What I Learned At Disney Social Media Moms

I’m writing this in a Jake and the Neverland Pirates notebook while sitting at the airport. Which is ironic. Since one of the things I learned is that Jake is like Justin Bieber to the preschool set. Michael fell asleep on the dance floor at the Disney Junior party and refused to leave because “Jake is here, Mom.”

But, on to the substance. The speakers were amazing, and I could write posts and posts about everything I learned. But I decided to highlight one or two things from each of the speakers:

Carley Roney-Cofounder and Editor in Chief of The Knot.com-”The best way to grow your site is from community. It all starts from community and not from you.”
David Tutera-”Bloggers have an amazing ability to set trends.” The next big color trend is going to be red, which is fantastic, since I wore an amazing red dress the night Doug and I went to Victoria and Alberts.

Matt Jacobsen-Head of Market Development for Facebook-I really should have a fan page. I knew that, but was ignoring it. I’m using Facebook all wrong. Also, he bikes to Yoga and checks his news feed and also, what? How does one do that without killing themselves.
Rene Syler of Good Enough Mother-She was the speaker who spoke to me the most. I’ve struggled with my own self doubts and dealt with perfect parents and the claim of perfect children. And recently I took a step back and realized that I couldn’t be around people I can’t be real with. And Rene just reinforced that. “No one should make you feel bad about yourself,” she told me, directly. She also believes strongly that you can have a “second act” in life.” I’m just trying to figure out what my second act is going to be, but she is such an inspiration, that every day while I am trying to figure it out, I will think of her.
Chris Brogan-”When you raise other people up,” he advised, “you raise yourself up. No one wants to work with the person who is calling everyone else a bitch.” (On that note, I will not comment on the controversy surrounding the conference. If you want more information on that, read this.) “You do not get graded for the perfect blog post. Write it, walk away, it should not take 45 minutes.”
Susan Egan and Georgia Stitt-As a Broadway lover this was an amazing experience for me. They sang songs from Wicked, Into the Woods, and many originals, as well as discussed their music and theater careers and how social media helped grow it. My favorite quote: “life is defined as much by the choices you don’t make as the ones you do.” (If you are reqading this from a feed there is video of Susan singing Defining Gravity from Wicked.)

Disney’s Magic of Healthy Living-The average Disney Guest in the parks walks 7 miles a day and burns 700 calories. There is a vegetarian option and a healthy option on every menu on every restaurant in the parks.

For me, this was more than a conference. This was a family event. I got to go with my mom, my husband, and my son. And as the parent who is always second choice it was amazing that after being gone so much he couldn’t wait to talk to ME. He wanted to tell me all about their days in the parks. When I met them in EPCOT after my sessions Saturday mornings he ran to me and only wanted to sit with me, be with me. It was an amazing feeling.

I have a love of Figment. And all of a sudden, Michael does too.

Michael is too young to understand this, but one day I will be able to explain to him that the reason we got to go to this event is because Disney valued me. Not as his Mom, but as a writer, as a person. I am so much more than his mom. I am the person who made this happen.

And, I got to do something for my mom for a change, as opposed to the other way around.

Disney is magic.

Disclosure: I paid a registration fee to attend the conference. I received discount hotel stays and complimentary items from Walt Disney World. This post is based solely on my own experience and opinion without any outside influence.