Woweeeeeeeeeeee!
First off, after thanking god, I need to thank every single person and brand who was involved in making this event possible. I felt so privileged to have been invited that I had NO IDEA what to expect.
- I was prepared with my laptop to take notes and learn something new.
- My phone was fully charged to take part in the tweeting and instagraming.
- I pumped myself up to remain social and make eye contact BUT . . .
I was so not prepared for ALL of the GIFTS bestowed on us.
Someone told me it’s called swag. I . . . HAD . . . NO . . . IDEA.
Enough about me and my lack of pop culture references.
I woke up late and arrived super late. Well, I arrived after the opening remarks. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and I haven’t had the opportunity to slow down so when the alarm went off, I snoozed like ten times. Oops.
The weather sucked and my hair was responding to it badly, so I wore my extensions and a hat and ran down to the city like the late little Puerto Rican stereotype I was representing.
Yes, I wore one of my new Dick’s Sporting Goods shirts.
When I arrived, I walked in through the wrong door and thought I missed EVERYTHING but someone redirected me and I finally walked into fitness blogger heaven.
When you arrived, they give you a name tag, you fill out a liability form and we were told that we had to visit every sponsor table to get a sticker before we could get a bag of goodies. The guy at the door was like, “what’s your name” and I gave it to him and he said “oh yes, we have it . . .we have a nice box for you” as he pointed at the Reebok box and yet, I STILL DIDN’T GET that those sneakers were mine.
As I had already missed part of the first panel discussion, I took the time to gather my sweaty and disheveled self together and start hitting up the sponsor tables. I went to Reebok first and learned all about their new sneaks. They let you try them on, walk around with them, take pictures and they even interviewed you to ask what you liked most. I AM SURE I WILL MAKE IT TO A COMMERCIAL! hee hee. (jk)
They gave me socks and I was thrilled! I really am easy to please people. I think it’s because I don’t expect things. OOH *NEW* SOCKS!
On I went to some of the other tables and I made it an effort to speak to each person and learn about the products displayed. If you have ever worked in marketing or at a trade show, you would know to truly appreciate and listen to the people on the other end of the table. Don’t just take their free stuff and leave. They worked very hard to learn about their product or service to explain it to YOU. Sorry folks, but I had to share that piece of knowledge with you.
V8 has a new smoothie line that tastes delicious. It’s not too sweet or thick. It’s like half smoothie/half juice. No grainy after taste either. I tasted the mango flavor and it was pretty delicious.
Oakley Shades has new line of women’s sunglasses that were displayed for us.
We also got to try them on and see how they feel. The girl at the table was talking to me and I asked her if I could try them on, etc. Listen to this . . .she says, “sure, tell me which ones you like and they are yours!” I was like “huh, REALLY?” I have never owned a pair of Oakley Shades in my life and feel so super grateful to the company for giving it to us. I can’t wait to try them on when it gets sunny in New York. For now, here’s a pic of my choice.
Then, there was Birkenstock. The line there was so long ALL day. I felt really bad for the two ladies working the booth. They were ROCKSTARS and never complained even while eating standing up and sneaking in sips of water in between “clients.” They were super helpful. I got the opportunity to meet with Shelley Glasgow who was so polite.
Myself and my new blogger friend, Sheryl Yvette ie. Bitch Cakes, sat down with Shelley together and she was so attentive to our varied requests. I don’t want to bore you with all the details but Ms. Glasgow offered to mail us our new Birkenstock’s when she gets back to the office. I’m getting the ones below but in cockatoo. They look nothing like the bird, just a clever color name.
On that same line, I also met Ms. New York America, who became my bff of the afternoon. You can follow our ongoing Twitter chatter if you are interested.
I felt so lucky to have met two beautiful down to earth ladies while on line! Made the wait that much more fun. Looking forward to future encounters.
What else, What else . . .oh yes . . .I MET Mia Hamm.
Please excuse our hair people, we were working hard and that room had some crazy humidity going on. It was nice to see Mia stuck around the entire day with us. I thought I had missed her after missing the opening ceremonies.
She signed a mini soccer ball for the man. THANKS MIA.
Pure Protein and Fiber One gave me all these nice goodies that I will try to review on the blog. I believe the Pure Protein folks mentioned I was going to get a sample pack mailed to me as well for a giveaway, so look out for that in the future. Fiber One’s chocolate chip bars are delicious and they deserve a future post as well.
I met Samantha Pepi from New Media Strategies and she was so sweet and once again, I was super grateful to her for inviting me to the event. Sam, if you are reading this. I am the girl who wouldn’t stop saying thank you. lol. She was the go-to person for all the bloggers before the event. And they gave me a Yoga mat which is much-needed since the other one lives in my trunk for when I do personal training.
Yikes, I had no idea this post would be this long BUT California Raisins has these delicious yummy yogurt treats and I also got to talking with the VICHY table on skin care.
My plan is to follow-up this post with some of the information I learned on the panels, over the next couple of days AND then I will start reviewing some of the cool stuff I received.
By the way, if you didn’t realize. I GOT LOTS OF STUFF and the bag of SWAG has even more. Including those super hot pink Reebok low-zigs in my size. Can’t wait to use them TONIGHT as I sub a Zumba class.
This deserves a “Wepa, Wepa, Wepa.”
Hasta luego chicas!
