Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: How UPS Saved my Swag!

What do you do when your conference swag is just too good to leave behind? UPS to the Rescue!

I have attended many conferences in my lifetime and usually, I am a very reasonable person when I comes to returning home with swag.  (For those of you who don't know what swag is, in this case, it is the free items that are given to conference attendees.)  Before the airlines started adding charges for luggage, I would bring a second bag inside of my luggage in order to transport my swag home. After the airline luggage fees came into affect, I forced myself to edit down the swag items to carry home only what would fit into my one free piece of luggage. But that was all before I went to the BlogHer'10 conference in New York City ....

Every party at BlogHer had wonderful giveaways and swag bags - most of which was filled with great items. Touring the vendor exhibition hall added more wonderful items to the swag pile. I am a purse and bag collector and "White House Black Market" gave away a wonderful black and white bag that was "to die for" - and I picked up more than one.

As I looked at the swag pile in my hotel room, I did not know how any of it was going to get home to Detroit. Where was my usual self control? Well, where ever it was, it was asleep because I wanted everything in my swag pile. Even after doing yet another swag paring, it was still a large pile.

BlogHer, knowing the lure of swag, arranged with the Hilton to have a shipping area conveniently located as part of the conference hall. So I and Laura from @LauraMotorCity paid a visit to get the cost since neither of us planned to part with even one more swag item. To our shock, the shipping area did not have any scales (what?) or boxes (come again?) and they could not tell us the cost for shipping the items home (seriously?). We were asked to hand over our credit card numbers and trust them. Nothing personal against the shipping area, but I like knowing how much a transaction is going to cost me before I hand over my credit card.

So Laura got out her beloved iPhone and looked up the address of the nearest UPS Store - which was only two blocks from the hotel. We packed up our swag piles and headed over to the UPS office. We both looked like bag ladies since we were pretty loaded down.  UPS charged me only $33 dollars total to ship home 31 lbs of swag. And the cost included the boxes and the tape!

Laura was so happy that she was tweeting and tweeting her joy to everyone at the BlogHer conference. When I arrived at the airport, I only had my carry-on bag and no worries other than to finish reading a book on my smartphone.

This story gets even better because the items were shipped on our last day in New York which was on a Monday and arrived in Detroit at lunchtime on Wednesday! My swag and I were reunited in less than 48 hours after leaving New York.

Laura and I have already checked and there is a UPS store only two blocks away from the hotel for next year's BlogHer conference.

Thank you UPS for your reasonable prices, your many convenient locations and your quick shipping.  You saved my swag and I love for it!!!

Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.

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MOVIE REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Secretariat (CLOSED)

Simply beautiful and stunning to watch

While I was attending the BlogHer conference in New York, I was invited by Disney to see their new movie "Secretariat".

"Secretariat" will not be released until October 2010, but Disney invited a few bloggers attending the BlogHer conference to a special advance screening at the Manhattan Regal theater and to attend a meet and greet cocktail party with the movie's producer Mark Ciardi.

The movie "Secretariat" is based on the real life story of Penny Chenery, owner of the racehorse Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973.  Penny (played by Diane Lane) is a housewife and mother of four children. Her father (played by Scott Glenn) owns a horse racing farm that has been losing money for years. Although Penny grew up in horse ranching, she has allowed life and the times to define her as just a housewife and mother. When her mother suddenly dies and her father has a stroke, Penny is left with the decision to either sell the farm and continue with her life as it is, or gamble on running the horse ranch and changing the fortunes of the ranch and herself. Penny decides to bet the ranch on one horse named "Big Red" who she feels has the right stuff to win the triple crown.

Penny hires a very unorthodox trainer named Lucien Laurin (played by John Malkovich) and a demanding jockey Ron Turcotte (played by Otto Thorwarth) to train Big Red and all their efforts pay off as the horse is renamed Secretariat and starts to win race after race. But no one, save Penny, believes Secretariat has the intensity and stamina to win the Triple Crown. So she makes a performance guarantee to her investors that will cost her $6 million dollars if the horse fails to win.

