Blogher 2010: Day Three

The alarm went off much too early for me on the last day of the conference. Without waking my travel companions I got ready and slipped out of the room.

Events

Heather Sokol, the founder of Inexpensively had organized a breakfast for frugal bloggers called Bacon, Eggs and Coupons. (Yes, that is a super-cute name!) It was at Rue 57 restaurant which is three blocks away from the hotel and started at…7 am.

I had to navigate there without coffee but luckily it was a straight shot down 6^thAvenue. It was so fun to chat with other bloggers with the same interest and interesting to see how we write it about from different perspectives (personal finance, couponing, deals and simple living). I also learned why you might want to attend the sex blogger session. More to come on that in the next post.

The ladies from my table in the photo below are: Denise from Shopper Strategy, Sarah from Sew With Sarah, Heather from Passion for Savings, Krista and Jaime from Shop At Home.

The buffet breakfast, sponsored by Savvy Source, Red Plum, and RetailmeNot  included mimosas, much needed coffee, the tastiest scrambled eggs, bacon, breakfast breads and more.

It was an enjoyable walk back to the Hilton New York chatting with new friends about BlogHer, science fiction and technology.

I had two private swag bag pickups scheduled and after picking up the first one tried to get into a session on social media and couldn’t make it through the door. So, I attempted to catch up on email while waiting for the second bag pickup courtesy of The Product Review Place. I got my very favorite item here (which was only one item out of many great things) which was a Vera Bradley bag. Thanks Lisa and Stacie!

Conference

I had signed up for lunch with the Frugal Bloggers via a clipboard but couldn’t figure out where to find them so joined a table in the grand ballroom. Met a couple of interesting ladies in my age group and we decided it would be nice to have a boomer track.

After lunch I headed over to the expo to pick up my Dora the Explorer t-shirt which was silk-screened with my name (ordered day before). I also wanted to meet Jen from Frugal Upstate at the Walmart booth. 

I felt like an old friend after reading about Jen and her family the past year.  It was great to meet in person.

The organizers had a shipping station where Pepsi sponsored the packaging and the sender paid shipping fees. I had to figure out what needed to get shipped and ended up sending three boxes home. This is on top of a large suitcase full.

They also had a swag exchange room where people could turn in items they didn’t want and others could take it.  Idropped off several things and then  picked up a couple of items including a Mr. Potato Head for my brother.

After that I made it to the closing keynote panel of accomplished women. They were so impressive and interesting but the room was freezing. I made it through the scheduled time of the session but snuck out after 20 minutes of overtime because it was party time!

Parties

There are four official parties to end the conference and we hit all of them. The Green Affair gave you one drink ticket, caramel apples, snow cones, organic popcorn, fruit and vegetable kebobs. There was a tattoo artist (temporary) and a tarot card reader.

Microsoft gave away $100 gift cards to The Body Shop for whoever answered various “green” questions first via twitter. My brother and I each won one. They also handed out bags to everyone with a metal water bottle and Trader Joe fair trade chocolate bars.

While waiting in the tattoo line we were chatting with some fun ladies. After 20 minutes I realized one was Danielle Liss (formerly of the Frugal Lawyer). It was screams and hugs!

The next party (which started at the same time as the Green Affair) was Bloggy State of Mind. There was hot appetizers and chips along with another drink coupon. We wore foam hats and got a goodie bag with cute purse hooks.

There was a trio of fantastic dancers (we would have called them break dancers 20 years ago but not sure what it’s called now) to get the party started. After their performance, they got the ladies dancing various group dances and it was a lot of fun.

Sparklecorn was the next party and my personal favorite. There were glow sticks galore to make jewelry with and I soon had bracelets, headbands and necklace. In addition t the drink coupon every attendee got a t-shirt to remind us of the party until next year.

Food here was hot pretzels with mustard, mixed nuts, chips and mini pretzels. The highlight was a unicorn and castle cake rumored to be made by Ace of Cakes on twitter . I don’t know if it’s true but the sheet cakes were delish! NOTE: This has been confirmed. 

The music was enjoyable and lots of people were dancing here on the largest floor of the night.

The final party of the night (and one we hit briefly) was CheeseBurgHer where the tradition is to eat McDonald’s cheeseburgers and wear their bags on your head.

In addition to the drink coupon, attendees received a coupon for a free Angus wrap (which we also sampled at the party) and mardi gras beads to wear along with our decorated bags. The decorating stations included stick ons, flowers, markers and more.

The room was decorated with couches and full size beds in addition to tables. There was a photo booth there but it wasn’t working before we left. The music was loud and we “older folks” were tired. 

The conference has ended but we have one more event tomorrow.

Post Conference

When visiting the SoyJoy booth on Friday I was invited to a breakfast buffet on Sunday.  I declined due to being with my siblings but the representative said they could come as well so we signed up. 

It was at Le Parker Meridien at 10:30 on the Penthouse level.  The view was incredible and the food was delicious.  More impressive is the speakers at the panel discussion on healthy snacking.

The trio of presenters included Cynthia Sass of Flat Belly Diet, Jackie Newgent of Big Green Cookbook, and Harley Pasternak of 5 Factor World Diet.

Our gift bag included Soyjoy bars and a copy of one of the above books.  I have Cynthia’s and can’t wait to read it!

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My next post will be a summary of my favorite things about the conference and what I learned in terms of my strategy there.  Thanks for sticking through this extra long post!

Tagged as: Blogging, Conference