Mom 2.0 Summit – Conference Recap

A couple weeks ago, I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit in Laguna Niguel. A few of my blogger friends praised it so much last year that I had to buy my ticket and attend this year. Plus it was in OC, which is only an hour and a half drive away.

The Wife and Toddler Spawn came with me as it was their first time at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. What better way to introduce Spawn to the beach than a clean, safe and welcoming beach like Laguna Niguel?

Our hotel room was big enough for the three of us, and Toddler Spawn seemed excited to see the pool and be in another space. Of course, I brought my Rodan +Fields skincare! And OF COURSE, I forgot my foundation. But guess what, my skin is so awesome now, I didn’t need it. Talk about a walking billboard, folks. (See pics below…. )

Let me get a couple things out of the way. My goals for this conference was to learn more about photography, livestreaming/video and network with bloggers and brands. I accomplished this in varying degrees. The lofty goal was to meet Luvvie of Awesomely Luvvie. Guess what – mission accomplished.

But my accidental run-in on my first day was THE BEST – I met an astronaut. A REAL NASA MADE-IN-THE-USA ASTRONAUT!! I never got to really talk to her again because everyone seemed to swarm all over her, but I did get a selfie with COLONEL CADY.

Takeaways from the only session I paid attention to – the visual storytelling session with LaShawn Wiltz and Jennifer Borget:
1. Try stop-motion photography for sponsored posts or organic posts. (I am too impatient to try this.)
2. Use dashes in your titles and the name of the photo file (this is the backend stuff on WP).
ex. i-love-granola-make-your-own-granola-bowl-quaker-oats
3. Great sources for stock photography: Deposit Photos; Adobe Stock; Stocksy; Pixabay; Unsplash; ThinkStock.
4. “If you can’t take pretty pictures – learn or pay.” – LaShawn Wiltz
5. Never take photos from Google – Good god. I don’t know how many times I tell this to clients and yet they still do it. (or bloggers.)
6. “The best camera is the one you have with you.” – LaShawn Wiltz

That’s pretty much it.

I sat in a few other sessions and left shortly. Most of the panels didn’t seem relevant to my blog or interests. I’m a fan of panels that give concrete examples and actionable tactics and strategies.

I ran into my friend Xenia who was covering the summit via social media, and I finally met Amber in person. Man, that hotel lighting is terrible…

 

The evening ended with a kick-off party where I sat with my friend and colleague Lindsay, Cady (ASTRONAUT CADY) and several brand reps. It was freezing, being next to the water. So we ended the night in the lobby, chatting and meeting new bloggers.

The next morning, I got up at 6am to do yoga. It was MF freezing. But if I didn’t get up, I’d never get this shot.

Or this one.

The day went well. I met with more brands and got my hair did by Dove and headshots by Kia. Sidenote: Here’s where I have no foundation on; just eyebrows, eyeliner, blush and lip. Clear, bright skin, y’all!

I went through as many brand activations as I could but some of them weren’t relevant to my blog. Why force it, right? Sidenote: The person who photobombed my Dove photo? Dooce.

I got fitted for a new bra – a non-nursing bra! Thanks, Vanity Fair. I also took a lot of punny photos, which the brand reps either laughed with me or cringed at me.

Treetop poured a cup of fresh pressed apple juice for me, and I ran over to the Dove suite for some champagne. You’re welcome, attendees. I absolutely love the Withings tracker watch. It looks nothing like a typical fitness tracker, and I am surprised there aren’t more people talking about it.

I found my 1×1 session with Abby at Shareasale to be very helpful. Sharesale is an affiliate network, and I have found their interface to be the simplest to use. Abby sent me home with reminders on where I could improve on this blog and on my other sites.

The best learning was from networking with other bloggers and brands and actually doing. So that’s what Melissa Dell and I did. I learned a little more about livestreaming on Facebook Live when we rode and drove a Kia!

Here’s what I learned (through my experience with Melissa):
1. Have a few talking points on-hand to help decrease any lulls in the conversation – this was impossible for me because I was driving a foreign (no pun intended) car.
2. Distracted driving is truly dangerous – I had a hard time concentrating on driving, listening to the navigation and keeping a conversation with Melissa.
3. Use PG-13 ‘curse’ words if you are naturally R-rated like me.

I did end up meeting Luvvie!

 

I also ran into Carolyn and Trina, and we all went to grab some ramen. It was nice to catch up with them because I hadn’t really seen them since before Spawn was born.

I also met a few other bloggers in person, finally, like Jillian and Sara.

In the end, I went home with more ideas and to-dos, more work for this blog as well as plans to build out a new separate site.

So where do I sign up for more hours in the day? 

 

 

 

Post contains affiliate links. This is not a sponsored post. I paid a ton of money to attend this conference and shelled out even more for the hotel room. My wallet is hurting so yeah, affiliate links.