Me with Secretariat movie producer Mark Ciardi

In true Disney fashion, "Secretariat" is a movie with a wonderful story and a brilliant acting cast.  Even though I knew how the story was going to end, the movie made my heart pound and left me breathless as I got caught up in the storyline. I was totally rooting for Penny as she fought against being typecasted as just a homemaker.  She showed that a woman can have the brains and the tenacity to build a business and run it as successfully as a man.  The movie also showed the courage that it takes to live life by your own terms.

Besides the great story, the movie cinematography was excellent. The horse racing scenes were out of this world exciting. The way the movie was shot, the audience is put at the level of the horse and rider and it gave me the sensation of being part of the race. "Secretariat" is simply beautiful and stunning to watch. The movie even contains actual footage from Secretariat's 1973 win in the Preakness Stakes. The cinematography is further enhanced by the music score, which contains moving African American gospel music.

Disney has a real winner in "Secretariat". The combination of a great story with great acting and wonderful cinematography makes this film the total winning package. I know that "Secretariat" will do very well at the box office when it opens in theaters on October 8, 2010.

GIVEAWAY

One FREEISMYLIFE reader will win 4 Secretariat branded items including a Men’s T-Shirt, Women’s T-Shirt, Youth T-Shirt and a Hat.  Too Cool!

To Enter:

-Fill out the information in the form below.

- One entry per person please.

- The contest ends on Friday, October 8, 2010 at 11:59am EST.

- The winner will be selected by random number generation.

- Contest fulfillment will be provided by Disney.

- Please enter your FULL mailing address.  Addresses are for contest fulfillment only and will not be sold to any third parties.

- You can get 1 extra contest entry for liking the movie Secretariat on Facebook.
- You can get 1 extra contest entry for following the movie Secretariat on Twitter.
- You can get 1 extra contest entry for liking FREEISMYLIFE on Facebook.
- You can get 1 extra contest entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Twitter.

Goodluck!

Disclosure: I received a special "Secretariat" gift bag with branded movie items.

Click here if video is not shown


CONTEST CLOSED
FORM REMOVED


From the 109 ENTRIES, THE WINNER IS #79 - VALERIE G. OF SOUTHFIELD, MI !!!

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: BlogHer Gives Back! + Giveaway

Tutus for Tanner was one of the many ways for BlogHer conference goers to give back

Blogher helps the community

The BlogHer conference was not just about parties and learning new blogging techniques. The conference was dedicated to giving back to the community through various methods...

1) BlogHer 5k: Running for Conner
Why are these women (and a man) in tutus and running shoes? The BlogHer conference included a 5K run/walk that turned into a movement to help raise money for a little boy named Tanner who is living with a terminal illness called Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy. The tutus attracted lots of attention as we 5k runners and walkers took to the street and helped get out the word about children living with terminal illness. Click here to read more about Tutus for Tanner.

2) The White House Project
The mission of the The White House Project is to get more women to run for public office. I became familiar locally with The White House Project because of Joni Hubred-Golden from the Michigan Women's Forum. Joni is raising money for The White House Project to help Michigan woman with the expenses of running for office.

BlogHer teamed with The White House Project to put on a 1/2 day training session for bloggers with aspirations to became public servants. Here are the live blogs from those sessions:

White House Project - Call to Action
White House Project - Q&A with Linda Tarr-Whelan
White House Project - Invitation to Run and Closing Remarks
White House Project - Exercising Influence at Every Level

3) The Responsibility Project
Liberty Mutual sponsored a booth in the exhibition hall where conference goers could get a professional photo with the Statue of Liberty if they took the responsibility pledge.

