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| Blogger bonding time with Rachel and Debi! |
As you know if you read my blog last week, my family traveled to San Antonio this weekend so that I could join the Sea World Wildside Bloggers at AdventureCon. The past three days were the ideal mix of time with my kids and husband and activities devoted to enhancing my professional blogging skills.
I’ve been to other blogging conferences that were family free and entirely devoted to learning and building relationships with other bloggers. They are wonderful but can sometimes feel overwhelming, even for an extreme extrovert like me. Conferences like Mom 2.0 Summit and Type A Parent include lots of parties and networking events that involve non-stop talking and very little down time. Bloggers usually end up sharing a hotel room with other bloggers to defray costs as well.
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| Blog writing workshop with Jeff Herrington. |
On the other hand, the idea of getting away from the responsibilities of children and home can be fantastic. Escaping the familiar always appeals to me. Some moms really do need the affirmation of their non-parenting related abilities that comes from a professional conference once in awhile.
But is juggling a family at a blog conference really a good idea? AdventureCon definitely made it work.
First of all it helps that the event took place at one of the most amazing theme parks in the country. My husband did not have any trouble entertaining Nathan and Alex for the hours I was in sessions. I missed out on visiting the dolphins and watching Alex master a large climbing complex, but I didn’t miss Nathan riding his first roller coaster or any meals with my boys.
The back and forth between family and blogger time was a refreshing dynamic for both my husband and I. I had been worried Mike would get frustrated with managing the kids on his own, but because of the short doses of time that didn’t happen. It helps that we only have two and they are at an age that doesn’t require strollers, diaper changes, naps or frequent meals and snacks. I imagine it might be harder with more small fries.
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| Nathan and Alex meeting Shamu! |
Speaking of their ages, at 4 and 7 years old I think we were at the perfect ages for Sea World and this whole adventure. They rode the whole way to San Antonio, walked all over the Alamo and Riverwalk and even sat and listened to history lessons without fussing. Though they fell asleep a bit later than usual the first night in the hotel they didn’t bother us a bit till our alarm went off at 6am. And they trecked all over the park in blazing heat without so much as a complaint or even one tear shed.
We all fell into bed exhausted and happy Saturday night. I felt especially fulfilled by the AdventureCon experience, combining learning and new friendships with amazing family bonding time. So thanks to Kami, Julie, Sarah and Brian who made that happen. I would encourage other companies and PR agencies seeking to engage bloggers as advocates to consider AdventureCon as a great model of what works.
Disclosure: I was invited to Sea World and AdventureCon as a Wildside blogger brand advocate but all words and opinions are mine and completely truthful.