I am so glad I took the jump to attend the Mom2.0Summit held in Orlando, May 10-12.  A week ago I was awake at 3:00 a.m. to catch a 6:15 a.m. flight to Orlando. I don’t do early flights anymore, but I didn’t want to miss a minute of this conference! I don’t usually attend blogging conferences.  The last one I attended I was invited to by Disney Social Media Moms.  But I want to grow my network; learn new skills and begin with with affiliates and brands. So I needed the guidance and education from a conference just like this to get the education I need.

How I found the Mom2.0Summit

I stumbled across the conference in my Facebook news feed and learned that someone needed to back out of the conference and could transfer their ticket to me.  I jumped on the opportunity right away!  I was so excited, did some shopping for a few new outfits, as most women usually do.  Then I had to face the fact that I had to tell the kids I was going away during a school week.  They are usually used to me traveling for races, but they were having a hard time with this trip. It meant that I wouldn’t be there when they woke up for three school days.  But I was going to FaceTime them as much as possible.

Highlight number 1 – the Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes is beautiful

WOW!!! From the minute I arrive to the Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes via Kia’s curbside pickups, to the time I had to shove every possible gift into every inch of my luggage, I was blown away. This conference was INCREDIBLE!  I loved the room I had.  I unpacked all my carefully packed items so they weren’t going to be wrinkled, hung them in my closet, laid out everything for the week, set up my diffuser in my room for my essential oils at night, and then went down to the pool for lunch.

Highlight number 2 – Everyone is so welcoming!

I knew of two people attending the conference that I met at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and also knew from runDisney; but other than that, I was going solo.  And this was my first time attending this conference.  But I approached it like I do everything else.  I had an open mind, a smile, and a positive attitude.  When I reached the pool bar and didn’t see a large crowd there, I asked two women if I could join them for lunch.  They were very welcoming and the next thing I knew there was a crowd of six of us enjoying lunch and a cocktail before registration opened.  I met Lizz Porter, Mona Darling, Jenn Belden, Sharon Rowley, and Michelle Price.

Highlight number 3 – The jump start workshops were fantastic!

I was going to attend the newbie workshop but Mona from lunch recommended the program to “Find, Own and Monetize Your Expertise”.  Great advice, thanks, Mona!  I loved the idea of jumping right into learning and decided that I wanted to do that instead of a newbie overview workshop.  I was a sponge and I wanted to learn, learn, learn.  I also attended “The Art of Negotiation”, “Strategies for Creating Consistent Affiliate Income”, and “Taking The Mystery Out Of Blog Campaign Reporting”.  The workshops were great.  I’m still trying to wrap my brain around everything I learned and formulate a strategy for how to move forward, connect with third-party media agencies and become an affiliate to various brands.

Highlight number 4 – The Swag

As soon as the workshop was over, I went back up to my room, changed into a party dress, and plugged in my devices to charge them up for the night.  When I arrived at the room I had a gift waiting for me from Olive Garden.  Then not long after that, there was a knock at the door.  It was a swag bag full of goodies from all of the vendors who would be at the Marketplace throughout the week.  I am glad I packed a semi-empty carry-on to bring home all of the extra goodies with me!

 

 

Highlight number 5 – The Florida SunFest Welcome Party

I went down to the pool and bumped into my lunch buddies again, picked up a delicious cocktail called the Sunrise, and then got into line for the book signing of Everything, Everything by Nicole Yoon.  I hooked up with Kori Lusignan, Kristina Grum, Michelle Albright-Peters, and Jenn Labit, while waiting in line for the book signing.  Then after we ate I met Erin Peloquin, Lori Strong, and Sara Strong.  The food was wonderful, the night was beautiful, the conversations were easy, and the drinks kept flowing.  I really had a great time and was so glad to meet such great people.  I also spotted Cat & Nat from #MomTruth and wanted to go up and say hi to them, but someone else was talking with them and I didn’t want to seem like the stalker I was!

The party ended around 9:30 and we all went back to our rooms.  We had a busy day planned the next day with a 6:45 a.m. yoga class out in the garden.  I was looking forward to that.  Thankfully, I didn’t feel or look like I had been up since 3:00 a.m. that day.  I think the adrenaline of the conference kept me perked up.  So far Mom2.0Summit was more than I expected and I was so glad to be there.