4) Going Green
There were many green initiatives at BlogHer'10.  The conference was free of bottled water. Filtrete donated water bottles to every blogger and PUR provided onsite water stations. If bloggers did not like the swag that was received, BlogHer had a swag exchange room sponsored by Future Friendly where the items could be traded. At the end of the conference, the unwanted items were donated to the Salvation Army. Click here to read about all the green initiatives from the conference.

5) Blogging for Change
Blogher dedicated an entire segment of training to the topic "Change Agents". Six sessions dealt with blogging to bring about change in the community:

-Screw Work/Life Balance, We Need Work/Life POLICY!
-How to Start, Engage in and Moderate Civil Political Debate
-Radical Blogging Moms
-Resource Blogging - Serving Your Community One Post at a Time
-Creating Tangible Social Change
-How to Build A Community Around Your Cause


6) International Women Bloggers risk their lives for truth
Would you still blog if your life was on the line for the things that you write about?  The BlogHer'10 International Activist Blogger Panel consisted of four women who blogged at great risk to their personal safety.  No cameras were allowed during this session.  Click here to read the live blog.

7) BlogHer Conference Bags help Women in India
Every time I go to a conference, I fall in love with the conference bag. They are usually distinctive bags designed just for the conference. The BlogHer conference bag is definitely one of my favorites. The tote bag is a feminine eco-friendly jute tote bag fully lined and a great size for carrying around all those necessities of life. But the bag also is a way to help women to free themselves from human trade.

The BlogHer Conference bags were donated by Gettington.com. The BlogHer conference bag is a specially designed version of a bag sold on the Gettington website called the Freeset Bag. These are the words from the tag on the bag -

"The Freeset Bag tells a story of a women's journey to freedom.  She used to sell her body on the streets of Kokata, India alongside thousands of other women. Trapped in prostitution, her life was full of shame. She didn't choose her profession, it choose her. Poverty robbed her of the choices, dignity and hope we all take for granted. Today she can choose to make Freeset bags instead of selling her body. She works descent hours for decent pay and is learning how to read and write. As she collects her daughter from the Freeset nursery, she knows freedom is being passed on to the next generation."

Every Freeset bag that you buy, helps a woman change her life by providing dignified employment opportunities.

GIVEAWAY
One FREEISMYLIFE reader will win a BlogHer conference Freeset bag and a conference landyard.

-Fill out the information in the form below.

- One entry per person please.

- The contest ends on Monday, September 6, 2010 at 11:59pm EST.

- The winner will be selected by random number generation.

- Continental US Addresses only.

- The winner will be contacted by email on Monday, September 7, 2010. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours of the email being sent, another winner will be chosen. Contest fulfillment will be provided by FREEISMYLIFE through US mail.

- You can get 1 extra contest entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Twitter
- You can get 1 extra contest entry for liking "Tutus for Tanner" on Facebook.
- You can get 1 extra contest entry for liking "Freeset" on Facebook.

Click here if contest entry form is not shown

FORM REMOVED

WINNER IS BEING CONTACTED
Click here to read all the BlogHer'10 posts

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: Live blogs of all the BlogHer Sessions

If you missed BlogHer, consider this FREE training

BlogHer is not all about the parties.  There were seven tracks of information being presented with six training sessions in each track for a total of 42 sessions.

One of the good things about the BlogHer Conference is that all the sessions are live blogged so that the information is captured for everyone to read at a later date. Just because you are not there does not mean you cannot share in the information that was presented.

So if you were there, this is a great way to remember the information that was presented or get information on the sessions that you missed. And if you were not able to go to BlogHer, consider this FREE training.

Note: One of the links is missing for the session: "Fashion Blogging is a Serious Business".  A few links will take you to pages where the live blog is missing so it appears that the information for thoses sessions was not captured.

