This year I am being more selective in my conference attendance. Almost every year in the past 5 years, I have purchase a Blogher ticket but I haven’t always gone. I have three core conferences in mind this year.

This year, I don’t even know WHEN Blogher is. This one conference that I will not miss as it was quite a rat race with no actually learning with way too many people. The last year I attended was in New York City and I had to eat my lunch sitting on the floor. Plus, I couldn’t stand watching the Swag Whores anymore stealing items from displays and asking for free stuff without wanting to get anything in return. Who knows if those people were even actual bloggers or just decided to pay the $99 for a Expo pass just to try to get free stuff. Needless to say, I’m skipping out on this one this year.

Conferences I AM attending: 

• Digital Colab (June): This is a conference put on by three talented and hard working bloggers. It is a must on my conference list for the hands on experience. I’m looking forward to meeting with like-minded blogging colleagues to help grow my business.
• Saveup (July): This is a invite-only conference from my Deal Pro partnership with Savings.com. This is always a good time and great learning experience. We also get to give Savings.com feedback on our relationship with them as well as new tools we would love for them to implement to help both our businesses grow.
• Bloggy Con (September): This is a new one to me but a friend convinced me to attend since it is within driving distance for me. My kids are already excited about being able to go explore Cedar Point while I’m learning some good blogging stuff!

What conferences will you be attending in 2014?

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When I signed into my Google Reader account today, I got a popup announcement that Google Reader was retiring as of July 1, 2013. I’ve already lost Adsense for RSS from Google and will also be losing iGoogle. This is all setting me into a panic to think WHAT IS NEXT for Google to get rid of?

Hopefully, they are getting rid of it because they are creating something new and awesome in place of these items. I don’t know if this is the case but I really hope that they have things in the works that we don’t know about. Google Current is the closest thing at the moment and it’s only available on iOs and Android – not on your actual computers – some of us still use ACTUAL computers Google!

Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013. If you’d like to download a copy of all your Reader data before then, you can do so through Google Takeout. You’ll receive your subscription data in an XML file, and the following information will be downloaded as JSON files:

• List of people that you follow
• List of people that follow you
• Items you have starred
• Items you have liked
• Items you have shared
• Items shared by people you follow
• Notes you have created
• Items with comments

Click here to start downloading your Reader data from Takeout. Once downloaded, your subscription data should be easily transferrable to another product, where you can continue to keep up with your online reading.

Apparently, more and more people are using social media like Twitter and Facebook to get their news. However, there are many of us, that still love our feeds. I’m one of them. Twitter gets overloaded with noise from everything. In my feed reader, I can focus JUST on blog posts.

What Google Feed Reader alternatives are out there? The ones I’m going to check out are Feedly, RocketFeed, and NewsBlur. Let me know which feed readers you like!

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If you follow me on BargainBriana.com, you know that I have partnered with Savings.com to teach Savings Nation classes. These classes seemed to be a natural fit for the coupon workshops I was already teaching around Central Indiana. I also get to work with some of my favorite bloggers as partners and a company I already had established a relationship with.

The grocery workshop presentation is a very professional slideshow with beautiful images and images. It was something I had been wanting to do with my current slideshow but had not had the time.  Plus, we get these really awesome workbooks to give to people who attend the classes.

The whole idea of Savings Nations is for me to help people save money – whether it is 50% or more on their grocery bill or just a few dollars here and there. Even those few dollars can add up to significant savings when you look at the big picture.  The classes give practical tips on couponing, meal planning, and general strategic store shopping to help a wide range of people save on their groceries.

There are so many ways to save and I hope to expand the workshop offerings I’m presenting to other topics too such as holiday shopping, Black Friday Strategic shopping, drug store secrets, and more!

Learn more by following the #SavingsNation hashtag, visit my workshop page, or send me an email. I have several different types of sponsorship opportunities for these classes, which can reach 10 – over a 100 people per class and also offer private “Lunch & Learn” educational opportunities for your business or organization.

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So to top it off….Guess what I did this evening? I washed my iPhone in the washing machine. It seems to be working for now. Hopefully, it the “rice” trick really does work to get rid of the moisture.

So what is BlogHer? Only the biggest blogging conference for women. I’m here to meet new people, connect with brands, and of course, have a fabulous time with my friends. Maybe, I’ll learn a new thing or two too!

The post New York Bound | Blogher 2012 appeared first on Briana Carter.

I don’t think one post will do the Disney Social Media Moms 2012 Conference justice. It was a fun long weekend of blogging friends, DISNEY, and family! Disney knows how to do blogging conferences from awesome speakers, great food, and how to integrate your entire family into the experience.

Last year, I took my two youngest children to the conference and this year I took my oldest son to the conference along with my mom and my grandma.  It was a great experience and Disney knows how to make your time extra special. Even with four generations of family along on the trip, we were able to find something for everyone to enjoy.

