Beth Blair

Archive for September, 2010

Ever since I was a child the first thing I would do upon entering a hotel room was run to the window and look out at the view. Today, when my family travels it’s no surprise my children do the same. Sometimes during our stay I will catch them simply staring  out the window watching the sites. They’re also a big fan of balconies, especially the rare time a hot air balloon floated by. (Just as a reminder to parents, never let your children go out onto a hotel balcony alone.) Here are a few photos I’ve taken over the years of my children enjoying our hotel rooms with a view during our travels. The last photo, taken this summer, is my absolute favorite.

Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort 2008

Omni San Diego 2008 (watching the planes land on the other side of the city)

JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa 2009

Hyatt Regency Downtown Albuquerque 2009

Hyatt Regency Downtown Denver 2009

Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate 2010

Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate 2010

Hampton Inn and Suites Buffalo Downtown 2010

Last weekend the first Minnesota Blogger Conference was held at St. Paul’s CoCo. This event brought in 148 Minnesota bloggers and two babies(!) and it was  free . The conference was the brainchild of Arik Hanson and Missy Berggren who worked their magic and pull off a professional, well orchestrated event. It was great fun walking in and being greeted by Suzi Magill and Katie Schutrop who were there super early Saturday morning. The sponsors who made the day possible were extremely generous. A huge thank you to CoCo (coworking and collaborative space), Fabuliss, WCCO.com, Olson, Top Rank Online Marketing and one of my favorite St. Paul restaurants, Kindness Café who provided lunch. The logo (see left) was designed by Marcus Baysinger of Baysinger Designs.

I also got to hang with many bloggers I had met before such as Debbie Ferm, Stephanie Meyer and Kara McGuire. But not only did I get to catchup up with people, I met some fascinating people as well, a couple who stood out were the uber-cool Sasha from Fabuliss and the incredibly talented Kate Hopper who teaches at  The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

The most difficult part for me was deciding which breakout session to attend. As always, I’m sure I could have brought away something from every session. I enjoyed Toby Cryns presentation on CSS for WordPress which he revealed some great plugins and sources like css3generator.com. Toby knows his stuff and it shows. Attorney Kara Jensen Zitnick and Sallisha Armour of LaunchHer.com did a brilliant job of attacking The Business of Bogging: the legal side of trademarks, copyright, marketing and more. There is no doubt that every blogger should invest time in this subject. Bonnie Harris of Wax Marketing sparkled while offering some great advice to us bloggers about their relationship with PR people, something I am very familiar with, and she provided some fun examples and insight on blogs that have gone to the next level and scored a book deal. I’m pretty sure this is the new American dream (think Sh*t My Dad Says). Adam Singer rocked in his SEO presentation. While hiring someone to assess you site might seem tempting, Adam showed jazzing up SEO on your site is quite simple with a few tricks.

The most poignant moment of the day was hearing key note speaker Matt Logelin tell his story. I “met” Matt over the phone several months ago when I interviewed him for a Father’s Day article about amazing dads. He was generous with his time back then sharing what he learned and the importance of his role as a father. But nothing beats hearing and seeing him tell his story story in person. He’s real. He’s honest. And everyone he speaks to can relate to him. Next year his book called Two Kisses for Maddy and there is no doubt it will be a success.

Speaking of Matt… sweet Nancy from s.w.a.N.k photo donated her time by offering Minnesota Blogger Conference $25 headshots. The donations were then passed along to Liz Logelin Foundation (named for Matt’s wife). $550 was raised for this worthy charity. I love inspiring endings.

Overall, I was impressed with the outcome of the first Minnesota Blogger Conference. But I’m not surprised. Minnesota has a wonderful blogging and social media group and I’m proud to be a part of this growing community. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Last month my husband and two children took one of our whimsical family road trips through the East Coast. We drove through Chicago and ventured up to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Lake Placid, Hershey and several other towns and cities. One of our stops was Philadelphia. As a PBS Sprout Expert, I’ve written for the site, and as a Band of Bloggers member, we were invited to stop in the Comcast building, the tallest building in the city, to see the PBS Spout office and studio. I was hoping  for a quick hello to the staff, but we were offered more than that. We had the chance of a lifetime – especially for my young children.

We had met the sweet host of the PBS Sprout Sunny Side Up Show Dennisha Pratt and her puppet friend Chica during a live filming!

While my son’s spinning wheels tried to figure out the logistics of the set and Chica, my daughter was completely enthralled with the experience and said meeting Chica was the best part of the trip.

Even my husband and I were intrigued by the visit. We discovered the Sunny Side Up Show is show is extremely cost-effective and while the show is produced in Philadelphia it is transmitted from the Comcast Media Center in Denver. Our biggest surprise was how incredibly small the set was, especially because it looks so much more spacious on TV. It was quite an event seeing the show in the works and seeing the cheery and colorful PBS Sprout office.

Before our departure we had a fun photo op, we sat in the former Good Night Show chair (see photo) and already have the picture in a frame at home.

Thank you PBS Sprout for inviting us to meet Dennisha and Chica and see your magical world. What a wonderful memory it was for our family!