Geek Lab

- Creating (or Massively Altering) a WordPress Theme

- How to Edit Your Pictures and Make Them 10x Better

- How to Take Great Pictures

- Fight Spam and Hackers! Plugging Security Holes

- Usability for Beginning Bloggers (Beginning Level)

- Your Blog's Living Will - How to Control Your Digital Legacy

Writing Lab

- Good Blog Design - The Role of Layout in an Online Medium

- The Evolving Publishing Ecosystem

- Humor Writing

- How to Use Your Blogging to Make You a Better Writer

- ROYO - Dear Abby 2.0: Giving Advice in the Blogosphere

- Writing Inspiration: Stoke Your Creativity

Job Lab

- Pitch Me

- Get and Stay Hired - Social Media and Technical Skills

- Get Hired - Networking with a Purpose via Social Media

- ROYO - Offline Networking for Bloggers

- When Does Blogging the Personal on Your Professional Blog Hurt?

- Resume and Social Network Profile Writing Clinic

Change Agents
-Screw Work/Life Balance, We Need Work/Life POLICY!
-How to Start, Engage in and Moderate Civil Political Debate
-Radical Blogging Moms
-Resource Blogging - Serving Your Community One Post at a Time
-Creating Tangible Social Change
-How to Build A Community Around Your Cause

Passion
- Fitness Blogging - Motivate Yourself and Your Readers
- Women and Sports - We Like to Play. We Like to Watch.
- Passions: Tranforming Online Places into Art Spaces
- Family Foodies - Creating a New Generation of Gourmands
- Gen Y Passionistas: Making Your Passion “Work” For You

Professional
- Professional: The Mega "Mindful Monetization" Session!
- Professional Blogging - Your Stats are a Business Asset
- Bringing Sexy Back to Branding
- Mastering Intellectual Property Law
- Professional: The FTC Guidelines After a Year. Has Anything Changed?
- How to Run a Group Blog for Fun, Advocacy and/or Profit

Personal
- Storytelling, Memoir and Poetic License
- Little Fish in a Big Pond - Understanding, Accepting and Loving Your Small Blog
- Blogging Autism - Shattering Myths, Finding Your Tribe
- ROYO - Latinas in Social Media
- Personal: Grief, Loss, Tragedy and Community on the Internet
- Bringing Sex Out of the Closet



Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: Great CHEAP food in New York under $20

Pazza Notte Restaurant

Follow Your Nose to Great, Cheap Food in NY

While New York can be an expensive city to visit, I found out that you can get great food there for a very reasonable price - all you have to do is follow your nose.

Although most of the food I ate in New York was included as part of the BlogHer conference, I did make it out into the city to experience local dining. And I followed my nose to two wonderful and reasonably priced restaurants.

Pazza Notte

On my first day in New York, after checking into the hotel, I was ready to chow down. Airplane pretzels and pop will only get a girl so far. So, I let my nose led me down the street from the Hilton Hotel to Pazza Notte on 1375 6th Street. It was 11:30am and the smells coming from the restaurant were wonderful! And their lunch menu was the deal of the century - $19 for a three course meal that included a appetizer, main course, and a desert. This deal is called "The Recession Special".

I was with Laura from LauraInTheMotorCity.com and neither of us could believe that $19 was really going to get us a three course meal, but we were more than willing to give it a try.

Everything on "The Recession Special" menu sounded wonderful. For the first course, I choose the Quattro Formaggi Bruchetta which is warm grilled bread covered with mozzarella, fontina, goat cheese and parmesan. Your mouth is watering right now, isn't it?? It was yummy and I knew my waistline was about to expand on this trip to New York.

For my second course, I had the Pollo Alla Cajun which is a thinly sliced pan seared cajun chicken breast served in a white wine butter sauce. You're getting hungry now, aren't you??  And this chicken breast was served with a generous helping of golden fries. From the first bite, I was licking my lips and I think my eyes were closed and I was making purring sounds. Laura also had the Pollo Alla Cajun and at one point we kind of looked at each other while silently saying "Girl, this chicken is good!". I see why the menu lists the Pollo Alla Cajun as the owner's favorite menu choice.

For my dessert, I had the Tiramisu. Since I am not a coffee lover, I was not sure about ordering the Tiramisu, but I was loving the creamy filling and before I knew it, the whole thing was gone.

