If you live in bloggingland like I do, you have heard about the dinner ConAgra did for some food bloggers.  The New York times wrote a scathing article about it (however, I have yet to see one article in the New York Times that actually talks highly of bloggers).  Basically, in New York (I think the location was their first problem.  I can see this going over way better here in Chicago), ConAgra put a dinner on at a restaurant.  They said it was a night out with a celebrity chef.  For dinner, they had lasagna.  It ended up being a Marie Callender frozen lasagna.  Once told, some of the bloggers there were mad.  In a nutshell, that’s what happened.

ConAgra invited foodie bloggers (now, technically, I could be considered a foodie blogger due to my cooking blog.  However, foodies would actually turn their nose at somebody who recommends buying a can of pasta sauce for a casserole which I do all the time.).  That is #2 where they went wrong.  The bloggers they chose weren’t a good fit.  You’ve got a busy mom blogger who has a food blog — heck yeah I’m going for a dinner.  If I’m busy growing my own organic veggies, not so much a good fit.  They also opened this up elsewhere, because people got invited from all over.  Bloggers were able to bring people and/or give away tickets too (#3 of what they did wrong.  As a blogger, I would have been a little upset to have misled my readers.  They lost control of their invite list.)  I also didn’t hear if there was any swag given away either.  They also didn’t have an alternative menu for those who didn’t eat meat.  Lastly, I can’t tell if they ask if anybody had dietary restrictions.  (I add this because on of the posts I read complained about his wife being allergic to food dye and this could have been really bad).

Now, you may be wondering why I am an expert on this.  Well, I’ve been invited to one of these dinners myself.  Last year, I had dinner at Ben Pao that really was Wanchai Ferry.  Did I throw a hissy fit on Twitter for my 25,000 followers?  Heck, no.  I actually used the coupons in my swag bag and I’ve bought Wanchai Ferry since.  I thought it was a great idea and I didn’t mind having to drive to downtown Chicago (they covered the valet parking) and getting a free dinner with my husband.  If you click the link above, you’ll find that we thought it was funny and would happily do it again.  So ConAgra, I’ll happily have you send me some dinner

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I went to the most amazing conference last weekend.  It was called Brands & Bloggers Summit.  Now, you know that I’ve been to many conferences and events.  Instead of rehashing the events of this weekend (because there are a ton of posts already out with what we learned.  You can also see a lot of what happened on Twitter using the hashtag #bbsummit11.)  However, if you are wondering if you should come next year, I’ve got the list:

1.  The people.  Yes, it was mostly women, so we also know how to take care of one another.  One blogger tweeted that they wanted a Diet Coke.  If you can believe it, another blogger brought her one.  :)  Another blogger needed some aspirin and some was given to her.  Now, I can honestly say I’ve never been at a conference where I’ve seen such big hearts.  Oh yes, we also all took turns holding the babies (who have to say were seen and not heard.  And they were cute.)

2.  Affordable.  Since it was one day, a lot of people drove in Saturday.  Some women even drove home Saturday night.  It is much more affordable to get a room for one night.  (For me, it was a 30 minute drive, so I went home late Saturday night).  The conference itself was $100 (I think.  Somebody correct me if I’m wrong on that).  That include breakfast, lunch, and two snacks.  I could have easily spent $100 on food in downtown Chicago myself on a Saturday.  :)  It also helps that we have 2 airports for those flying in.

3. Wifi and power cords.  I can’t tell you how many conferences I’ve been to where the Wifi doesn’t work or there are 3 outlets in the entire room and hundreds of bloggers.  MJ (the awesome lady who put this on) is a blogger herself, so she knew we’d need this stuff!

4.  Breaks for networking.  I’ve never been to a conference where there was actual time scheduled into the day, so we could all network.  That’s what this is all about — making connections and learning new things.  In our networking time, I found out that one of the women at my table (who I’d never met before), actually lives 5 minutes from my house.  Now, how crazy is that?  If that network time wasn’t there, I may have missed ever talking to her. I also found that that another wonderful woman at our table had read my interview in the newspaper (it was a couple of years ago), and she’s read my site ever since.  I can’t tell you how warm and fuzzy that makes me feel.

5.  Organization.  We all had QR codes on our badges.  Also, the back of the badge was our agenda for the day.  (Again, I’ve never seen that done before).  At all times, you knew what was next and how long it would take.  Everything pretty much ran on time.

6.  It was great for brands also.  Our information was put in for a grand prize.  All we had to do was visit each booth and get a sticker.  I thought this was brilliant, so that we visited each booth (which I would have done regardless, but not everybody did).  The brands there also were a great fit with the moms there.  I found products that I would have never even seen before.

7.  Miss Lori.  Not only did we get to hear her perform for us, she also gave an awesome speech (which I’ll be blogging about this week).

8.  No egos.  The speakers hung with us during the conference and even after.  I’ve been to many of a conference where the speakers weren’t good enough to hang with the rest of us lowly bloggers nor would they talk to us either.  (I do have to add that the conferences I’ve been at with John Chow and Chris Brogan that they have never acted like that even with their A list status.)

9.  The after party rocked.  We got to go to the John Hancock Observatory.  I’ve never been there, so it was pretty awesome.  It was also great to network with the other bloggers I didn’t get a chance to during the conference itself.

