Over 3500-4000 people, including bloggers, editors, and a plethora of consumer companies, descended on beautiful San Diego, CA for the 2011 BlogHer Conference this past weekend. During this annual gathering of the most amazing women and brands in the blogoshpere, each day is a bustling whirlwind of events, panels, meetings, lunches, seminars, trade show presentations, parties, and then preparing to repeat it all again the next day. Whew! As exhausting as it may sound, it’s always a wonderful experience to cultivate social media relationships into real life connections, share ideas, show support, and enjoy the fellowship of brand partners, sponsors, and blogging friends.
I kicked off this year’s conference Thursday night, hosting a BlogHerStyle Tweet Up at the super chic W Hotel San Diego rooftop Beach Bar with our partners in tech, Postano, and our fabulous conference fashion sponsor, TJ Maxx and Marshalls. It was a beautiful balmy night to relax before the conference began, kick off our shoes, and enjoy goodies and giveaways from SpaWeek, Brahmin Handbags, Yummie Tummie, iChill, TJ Maxx/Marshalls, and Postano. Postano is an awesome aggregating tool/service perfect for brands and bloggers to house all their social media updates in one place. You can check it out live in the STYLEMOM Social Scene.
Friday morning conference day one – RINGGG! The alarm goes off at the a$$ crack of dawn, I order breakfast and coffee, shower, and slip into a Calvin Klein camel cargo dress from TJMaxx with Coach silver and gold leather platform sandals, and zoom over to Fox 5 San Diego for a mommy style TV segment, before heading to the conference and convention center.
As soon as the segment is over, I leave the station, drop off the samples to my hotel room, and make a mad dash to the Marriott Marquis & Marina to meet up with the CVS team and co-hosts/fellow CVS Beauty Board lovelies, Mickey Williams, Keiko Lynn, and Milly Almodovar to get ready for the fabulous CVS Beauty Lunch.
We had an amazing time helping so many blogging beauties recharge, refresh, and glam up for the rest of their busy day, with a delicious lunch, make-up applications from the new Salma Hayek Nuance cosmetics collection, and styling touch ups complete with their very own photo shoots.
CVS Beauty Board: (L-R) Mickey Williams, Nichelle Pace, Keiko Lynn, Milly Almodovar
After a few meetings, quick change into my vanilla scented Okabashi flip-flops, and checked out the BlogHer Expo that afternoon with Milly, where we stuffed our faces with Jimmy Dean pancake/turkey sausage sticks (me and the Sun go way back to last year’s BlogHer 😉 ), and I got a much needed foot massage and pair of fast flats from Dr. Scholl’s. That evening, I finally had time to enjoy a double date Mexican dinner outside of San Diego with my guy and his friends, before getting back to get some rest.
Saturday morning, I wished I could sleep in, but rescheduled my session with the HTC team at their Quietly Brilliant Lounge for 10:30 a.m.. After what seemed like a 100 mile walk to the back end of the convention center, I had a wonderful time discussing mobile phone needs and dislikes, as well as designing the “ultimate dream phone” as a research activity for HTC. After a few impromptu girl power meetings, I finally make my way back to my room from the convention center mid-afternoon.
With only minutes to freshen up before the Moms Fashion File – Secret Style Suite session, I quickly change into a tie-waist denim shirt dress by Tommy Hillfiger from TJMaxx, then hustle over to the Hard Rock Hotel. I had the pleasure of acting as a “Secret Style agent” to help pull together the final looks for one of the MFF mommy make over winners, Candace Broom (aka CanCan), editor of Mom Most Traveled. The personal highlight for me, was seeing my “sister” in fashion and all things life, Bethany Winters aka LA Stylist Mom, who was also a style agent, as well as hanging out with celebrity make-up artist Tia Dantzler, and meeting Ginny Cardenas, beauty mom and founder of Scotch Naturals and Hopscotch Kids non-toxic nail polish
(Top L – Nichelle & Bethany Winters R – Ginny shows off Scotch Naturals
Bottom L – Tia Dantzler gets Candace photo ready R – Candace strikes a hot mama pose with her new makeover – gorgeous!)
To end the night, after showing off our BlogHer war wounds, Rachel Ferrucci & I, did a little party hopping for the closing night of the conference. It was so wonderful to connect with her and many of my other digital diva friends I don’t get to see that often. But alas, fashion week is coming, and there’s no rest for me post-blogher….next stop, Lincoln Center.
Be sure to check out all the pics from the 2011 BlogHer Conference events at Facebook.com/STYLEMOM!!
