure to take lots of pictures and whrrl them along the way. I was paired up with a manager from my area and met her at the airport. Jennifer Davis was my manager.

I had no idea there were 40 Murphy USA gas stations in Ohio. I only know of 2, one in Newark in front of the Walmart and one in Whitehall.  (I’ve not been to that one)

We arrived in Orlando and were all staying at the Coronado Springs Resort. There is a convention center attached to it, so it was perfect. It was so beautiful.

We had a meet and greet with some of the managers before dinner the first night. I am not sure if it was the regional managers, but it wasn’t a huge group (and there were over 1000 managers there). I know the president Hank Heithaus was there and the new president Tom (from Scotland) was there. Hank is retiring and just announced it. This picture was at one of the general sessions where Hank (left) is basically saying goodbye and introducing Tom on the right.

Their theme was “We The People” because they were making sure their managers knew that it was all of them that made Murphy USA successful.

Jay Staggs who I had a picture of in my last post, was in charge of running the show.  They had a good time with it, bringing in Tammy and Tommy through out the conference along with “their parents” for comic relief.

They had a speaker Peter Wahl do a speech/painting… lol  He is a motivational speaker and he painted these 3 paintings during his talk. He would have a music video on the screen while he was painting (in like 2 min) these paintings. He used his fingers (Bruce Springsteen’s hair) and spattered paint… really incredible to watch.

Each of us bloggers had to work a 2 hour shift in the Murphy Whrrl booth in the expo hall on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun. Teaching the mangers how to sign up for Whrrl and helping to try to get them to understand how it could help their business. This was my manger Jennifer on the left.  She had been signed up for FB already and I think even signed up for whrrl.. or did it at the airport. But she was all for it and was great to travel down with. We ended up not getting to really see each other much once we were there. It was crazy for both of us.

We had managers signing up via their smart phones, via text on their phones, or by computer. They could also sign up for a Facebook or Twitter account.

Melissa Garcia from the Consumer Queen had several managers recognize her from her picture being on the pumps or her fun Murphy videos.  Ok.. Melissa on the left.  The Red Strike girl on the right.

John Kim from Whrrl was there to help the managers and he also helped me… as usual with my problematic phone.

The managers could win a $50 gas cards and chances to win this autographed  Slash guitar worth over $900 just for signing up and checking into Whrrl.

I took this picture of Casey from Murphy USA with the Slash guitar and then posted it to Whrrl.  The screen it came up on was just outside the booth in the expo hall.

We had time to go and check out the rest of the expo hall. It was really huge and there were a lot of fun things to do. Wii games were set up, prizes to win… hippies to see

Mars candy and Wrigley’s were there in a both together. Neither of them knew much at all about social media or how it could help their business.  Melissa and I talked to them about it and told them bloggers would love to work with them!

I mean.. really? Who doesn’t love M&M’s?  They had a new candy bar for us to try, actually 2.  There was the new 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp and the Peanut Butter Snickers.

Here is my verdict.  Loved the 3 Musketeers.  I was actually surprised. Well… I mean I love # Musketeers anyway, but when I first broke it in half. It didn’t seem gooey and it almost seemed… well…boring inside. But… I took a bite and it was so light and it was like the chocolate was so creamy and just filled the whole taste. I loved it!  It gave you the feeling of Dove chocolate (not sure if I should say that or not… but that chocolate is about my favorite.. so it is a big compliment) creamy and light… oh… I WILL be buying more of these. Just not in high numbers since I have really been trying to not eat as many sweets.

I tried 1/2 of the Snickers bar. It was actually in 2 square pieces, so unlike a normal Snickers. I ate half on the plane on the way home and was saving the other half to take a picture of when we got home. But …. my dog found it first in my purse. Oh yeah.. nice.  It was good… the peanut butter wasn’t over powering. But do I think I would pick it over a traditional Snickers… no, probably not. I love the regular Snickers too much.

Here are the 2 reps that were in the booth. Nice guys, but they need to realize how social media can  help them!

Wrigley was giving out packs of their new gum – Prism.

