Swag = Awesome
My brain is too full and overwhelmed to think up some awesomely creative and quirky way to start this blog, so I’m going with this sentence and callin’ it good.
Tuesday morning, at the buttcrack of dawn, I leave for New York City.
I have so much to prepare before hand, hence the full-brain issue.
Next week, I get to go to BlogHer10, thanks to winning the Lovable Labels contest with this vlog.
This conference is hugenormous. There will be companies there from Playskool to Pepsi, Ecco to Energizer, Nikon to Nickelodeon, Schick to StrideRite… well, you get the idea. There are big and small, and a lot of them will be giving away swag to conference goers. Apparently, the free stuff sends people into a near frenzy. There is even talk that you get so much great swag, that the hotel will have set up a packing site, where you can box up your free stuff and ship it to yourself back home, since it won’t all fit in your luggage.
It is taking all of my effort to focus on the important reason why I’m going: Learning more about blogging and furthering my career.
That’s not to say that I am not insanely excited about free stuff. Especially good free stuff.
Despite the fact that the conference isn’t until next Friday, I received my first bit of freebies via UPS today!
Lovable Labels is pretty much spoiling me. They are flying my friend Michelle and me to New York, giving us three instead of two nights at the Hilton where the conference is being held, hooked us each up with a $200 credit to their store, are taking us to dinner on Thursday night, not to mention paying our way into the conference.
As if all that weren’t enough, they also sent a package of goodies for each of us. Wanna see what we got?
- Two reusable bags to carry around during the conference, in case a random freebie sighting crops up.
- A stainless steel waterbottle with my name labeled on it.
- Several spray-hand sanitizers (perfect for travelling!)
- A notebook (for taking notes during sessions)
- A pen holder with pens inside that were, you guessed it, labeled with my name on them
And…
- A sample pack of labels for each of my kiddos (I edited out our last name, in case you’re wondering what’s up with the weird lines). These packs are awesome. There are different sized labels for all kinds of stuff, and each sheet has a different design on it. There are some metal tags in there too, that I can use to put on backpack straps or zippers!
Colby and Lily immediately insisted upon putting a couple of shoe labels in their favorite pair of shoes (again, our last name is edited out):
Because I’m such a writer nerd, this was my favorite part:
I miss back to school shopping! My favorite part was getting a brand new notebook and pens. Aaaahh, memories.
Focus, Lindsay.
During conversations with Gazalle, my inside track to the Lovable Labels peeps, she mentioned that Michelle and I would be wearing a shirt during the conference to help give some visibility to their brand. She mentioned that they were “bright.”
I worried. A little.
I pictured a cheap, grammaw sweatshirt (you know, the ones with the too-tight cuffs and waistband?) with an enormous teddy bear across the chest in highlighter purple or orange.
Thank the Lord, that wasn’t the case. When I lifted the shirt out of the box, I laughed.
This, is not bright to me.
This, is normal, every day attire for me.
Especially since it’s almost exactly Seattle Seahawks or Sounders green. It’s totally a commonplace shade of green around these parts.
Plus, it’s the color of my laptop, mouse, and bag.
Needless to say, I love green.
And, how stinking smart are the Lovable Labellers?! Light, but still long-sleeved shirt generally inappropriate for New York in August, completely perfect for a weekend spent inside a blizzard cold air conditioned hotel conference area.
I’m stoked. Superdy duperdy stoked.
I have a few final essentials to check off of my list, and then I’m good to go. I’m completely prepared for the fact that I’m going to be uselessly exhausted the week after I get home, but it will be totally worth it.
(Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid or asked to do this post. I simply wanted to. 
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