This year the conference moved from its original cozy home of Asheville to the larger city of Charlotte, NC. The biggest difference that the change in venue made was that we needed to explore new restaurants. We have our favorites in Asheville and now we needed to make new friends with restaurants in the City Center area of Charlotte. There were lots of new eateries that were explored last week and I am happy to say that most of them cost less than our usual Asheville hangouts!

In full 80’s regalia for the Ubisoft Just Dance, Just Sweat party

Putting food aside though, Type-A meant I got to spend time with my annual Type-A roommate Karon Warren of AllThingsLifestyle.net. We have a great time together every year. Type-A also means seeing my girlfriends! Living in a home with 3 men, I am always ready for some girl time and I get 4 days of it at Type-A. Whether we are sitting in the bar chatting, dining together or dancing at the parties-we know how to have fun!

Yes, Type-A is a blogging conference filled with keynotes and conference sessions and my mind is still reeling from all of the information I learned about SEO, email lists, vlogging, creating a killer about page and monetizing my blog. I will be making some changes here as I implement all that I learned but this is to help my blog become a better resource for you.

Hanging with Rene Syler in Charlotte, NC

My favorite keynote was the closing keynote by my friend Rene Syler of Good Enough Mother. Rene is a constant source of inspiration to me and I was blessed to be able to have dinner with her on Saturday night and hang out on the patio after dinner as we shared some great and insightful conversation.

All-in-all Type-A Con 2012 was another memorable weekend full of fun and learning amongst my best friends in the blogosphere. I am already waiting for announcements about 2013 and I hope to see YOU there!!

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Day 2 of Disney Social media Moms was such a whirlwind I know I’m not going to be able to do it justice in tis post. The day started off with a delicious breakfast at Citricos, where I had the pleasure of dining with Jackie Gailey and 2 of the most handsome men at the conference…Chris Brogan and Lou Mongello.

After a delicious breakfast and great conversation we headed to the Grand Floridian Conference Center, where we would spend most of the day. I was blessed to find a seat front and center with my friends Molly Gold, Amy Lupold Bair, Shannan Powell, Fiona Bryan and Shellie Ross. The conference enter was beautifully decorated and the attention to detail really helped build the excitement for what lay ahead.

First up was Meg Crofton, President of Walt Disney World. She welcomed us to the conference and shared some fun facts about what it takes to run Walt Disney World. Did you know that, resort laundry processes 300,000 pounds of linens and towels daily?  It would take you 27 years and 2 loads every day at home to finish what they do in one day!

Next, Matt Jacobsen, Head of Market Development for Facebook shared some different ways for us to utilize Facebook to get our message out. We need to look at Facebook as one way to distribute our message. There was a very insightful question  and answer time after his talk and Matt seemed very interested in the concerns we, mom bloggers, have about how to separate our personal and professional pages as well as security.

The highlight of the day for me was our next speaker, Rene Syler aka Good Enough Mother. Rene was my favorite because she is “every woman”. Rene was real, honest and transparent. Rene had us crying and laughing during her talk about authenticity and re-inventing yourself. Rene has been through a lot since her days anchoring the Early Show on CBS, but she hasn’t let her problems get her down, she has powered through and she is coming back on top. Though most of us in that room haven’t been fired from a high profile job or had breast cancer we could all relate to Rene on one level or another to her heartfelt message. I’ll admit it…I have a bit of a girl crush on Rene (grin). We have actually conversed a lot lately on Twitter partly because of our campaign to get her on Dancing with the Stars. If you haven’t signed our linky/petition please take a second to do that now.

Lunch was back at Citricos and again it was delicious! Then we had a little break before our afternoon session which kicked off with a visit from Duffy Bear! Then Chris Brogan spoke about developing a community and working together instead of tearing each other down. Then 2 ladies I had honestly never hear of took the stage, Georgia Stitt on piano and Susan Egan on vocals. I may not have recognized their names but as soon as Susan began singing I recognized her voice. I am a huge fan of Disney music and Susan was both the voice of Megera in Disney’s Hercules and she was Belle in the original Broadway cast of Beauty and the Beast. The Disney fan in me loved the Disney songs they performed but the musician in me loved the original pieces, most written by Georgia, that were true slice of life songs that touched my heart.

I headed back to the room to meet up with my family. They had spent the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and their goal for the day was to break their record of riding Rock ‘n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Their record, set in December 2010 was 10 times. I am proud to say that on March 18, 2011 they both rode it 12 times in one day! Congratulations boys!

Hidden Mickey in the Motorcycle Shop window

After freshening up, we boarded buses to take us back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for our dinner and Disney Junior Dance Party on the set of Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. It was very exciting to be down on the set and get to see the buildings. My friend Steve Barrett aka Hidden Mickey Guy was giddy being on the set because it meant he was close to a hidden Mickey he had never really seen well before. What was even cooler is, he couldn’t wait to show it to my kids! I hope you enjoy my video of the fun we had at the party.

 

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On March 21, 2011 I tuned in to the season 12 debut of Dancing With the Stars and…as I always do I opened up Tweetdeck so I could chat with other #dwts fans in our supportive and often snarky fashion. This is when I found out Rene was a big fan too and we enjoyed tweeting about the show together.

Last night, episode 2 we joined our fellow #dwts fans and Rene tweeted “OKay, I MUST do this show and I MUST be partnered with Maks and I MUST do a dance where I get to lock lips with him at the end. I will not die happy until that happens. #wishfulthinking“.

So I tweeted “@abc_dwts We want @ReneSyler on next season with @MaksimC as her partner!” which Rene and others then retweeted. So then a plan began to hatch in my slightly warped brain…why not start a social media campaign? It might work, right so I tweeted, “@ReneSyler Hmmm I’m thinking our pitch to get you on @abc_dwtscould be tomorrow’s blog post with a linky petition! Thoughts?” Her reply was, “@MomMaven GO FOR IT!” So here we are. Rene is a celebrity and she has an important message to share about breast cancer and re-invention. She is beautiful inside and out and she has a wonderful personality. Being on Dancing With the Stars would be another step in her re-invention journey and it could be a step back into the public eye for the new and improved Rene Syler.

If you have never heard of Rene Syler check out her website GoodEnoughMother.com, search for her on YouTube there are lots of videos of her interviews, or ask anyone who went to Disney Social Media Moms, just use the #disneysmmoms and I’m sure you’ll get a positive response. I fell in love with Rene Syler on 3/18/11 and you will fall in love with her too! We figure, social media got Betty White on SNL, why can’t it get Rene on DWTS? If you agree please sign the linky below with your first and last name and then link to your twitter account, facebook page or blog. Please re-tweet, facebook, email and even blog about this post. We want ABC to hear us!

Dear ABC Television,
We Want Rene Syler on Dancing With the Stars Season 12! She is a celebrity with a message, a personality and inner and outer beauty. She is also a passionate fan of the show and would be an excellent fit for your cast.
Sincerely,
Cindy Schultz and the undersigned

Disclaimer: I wasn’t asked to write this post and I received nothing for writing this post (though if we get her on the show I’d have the satisfaction of a job well done!).

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