After our meal, Laura and I just sat at our table and enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere of the restaurant, the New York patrons and watching the people walk by the beautiful floor to ceiling front window of the restaurant. We had a wonderful time at Pazza Notte and all for only $19 each plus tip. This meal was a wonderful way to start out the Blogher conference in New York. Here's to Pazza Notte and their Recession Special!!!

Hill Country Barbecue Market

After the BlogHer conference was over on Sunday, Laura and I changed hotels to the Chelsea area so we could stay an extra day in New York and do some sightseeing. After we checked into the Hotel Indigo (I will tell you about this hotel in another blog post), I again let me nose lead me to some good smelling food.

Hill Country Barbecue Market is located at 30 West 26th Street and they had a Sunday night special going on where Laura and I both ate for only $20 total. Hello!

It was a beautiful evening and we sat out on the porch of the restaurant. The waitress told us that she was only there to bring us drinks and that we had to go inside and pick up our food from the different stations. The Sunday Special was called "Feed Your Family for $20" so we figured there should be enough food for the two of us. $20 got us pork ribs, brisket, and chicken as our meats with two sides and a dessert to share. For the sides we ordered PTL Potato Salad and Sweet Potato Bourbon Mash. And for dessert we had a huge German Chocolate Cupcake.

Everything was great - top to bottom. While I would not try to feed a family of 4, there was plenty of everything for the two of us. All the meats were well seasoned and tender. They gave us a very generous helping of both sides and that German Chocolate Cupcake was wonderful. And getting to eat all this great food while sitting outside in beautiful weather made the experience great. When I gave the cashier my $10 share of the bill, I felt even better.

So you see that $30 per person bought Laura and me some really good eating in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Do you think I could be the next "$40 a day with Rachael Ray"? Travel Channel, here I come...


Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: The New Windows Phone 7 Series is Coming!

There's a new Windows Smartphone coming to town...

While at the BlogHer10 conference in New York, I was able to meet with the Microsoft representatives to discuss their upcoming Windows Phone 7 Smartphone.  If you read my first smartphone review for the HTC Imagio, then you know that I have been using Microsoft based smartphones since my son was a baby, so I am glad that Microsoft is releasing a series of new smartphones to go up against the iPhone and Android phones on the market.

Whats New with Windows Phone 7?

The Microsoft representative gave me a 30 minute demo of her prototype phone and I really liked it (other than the pink in the interface, which is changeable). The START menu interface is completely different than any smartphone that I have used. The START menu interface reminded me visually of the interface of the Kin social media phone. The interface is a series of tiles each tied to a different application.You can drag and drop contacts, photos and other apps that you care the most about to the main menu.  This will make the START menu completely different for every user.

The base hardware for the phone will contain the following:
- Three buttons for START, SEARCH, and BACK.
- A 5+ mp camera, 256mg+ of RAM and 8 GB+ of Flash memory.
- Media library access through Zune software.
- Integrated marketplace for downloading all apps.
- XBOX Live and Bing Maps available through Cloud services.

Contacts are integrated with Facebook and you can choose which contacts with whom you want information to be integrated. 

The feature that I loved the most was the combining and syncing of calendars. I have my main calendar on my work computer in Outlook and also a Google calendar. With the Windows Phone 7, I can combine the Outlook calendar and the Google calendar into one integrated calendar and the phone will color code the calendars so I can easily see which entry is part of which calendar - so cool!

When will it be available?

The Windows Phone 7 will be available this holiday season. According the the Windows Phone 7 Twitter account, the phone carriers will be ATT, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile and the hardware manufactures will include HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson.  Microsoft was yet to announce which manufactures and carriers will be part of the holiday launch.

Hopefully, Microsoft will select me to demo the phone so that I can give you a more detailed review.  But until then, below is a video demo of the new Windows 7 phone.