There are 15 pieces of sugarless gum in the pack. This was electric watermelon. I will tell you what. The smell of watermelon is strong, you can smell it as soon as you take the wrapper off the box.  The green foil that wraps the piece of gum looked kind of cool too. Different you know? My mouth was watering before I put the piece of gum in. I thought it was really going to be a gum for kids…. sour and all. But it wasn’t. As strong as the smell was, the taste was nice. I mean it was totally watermelon, but not a sour one. It is good… and with just a hint of that gum mint to it after you chew it for a little bit. (does that make sense).  I know the kids will love it, but it is a refreshing favor for adults.

There were ICEE’s there. I love Icee’s! I have always liked the Coke best. They are coming out with Root Beer float and a blueberry one (oops forget the name of it). I tried the root beer. It is awesome! It really tastes like a float. The foaminess of the Icee is just the right consistency.  I do have a new favorite favor.  You will have to watch for them to be released. (Try the root beer!!)

Dr. Pepper was there… giving away guitars and pictures with a couple cute girls.  What did I like? They had diet Dr. Pepper. It is one of my favorites. Really nice people too… also learning about social media and how it could benefit them. (Yes…. I had 2 diet Dr. Peppers that afternoon.. although there were other drinks I could have picked from.)

Are you used to seeing gas pump handles?  I wasn’t.. I thought they were cool.

What about a full size gas semi?  I wanted to get in and see the cab… but I didn’t.

John Andrews from Collective Bias was there. This is who these people need to talk to about social Media.. he knows first hand how the power of bloggers and social media can benefit the Brands. (That is what Collective Bias is all about)

The announced to the whole group of managers that they were taking us all to Disney World on Monday evening. That was about 3:30 and we had about 45 minutes to get ready to be on the buses.

I got to have dinner with the Collective Bias team that was there, Jerra and John and also with Casey from Murphy USA and John Kim from Whrrl. Also Kerry and Kristine from Nomadic were there.

Us bloggers ran around together at Disney. Mel Lockcuff from MamaBuzz and Leigh Caldwell from Theme Park Mom

Along with Courtney Solstad from My DFW Mommy and Melissa Garcia from Consumer Queen Jerri Ann from Mom~e~Centric was on the trip but didn’t come to Disney.

Mel introduced us to Dole Whip.. it was good.

I also got a picture with Eeyore. what fun!  I don’t know… I guess there is still kid in all of us!

Jerra from Collective Bias looked so cute with Piglet.

We had a full day on Tuesday and they announced all the Murphy USA Circle of Winners. After that they again surprised everyone with a trip to Sea World. I felt terrible because it was pouring rain, and storming.  But they had rented out half of Sea World and 2 roller coaster (announcing there were 2 coaster got a bigger whoop out of everyone than telling them they were going to Sea World).
I didn’t go. Even if it was beautiful outside, my feet hurt so bad (I’m such a wimp) and I hadn’t had a chance to get work done that I need to get done on my computer. So I took the evening off and had a wonderful dinner with Mel and Leigh..and then went back to my room and relaxed.

Thanks so much Murphy USA, Collective Bias and Whrrl.. it was great fun!

Disclosure: My trip was sponsored by Murphy USA and Collective Bias.

Disney Social Media Moms Conference – Day 2

Conference Day 2 at Disney World!

We got some fantastic information from our speakers today, and had a great dinner with dancing afterward at Hollywood Studios Disney Junior. I’ll take you through the day and evening.

The main portion of the conference was on Friday March 18th – which just happened to be my birthday! It was so much fun to be in Florida, at Disney, with my blogging friends, where it was beautiful sunny and warm… on my birthday! The only negative part was that my own family wasn’t able to be with me at Disney.

We began the morning by walking into this beautifully decorated huge room where the speakers would be.  They even thought to have a power strips at every table! Awesome extra!

Look how pretty the table arrangement was! You can’t see that the clear castle has a blue light that glows at the base.

The first speaker was Meg Crofton, the President of Walt Disney World

We also heard from Matt Jacobson, head of marketing for Facebook.  I realized how much more you could do with FB. I’m going to have to work on that. He took loads of questions from us bloggers and admitted that most of the groups he talks to, do not use it the same way we do. He was surprised by a few of the questions asked and didn’t realize some of the issues that we have problems with.  I think he was educated a bit himself.

