Beth Blair

Archive for July, 2010

After “National Lampoon’s Vacation” Clark Griswold became an American road trip icon dad while the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (aka the Griswold station wagon) represented the the 80′s popular mode of transportation (the Swagger Wagon of yesteryear). It’s special to me because my parents drove a very similar station wagon. My folks would pile us five kids in our own wood-panel wagon and drive us through the byways of Louisiana and Mississippi or to the Alabama and Florida beaches. Those trips are what inspired me to pursue travel as a career.

More recently though, you might remember the HomeAway Super Bowl advertising campaign featuring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo. Well, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster featured in the commercial is on the road this summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day promoting HomeAway vacation rentals.  The wagon is stopping at destinations across America and this past weekend it came though the Twin Cities. The timing was perfect because it was the weekend of the Minnesota Red Bull Flugtag (homemade flying contraption competition) and there was an entry called Team Griswold, aka Team 20. The Family Truckster Team designed the green station wagon with wings!  We attended the event and even saw Team Griswold “fly.” It looked great and even came in 3rd place (the world record was broken by the 1st place winner). After that we headed over to Minneapolis restaurant Joe’s Garage where the Truckster was parked.

HomeAway had asked me if I’d like to be part of their promotion and ride in the Truckster as one of their bloggers this summer. I had to decline but my friend Jennifer Miner is going to be representing The Vacation Gals on a stretch of the trip departing from Seattle this weekend. She’ll have a great time.

While I didn’t get to ride in the Truckster my family did snap some photos with this famous station wagon. If you do the same as it comes through your town, be sure to enter the contest on Facebook. HomeAway is giving away a few vacations this summer.

If you receive HARO you may have already seen this call-out. For SheKnows.com: I’m looking for advice and quotes on these four topics. If you have insight or advice, I’d love to hear it. Here are the topics I’m covering:

• 3 Quick daytime up-dos
• Easy ways to tell your hair style isn’t working for you
• Simple hair styles for your little girl
• Real women share their simple haircare tips

Please email me: bethblairwrites @ gmail.com.

Thank you!

I_Blog 2010 is officially scheduled for November 5-7 in Perry, Iowa. I’m particularly excited because I have the opportunity to present at this second annual convention on a topic I know very well. My session is called Pitch from Your Passion: Get Paid for Writing About What You Love.

The Midwest was in need of a conference geared toward the new wave of blogging and mastermind Jody Halsted deserves a standing ovation for all of her hard work and dedication to creating this conference. Talk about passion!

Other scheduled  speakers and sessions include:

• Blogging Basics — Melanie Nelson, co-author Typepad for Dummies

• SEO and Why It Matters — Angela England, editor Blissfully Domestic

• How to Utilize LinkedIn — representative from LinkedIn

• How to Use Social Media to Build Your Online Presence — Claire Celsi, the PR Princess

• Intellectual Content vs. Owned Content — Brett Trout, P.C.

• How to Make Money from Your Blog — Melanie Nelson and Angela England

• How to Use Your Camera to Add Great Content to Your Site — Darcy and Randy Milder from His N Hers Photography

One of the conference’s cool features is Destination Midwest. This event is scheduled for Saturday night and will bring together attendees and Midwest destination representatives. The bloggers will have the opportunity to discover several Midwest destination and learn what makes these locations great. It’s a social media match made in heaven and being that I’m fairly new to the Midwest I can tell you that I’m certainly looking forward to hearing more about new places in my region.

Registration is $199 for a full conference ticket but you may choose to attend “a la carte” via the following breakdown:

Saturday only: $100

Friday evening social: $50

Destination Midwest Saturday evening event: $50

Interested in attending? Purchase your ticket to I_Blog by clicking on the badge above. It will take you right to the online ticket information.

The I_Blog conference is going to be held at Hotel Pattee. This isn’t your average lodging or meeting location. This hotel opened in 1913. Today, each guest room in this boutique hotel is uniquely and eloquently decorated with a story to tell.

In addition to the conference I can’t wait for the face-to-face meetings, networking and socializing that goes along with such an event. If you’re planning on attending I_Blog let me know. I look forward to meeting you in Iowa!