Click here if video is not shown

FREE Windows Phone 7 Developer Classroom Classes Available

If you are a smartphone software developer, there are FREE one day classes available to teach how to develop applications for the Windows Phone 7 Series. One of the FREE classes will be held in the Detroit area on September 21, 2010. Click here for more information and to register.

FREE Windows Phone 7 Developer Online Training Available.
Don't have time for classroom training?  Then take it online. There are 12 Windows Phone 7 Developer Training sessions in total and each session is about 50 minutes in length. It's self-paced and of course its FREE.  Click here for more info on the Windows Phone 7 FREE Developer Online Training.

Enjoy,

Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: The SocialLuxe Party and an AVERY GIVEAWAY

The BEST Party at BlogHer!

I need to start out this review by stating that the SocialLuxe Party was probably the best overall party at BlogHer - and probably the hardest party for which to get a ticket.  Ten minutes after the registration opened, all the tickets were gone so I felt fortunate just to be in the house.

Thanks to Everyone that Voted for ME!!
This party was also special for me because I had been nominated for a SocialLuxe BlogLuxe award in the category "Blogs That I have Learned the Most From".  I know a lot of you voted for me, and although I did not win, I truly appreciated each and every vote.

Massive Over the Top Swag!
The SocialLuxe party was held at the Arena in Manhattan. As we entered the building, each blogger was handed a swag bag the size of my house.  It was the biggest bag of swag I had ever seen so I knew this evening was going to be great.  A few of the sponsors for the party were Avery, stride ride, Aveda, Frito Lays and Ghiradelli Chocolate.

Pamper Me!!!!
Frito Lays had big bowls of their products along with a champagne bar.  I was munching on chips and sipping champagne as I walked around to see all the great sponsors. This party was all about pampering.  Ghiradelli Chocolate had all their products on display and not samples, but the full products.  Aveda was giving full makeovers including neck, shoulder, back, scalp and hand massages, hair styling, manicures and full makeup application.  The massage was so good that I almost fell asleep.

Personalized just for ME!!!
Weeks before the party, I received an email from party sponsor Avery to make a personalized binder on their website www.zazzle.avery.com.  I customized a binder for my website adding avatar pictures and website shots. During the party, Avery presented each blogger with our customized binders and they all turned out wonderful!!  And they presented each of us with not just one, but two binders in different colors.  Avery, you are the best!

This was a wonderful party from top to bottom and I see why the tickets to this event go so fast.  I want to thank the sponsors and the organizers (listed below) for putting on one fantastic party that was over the top Lux!

Organizers:

- Allison Czarnecki, Petit Elefant

- Marie LeBaron, Make and Takes

- Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner

An AVERY GIVEAWAY for YOU!
How would you like to make your own Avery custom binder for FREE? These customized binders retail for $25 each on the Avery website. This giveaway is for a one time use promotional code that will allow you to create your own Avery custom binder with free shipping included. HOLLA to the FREE!

TO ENTER

-Fill out the information in the form below.

-One entry per person please.

- The contest ends on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:59pm EST.

-The winner will be selected by random number generation.

-The winner will be contacted by email on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours of the email being sent, another winner will be chosen. You will be emailed the one time use Avery promotional code.

- You can get 1 extra contest entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Twitter.

- You can get 1 extra contest entry for subscribing to FREEISMYLIFE RSS feed. (This is a double confirmation process for subscribing. You must confirm twice in order for the entry to count).

Good Luck!


FORM REMOVED

WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED

CONGRATS TO OUR WINNER: Lori C of Los Angeles

Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: A Disney Movie Premier and more swag

I was a Disney Movie VIP at Blogher10

Disney invited a few bloggers attending BlogHer to a special screening at the Manhattan Regal Theater of their yet to be released movie "Secretariat".  We had special VIP seating which meant all the middle rows of the theater were reserved for us - too cool!  