Rene’ Syler was an awesome speaker. She got a standing “O” from us bloggers! She was real, she was inspiring and she has been through the ringer.  This isn’t a great picture of her.  I wish I had gotten her great smile. She had us in stitches and tears.    She has a blog called Good Enough Mother that you should check out.

They had some raffles going on and gave away some Dooney & Bourke Handbags and also a night in Cinderella’s castle!  The Fairy Godmother got to present it to Andrea Deckard from Savings Lifestyle! She got to take 5 other bloggers with her to stay the night. You can read about her experience here.

Fran Capo posed as a blogger before she got on stage. She is the worlds fastest female talker, comedian, author and motivational speaker.

We had a yummy lunch and when we went back to the room after lunch we had this little cutie gracing each of our seats!

Minnie Mouse Princess Leia dressed and ready for Star Tours – The Adventure! It is coming back to Disney Hollywood Studios on May 20th, 2011.

Chris Brogan was great as always. I love listening to Chris speak. He has some great insights and just says it like it is.

We were served champagne!  That is a different kind of afternoon snack for a mom conference! lol  Probably better than chocolate, because I didn’t drink much champagne, but I would have been up for the chocolate!

We were then treated to Susan Egan who sang most of her speaking time. She has such a beautiful voice. She played Bell in Beauty in the Beast on Broadway for two years and she is also the voice of Meg in Hercules, along with a zillion other roles.

Also playing and singing with her was Georgia Stitt who is an award winning composer and a lyricist. They had great harmony on some of the songs they sang together.

The great table center piece they said would go to the blogger at each table who had the closest birthday to today’s date which was March 18th. Guess who?  lol  One fun thing about having a birthday while at a conference.  But – there wasn’t any way I could take this on an airplane!  It just so happened that Amy Hodges at our table was local and she had just been admiring how cool the light up castle was in the arrangement.  So I took a picture to remember it by and gave it to her.

Then someone at our table suggested we all get our picture taken together.

From left top: Maria Strong from Saving Queen; Connie Robers from Brain Foggles; Kim Janocko from Crafty Mama of 4; me; April from Simply the Sweet Life Magazine; Amy Hodges from A Million Boxes and in front is Jennifer Leet from The Dirty Shirt

After the conference sessions my roomie Zippy from Champagne Living came! She tried to get into the conference, but like so many others who tried that afternoon, she wasn’t able to get in.  But.. since it ended up that we just couldn’t afford the airfare for the whole family to come, I was able to invite Zippy to stay with me. She got to come as my family member. lol (sis!)
We had a wonderful time talking and eating and walking and talking and eating.. lol

Friday night was Hollywood Studios!  All gazillion of the bloggers, mostly with families loaded onto buses and headed out.

So many tables were set up. I don’t know the exact number of how many people including families were there… but it was a lot!

They had it all set up for the kids.  Lots of food and then they had food set up for the kids. I love how they make sure the kids have food they like to eat.  I snuck over to the kids table to get a cupcake. I figured.. it was my birthday and I wanted to have some birthday cake. lol

I love these pictures of Kim’s  kids.  Doesn’t that just epitomize a kid after a day at Disney?  Tired eyes, blank star, Mickey ears on crooked, eating a Mickey rice krispy treat. lol

Her younger son enjoying his also

The kids all got to dance and have a great time with music and characters

With kids trying to see over crowds and having a little help from their dads -

To Quatro Mom and Dad from 4tunate feeding their boys.

Everyone loves the characters at Disney

And Donald Duck

I had to get a picture of Daisy Duck for my step daughter.

And I think this is one of my favorites.  Look at the little girl on the left! Arms spread out, ready for a big hug!  How precious is that?  I love it!

If you happen to know who’s daughter the little girl on the left is, please let me know. I’d like to send them this picture.

Thank you  Disney World, Maria Bailey and Amy Lupold Bair,  and Susan & Janet from 5 Minutes for Mom and all the sponsors.

This trip was heavily sponsored through Disney Social Media Moms, but I did pay the required charge for it and full air fare.

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.