Kodak Big Apple Bus Tour

When I heard that Kodak was sponsoring a photo tour of New York City the day before BlogHer began, I was immediately intrigued.  I truly LOVE my Kodak Zi8 video camera.  That is the camera I use when I vlog (video blog).  As a new blogger, I did not receive many invitations to private parties that were happening at BlogHer.  I expected that because I am new, and unknown commodity to the people setting up these parties.  I made a few inquiries with Kodak and was put on a waiting list for the tour.  A little over a week before the conference, I received notice that there was space for me.  Hooray!  What better way to start my first visit to New York City than with a photo tour?!  Kodak sent us all their EasyShare M580 14 megapixel camera.  I was thankful to get the camera before the tour because it gave me a chance to learn the camera's features.

Kodak's EasyShare line makes uploading a breeze.  One of the new features is that when you are clicking through your pictures on your camera, you can tag them to be uploaded to specific destinations.  I can tag my pictures to go to the services I use, which for me is mainly Flickr and Facebook.  You can also tag the people in pictures, and you can tag them based on event.  I made a tag for pictures I might want to use on my blog so they will all go in the same file.  The EasyShare system does streamline the uploading process.

But back to the Big Apple Bus Tour!  When we arrived at Caroline's Comedy Club, the people from Kodak had arranged a refreshing lunch with awesome cupcakes decorated with the "Share" button!  We had a great lunch and were treated to a presentation on what's new and coming up at Kodak.



After the presentation it was time to get on the bus.  I won't share all of my pictures, because I am not the best photographer, but here are a few highlights.



Getting on the bus, there were two buses of bloggers!


Driving towards Times Square


The ubiquitous Duane Read


The other bus of bloggers


As a Seinfeld fan, I had to grab this shot!


The different styles of architecture were amazing.


A building in a building!


My kids were very interested in this one!


This just made me think of the movie, "Elf", "The yellow ones don't stop"


The old and the new

I have more pictures that I will share later, but these felt like the best representations of that day.  Many thanks to Kodak for a great start to BlogHer.

Kodak furnished a camera, lunch and the tour at no cost to me.  The opinions expressed here will ALWAYS be my own.  Please see my disclosure page for further information.  

Going to the Show

I have just returned from the BlogHer '10 conference in New York City and my mind is sufficiently blown.  2400 (mostly) women bloggers converged on the New York Hilton and other neighboring hotels for a long weekend of activities.  I had been faithfully reading about BlogHer for some time now, hoping to prepare myself.  I had never even been to New York City before, how was I going to survive this huge conference? 

So much happened over the course of four days that it might take me several blog posts to address all of it.  There were the people that I encountered.  Meeting my fellow bloggers, old friends and new, conference sponsors, public relations people, marketers, even Alexis Stewart.(that story definitely deserves it's own post!)  There were parties to attend, events hosted at the conference and invitation only parties that I wrangled a few invitations to.  There were instructional sessions that I sadly made it to few of.  There was the Expo Hall where brands were waiting to talk to us all.  There was the Voices of the Year gala where amazing posts were read by their authors.  There were moments stolen away from the insanity to sit and talk with friends. 

One of the best things that happened for me was the connection with other bloggers.  In the light of cameras filming interaction, FTC regulations for bloggers, reviews left and right, it can feel like I have entered a very commercial world.  At the conference you are able to see the number of people who care about what they are putting into the world.  You meet the moms who just want to help other moms save a little money.  You meet women who want to support other women in business.  You meet moms who just want to assure the rest of us that we are doing the best we can.  You meet women who just have words burning up their souls, and a blog is the best way for them to get it out.  The diversity of the community is awe inspiring. 

The challenge that is before me is to take what happened there and apply it in this space.  I have been stuck since Sunday night trying to figure out how to represent everything that happened and everything I learned.  I heard that many people have writer's block after a conference like this and I completely understand.  Where do you start?

The beginning is probably the best place to start so tomorrow look for a post about my fun on the Kodak Big Apple Bus Tour. 

Stepping out in Faith (with Chocolate!)

Some of you know that I am going to the Blogher conference in New York City this weekend.  Of all the places I have been, I have never been to New York City.  Weird, huh?  Not only have I turned into Ellie Mae Clampett going to the big city, but I am going on my own.  No family, no friends that have known me very long.  I am lucky to know some incredible bloggers from North Carolina who are going to be there.  It's odd and wonderful how you can form friendships and connections with such depth in exchanges of 140 characters or less! 

In a stroke of luck, I was able to hook up with a group of bloggers from DC for part of my travel.  I didn't want to arrive in NYC, alone, if I could avoid it.  I had tried to arrive at LaGuardia with some of the NC fabulous crew with no luck.  I was agonizing when I saw the discussion on twitter about a train from the DC area into NYC.  It was as if I heard the angels singing, or that may have been U2 on my ipod.  It gets better.  These crazy cool birds from DC had gotten the train ride sponsored.  So I am traveling to this conference courtesy of ...

Hershey's S'mores!!  Are you kidding me?  We LOVE S'mores.  Working with young people has given me so many opportunities to enjoy S'mores.  We have had them at bonfires, over the dying coals of the grill after dinner, small campfires, toaster ovens, even S'mores quesadillas with mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Our most recent S'mores adventure was before I knew about the Hershey's sponsorship.  For some crazy reason, on the fourth of July, my son and some friends decided to build a small campfire.  Not the crazy part.  They built this fire on the driveway.  (all you firefighters out there, we had hosed everything down and were safe, I promise)  It was only a matter of time before they all ran inside for S'mores makings! 

                                           photo by Amy Hodges

Hershey's very generously sent us some S'mores makings and some killer toasting forks.  My husband has promised the kids that they will make S'mores while I am gone and he has promised me that it won't be in the driveway.  Many thanks to Hershey's for not only providing my travel on the train and the goodies, but for providing so many lifelong memories.

As part of the S’mores Road Trip to BlogHer I received a round trip ticket on Amtrak to the convention and Hershey branded items. Any views expressed in this post are my own