The movie's producer, Mark Ciardi, attended the screening and gave a short talk before the movie began.  Although I am not allowed to give you an official review of the movie, I can say that in true Disney fashion, "Secretariat" is a movie with a wonderful story and a brilliant acting cast.  Even though I knew how the story was going to end, the movie made my heart pound and left me breathless as I got caught up in the storyline.  Disney has a real winner in "Secretariat" and I know the movie will do very well at the box office when it opens in theaters on October 8, 2010.

Me with Secretariat movie producer Mark Ciardi

Meet Mark Ciardi
After the movie, we left the Regal theater and walked to the adjacent hotel for a meet and and greet cocktail party with the movie's producer Mark Ciardi.  Mark was very friendly and gracious while talking with bloggers about why he felt compelled to make "Secretariat" and how he wanted to do the true story justice with a great movie.  As bloggers were meeting with Mark, we were sipping on specialty drinks from the three bars at the private party. 

On our way out, Disney gave every blogger a Disney gift bag that contained movie branded t-shirts and a hat - all of which my son swiped the minute I got home.  

Come back on October 4th for SWAG!
If you are intrigued to know about the movie, come back on October 4th to read my official review.  Disney has even agreed to do giveaways on Free Is My Life of the same gift bags that we bloggers received at the screening.  So mark your calendars if you want to win some Disney swag of your own!!!

Enjoy!



Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10

Blogging and the City - BlogHer 2010: AOL knows how to Treat a Lady

Treat Her Like A Lady!

If you read my first post on the BlogHer 2010 conference in New York, then you will remember I mentioned attending a number of private parties.  One of those parties was hosted by online giant AOL.  I found out from this party that AOL knows how to treat a lady.

Marcus Samuelsson from Top Chef

AOL + BlogHer + Party = Paradise!
We arrived at Hudson Terrace and were immediately whisked up a private elevator where we were greeted by an all male wait staff (they were models) elegantly attired in all black and each carrying a tray of yummy hors d'ouvres or specialty drinks. We were treated to manicures as we sipped our champagne or martinis and watched former Top Chef contestant Marcus Samuelsson demonstrate how our dinner was prepared. The wait staff never allowed our glasses nor our plates to be empty as we lounged on sofas with a perfect view of New York and met other bloggers. It was as if AOL has read the minds of over-worked women everywhere and had come up with a perfect evening of total indulgence.

AOL made us Glamour Queens
We ended the evening dressing up with fashion props to have our photos taken by a professional photographer who gave the prints an old Hollywood black and white look.  Pretty cool!

Click here if video is not shown

Practicing Our Interview Skills
We were also invited to make a video courtesty of AOL and MyDaily.com. Here I am with Laura from LauraintheMotorCity.com with our silly interview and our shout out to Detroit.

What a Party!
On the way out of the party, AOL provided each blogger with an AOL bag filled with goodies to remember our evening in paradise. Food. Drink. Eye-Candy. Glamour. Gifts. Why can't life be this way every day?


AOL GIVEAWAY

Although nothing can duplicate the evening I enjoyed, I would like to offer one FREEISMYLIFE reader an AOL bag of your own - sorry, no goodies included, but it's a nice big 20 inches by 16 inches white canvas tote that would be perfect for shopping.

When you use it, remind yourself that you need to register for BlogHer 2011 in San Diego, CA so you can be at the next AOL Party at BlogHer.

TO ENTER

-Fill out the information in the form below.

-One entry per person please.

- The contest ends on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:59pm EST.

-The winner will be selected by random number generation.

-The winner will be contacted by email on Wednesday, August 25, 2010. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours of the email being sent, another winner will be chosen. Contest fulfillment will be provided by FREEISMYLIFE via USPS.  Sorry, Addresses in the continential US only!

- You can get 1 extra contest entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Twitter.

Good Luck!



CONTEST CLOSED


FORM HAS BEEN REMOVED


CONGRATS TO OUR WINNER:  Elizabeth P from Walled Lake, MI.

Click here to read all the posts from BlogHer10.