10.  This was the best conference I’ve ever attended hands down.  I’ve been to BlogHer, and it was even better than that.  Many times, the complaint I have with conferences is that I’m not a beginning blogger.  I’ve been doing this longer than some of the speakers at other conferences.  I’ll be honest — nothing is more annoying that knowing more than speaker (and I’m not trying to be rude about that.  You know what you know.  However, I don’t like paying hundreds of dollars to learn what I already know.)  I learned something from each of the speakers at the Brands & Bloggers Summit!

I highly, highly, highly recommend heading out to the Brands & Bloggers Summit next year.  It is definitely worth and hope to see you there!

Disclosure:  I did receive a complimentary ticket to this years event.  However, all opinions are mine. 

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I’m so happy to get this crazy weekend behind me. Not coming home from camping till Tuesday really threw off everybody here. We have a pretty tame weekend this weekend though. We’ll be heading out to a Kane County Cougars game tonight and that’s pretty much all I have planned. That being said, I have a few house projects I want to get done this weekend.

I’ve got two blogger friends of mine coming next weekend to stay at my house for a conference. (One is coming from Wisconsin and the other Michigan. I live about a half hour from downtown, so it doesn’t make sense to spent the night). That being said, I want my house to look good. Great, even. SO I’m embarking on some big projects. Last night I painted my outside porch. That was in desperate need of a painting. It needs a second coat still but when I’ve got that done, I’ll post a picture. It looks pretty sweet. However, I made that project twice as much work as it had to be . I painted more white than I needed too and ended up having to paint over that. I painted the bathroom a couple of weeks ago. The problem is that even though I did two coats, it needs a third. For as much as I love to paint, I hate painting bathrooms. My third project is actually the easiest of them all. I’ve been rearranging my kitchen. Yesterday, I turned my Kitchen dinette set a different direction. I’ve got a lot of floor space in there, and I thought it was time for a change. Now, I just need Bill to move the camping totes out of there and back into the shed. Then, I can see what it really looks like or if I need to start looking at Steve Silver Company dining sets or Linon nook sets.  I’ve got a bunch of cleaning and blogging to do too.

It’s only suppose to be 90 today, so I’m not sure how much we are going to get done or if we’ll just head over to Grandma’s and go swimming until baseball time.  :)

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One of my Facebook “friends” (it’s actually somebody I went to high school with) posted this statement as her status:

In the face and grieving of tragedy we preach and praise God’s word, yet come election time we leave it aside. Please help me understand this?!

Now, if she was a blogger, this is clearly link bait to me. What surprised me was that she was oblivious to the argument that ensued in the comments after she typed this. She was surprised that people were offended.  Now, I want to hear your thoughts, but I want to offer mine first.

I don’t talk about religion or politics on here too often.  What you believe is what you believe.  What I believe is what I believe.  What I say isn’t going to change your mind.  That’s is why I don’t talk about it.  However, this is something I do think needs to be addressed.

The part the author seems to miss is that not everybody believes in God.  Will goes to a public preschool — he has kids of every shape, color, and kind.  Some celebrate Christmas.  Some celebrate the Muslim holidays.  And some don’t celebrate at all.  Madison attends a small Catholic school.   (Had to get my disclosures out of the way)

However, I do think that the conservative “right” has hijacked God for (and I’m quoting another friends comment here that was on this post) cheap political points, furthering an agenda of bigotry against homosexuals, and legislating a woman’s body.

I’ll be honest — I don’t vote for who my Church tells me to vote for.  I look at the issues that are important to me.  I vote on that — not whether or not somebody is Catholic or Christian.  I don’t want people voting for somebody because their priest told them too.  I don’t want religion in my government — I really don’t.  Just think if you aren’t the majority religion and what life would be like.  I also don’t need a MAN in Washington deciding what I can and can’t do with my body.  Plus, I know plenty of atheists that are moral, loving, and kind.  You don’t need religion to have those qualities.  I love my country too much to want the founding father’s vision — that is keeping religion out of government — destroyed.  They came here to get out of the reach of the Church.

Though I think I get some of what she was saying — that in tragedy everybody seems to “find God”.  I didn’t watch the speech last night, but I’ve heard about it.  If everybody on BOTH sides of the table, did what “God” wanted — we wouldn’t be fighting on social programs (like the healthcare bill since I think have a doctor care should be a right not just a privilege for those who can afford it).  We would take care of the old, the sick, and the poor and NOT fight over who is paying for it.

Okay, off my soap box, and I think I’ve talked in circles.  What are your thoughts?  (And feel free to disagree with me).

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I read a really interesting article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday.  It was about who pays for campaign ads.

Now, as a blogger, if I receive a free item or payment for something I write, I must disclose it per the FCC.  That way, people know who sent the item even though I write impartial reviews anyway.  Whatever.  I do it, because I have to.  I happen to think my average reader is pretty smart, and this is completely unnecessary.  But whatever.

However, what gets my goat is that the identity of who is paying for all the nasty election ads is shrouded in secrecy.  You have no idea who is paying for these ads.  Business groups, unions, and interest groups had spent $264 million as of Tuesday.  You heard me right — $264  million!  At least $128 million of that came from groups that are not required to disclose their donors.  According to election law experts, loopholes and lax enforcement by the FEC, corporation and wealthy donors can donate huge sums confident that their identities will not be disclosed.

Now, why did this happen.  Well, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans would know who was paying for these ads.  Really?  They can’t figure out if a post on a blog is sponsored but they can figure out who is paying for election ads?

Am I the only one confused?

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