Happy Mother’s Day!!

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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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