Blissdom Newbie Recap-Wednesday and Thursday!

 

 

I don’t even know where to begin.

I feel like to recap my Blissdom trip it would be so many different posts so I will try and post as little as possible (but if you want more I can do that, let me know)

I first want to say how grateful I am for Kleenex. They generously sponsored for me to attend Blissdom. I was so happy to work with a company I truly believe in and love. Kleenex has always been in my life from the happy moments to the sad moments!

I arrived in Nashville after a quick 40 minute flight from Saint Louis!

This is what I found waiting for me my the Baggage Claim.

Arriving at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, I was so overwhelmed! It is HUGE! It’s beautiful but just getting to my room I had to pull out my map several times.

I got to meet my roomie Katie from Domestic Debacle and she walked me down to Registration where I checked in and got my name badge and my bag of goodies!

I walked around the hotel for a little bit and was able to check everything out. I know I didn’t even get to explore all of it though!

Wednesday night was the “Cocktail Party” sponsored by ConAgra. I had heard on Twitter that it was going to be dressy so I bought a dress {and I am so not a dress person} to wear. I should have known that the party would have been a good mix of dressy and casual. There were definitely lots of jeans. Now I know for next year {hopefully if I go!} that jeans are the way to go–for me! Wear what you are COMFORTABLE with!

I really knew NO ONE down at the Cocktail Party, so immediately got in line for some “liquid courage” in the form of the Blissdom Blossom.

YUM!

In line, I got to meet Tela, who blogs for the site Working Moms Against Guilt. She was super nice and I was happy to connect with someone. We sampled some of the foods from ConAgra {mini burgers, chips and guacamole} and got to chat. I also got to meet the Dr. Baby Mama Drama! She was great to talk with!

I left the party early and headed back to the room to Skype with my cutie! Oh, it was so good to see him! Homesickness was hitting me hard then. He was too cute calling out Mama and trying to look behind Heath’s iPhone to see where I was. I loved being able to see him and Heath.

I wasn’t sure what I should do after that, if I should head back to the party.

After logging on to Twitter to check out the #Blissdom stream I connected with Kristin from Taming Insanity {Who I LOVE!} and she told me they were having dinner at Wasabi, one of the MANY restaurants that the Opryalnd Hotel has.

I got to meet Kristin and Liz in person in addition to some others! I tried some California Rolls {I opted not to go with the Octopus, thank you very much!} and almost burned my tongue off when I tried some Wasabi. {Note to self: Don’t touch the green stuff. Ever again.}

After dinner I walked around some more around the hotel. I headed down to the convention center part where they were doing a Sneak Peek preview of CMT’s new show. It was in full swing though, so I didn’t go in. I opted instead to get a glass of wine from the open wine bar and chat with some people outside the screening. After awhile it was about 11pm and I was super tired so I walked back to my room.

It was nice to decompress in my room and have some alone time before my roomie got back to the room. 😉

The next morning we were both up at 6:45! I had set my alarm for 7am but I woke up at 6:45 ready to go. Luckily, Katie was up also so we got to chat while we got dressed.

Breakfast was at 8am and we were meeting Kleenex so we left the room around 7:45am to get there. Yes, I said 7:45am. It took 15 min to walk from where we were staying in the hotel over to the Convention Center.

We grabbed some yummy breakfast and got to chat with the wonderful ladies of Kleenex, Amy and Carolyn, and also the girls from Ketchum!

The video that Blissdom opened with blew me away. It gave me chills. Do you think you are just a “Mom Blogger?”

You are so not.

Video by Liz of  a belle, a bean & a chicago dog

The opening keynote was by Dr. Brene Brown. She was really inspiring to listen to and inspired ME to cut the negative out of my life and be confident!

We got to hear from Jennifer James about having an anonymous blog (Unfortunately, she didn’t tell us what her anonymous blogs were!)

After that we were able to explore the Expo Hall a bit. There were many booths of different brands {including the Kleenex booth, but more on that in a different post!}!

I loved stopping by the Hallmark booth. I got to do a video answering the question: What’s Your Idea of a Perfectly Imperfect moment with your kids?

Check out the Hallmark site–my video is up there!

I had to head back to the room because I got to participate in a phone interview Katherine Heigl {more on that in a different post!} but I’ll tell you she was super nice and sweet.

After the interview I explored a little bit more, checking out the amazing new GE Washer and Dryer {the washer? It will dry stuff too!} and talking to the Barnes and Noble guys who tried hard to convince me to upgrade my Nook to a color Nook.

Next up: Panels!

I choose to attend the “Peek Behind the Curtain of PR-Blogger Relations”.

It was a valuable session led by Anna Lingeris, Kelly Olexa and Dina Freeman.

I won’t write down all the notes I took but if you have any specific questions, please let me know! I’d be happy to answer!

Some of the biggest things I took away:

YOU are incredibly valuable.

PR-Blogger Relationships are a two way street.

Talk about your experience with the product!

Oh, and uh, check your spelling! 😉

Next up was “Navigating Brand Partnerships”.

Again, valuable advice by Shelly Kramer, Ana Roca Castro and Nancy Smith.

Biggest things I took away:

Be unique!

Be professional!

Even if you have a niche blog, reach out to brands and let them know how you can help sell their product!

BREAK TIME!

It was nice to decompress some more in my room, chat with my boys some more and relax!

At 6:30pm though was the Total Bliss at the District event sponsored by Jockey. You got to walk the red carpet and take some pictures. I so do not know how to work the camera but there were some ladies who were rockin’ it!

Dinner was at the “Get Out Cafe” sponsored by Tide. I’m pretty sure they served the messiest food possible because they WANTED you to spill your food or drink {Red Wine!} all over your pretty clothes and then have to use the Tide Stain pens to get the stains out! 😉

I was excited to meet @kathill {Who is going to the Disney Moms Conference NEXT month, woot!) and @wellreadwife.

They were so super nice!

Then we got to listen to Michelle Branch perform. She was super sweet and was awesome to listen to. She also sang a lot more songs that I knew. It was pretty cool to be up so close.

Then Mat Kearney performed next. I had never heard of him {Whoops!} but knew every song that he sang! He was very funny and very interactive with the audience.

I love Twitter. Because with Twitter I was able to connect with Liz from A Nut in a Nutshell and Stephanie from The Blue Zoo.

These girls? Are amazing. They totally put me at ease and it was so great talking to them.

We headed up to the inCourage Party which was CRAZY busy! We couldn’t really even walk or talk but at least they has caffeine. I need my Diet Coke.

But it was great to visit and learn more about inCourage and their wonderful products.

By then it was about 11pm and I was DONE. It had been a long day {as you can tell from this long post} and I was ready for bed!

I was grateful for what I was learning and the people I was meeting but I was so homesick!

More this week on the rest of Blissdom! 😉