Okay, let’s start with the conference tables – plenty of outlets for the bloggers and they even made it pretty!

Here’s a few of my notes I found in my Eversave notebook for the conference:

The post Disney Social Media Moms Conference 2012 Recap appeared first on Briana Carter.

Check out what the nice folks over at the Zionsville Library made for me – a “I Geek Coupons” button. I taught a coupon workshop at this library back in March and they mailed this to me afterwards.

I also need one that says “I Geek Blogging.”

The post I Geek Coupons appeared first on Briana Carter.

There are so many blog conferences out there. I have three more conferences scheduled for this year including Brands and Bloggers in Chicago,  Blogher in New York and Savvy Blogging in Atlanta.

Brands and Bloggers 

Last year I wasn’t able to attend Brands and Bloggers because I was attending the Savvy Blogging conference. I was a little disappointed I missed out on that one since Chicago is within a couple hours drive, depending on the traffic. I’m excited to go this year and connect with my fellow midwest bloggers.

Blogher

Blogher is in New York city again this year. I skipped the last time it was in New York. It is much easier for us to travel to than San Diego was last year as there are many direct flights. Coupled with the same difference, this is going to eliminate traveling fatigue for me, which means I will get more out of the conference and connecting with brands at events.

Savvy Blogging 

Savvy Blogging is the conference that is my go to conference for learning. It is jammed packed with useful, practical information on how to grow my blog as a business. I also enjoy meeting new people at this conference as well as connecting with my long time blogging friends.

What conferences are you attending in 2012? 

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It’s always nerve racking to go on the news – especially live. During the holidays, I was doing spots on WTHR (13) during the “Saving You Money” segment. This particular week, Scott Swan was out and  Anne Marie Tiernon was filling in. She was very easy to talk to. I would guess you would have to be to anchor the news!

She was super sweet after I told her that my grandma was a huge fan, she said let’s take a picture.

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I was lucky enough to get invited to this year’s Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. I attended the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in 2011 and it was a blast. Not only did we get to hear some outstanding speakers and entertainment, I was lucky enough to stay in Cinderella’s Castle. You can’t pay to stay there, folks!

It is a honor and pleasure to be invited back for the current year’s events. I’m sure it will be even more fabulous than last year. Here’s the 2012 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Schedule:

Thursday – Cocktail Reception – Passport to the World, Swashbuckler Soiree & Dinner

Friday  Day- General Sessions:

• Amy Jo Martin, Digital Royalty@DigitalRoyalty
• Ramon DeLeon, Domino’s Pizza,@Ramon_Deleon
• Peter Shankman, The Geek Factory @PeterShankman
• Lisa Druxman, Stroller Strides@LisaDruxman
• Chris Brogan, Human Business Works @ChrisBrogan
• Conference Host: Maryellen Hooper @MaryellenHooper

Friday Evening – Dinner at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

Saturday – Breakout sessions. Attendees can choose from a variety of events. I choose to the African Safari Trek.

Saturday Evening – Dinner “Under the Sea” and tour of the Disney’s Art of Animation resort, which opens in May 2012.

It is a mixture of pleasure, networking, magic, and learning! 

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So it goes something like this. I received a PR pitch from one of thousands of companies. This one was for a TV show I was a huge fan of so of course it peaked my interest.

“For further review copy and giveaway requests, please contact XXX@XXXXXXXX.com and include your full mailing address with your request for specific product.

Please be aware that review copies will not be available until nearer to release, although all requests will be logged. 

 

Best wishes,

X Company

Over the past years, I have worked with hundreds of companies. If I receive a email that states review copy and giveaway and I receive the review copy, to me that is a green light on the giveaway. I asked around to several of my blogging friends and they agreed with my thoughts.

About two weeks after receiving my review copy, I draft up my giveaway post and hit publish knowing my readers are going to LOVE this giveaway as much as I love this show. You see, I did a review/giveaway for the same DVD set last year and it was a huge hit with my readers.

However, at that time it was a different more reliable and organized PR company so everything was very clear.

So after hitting publish, I sent an email to my contact letting her know and stating I would send over the winner’s information next week. A reply was promptly sent back stating they didn’t have a email confirming me with a giveaway and if I had something in writing, she would get XXX to order another copy for me. If not, then I was out of luck, it would have to be a review only.

I responded back with my email stating I wanted a review and giveaway copy, of which I did receive the review copy. To me, that was my confirmation there was also a giveaway attached to it as this is how the other companies I work with handle these things.

The response:

I’m afraid it’s not the case.

We only get given a certain amount of product to giveaway and unless we confirm this with you over email then we can’t accommodate your request.

Review requests will 9 time out of 10 be sent unless we state otherwise.

 

Sorry!

Okay, so I’m out of luck. This should have been stated in the original email from them, right? So I tell her I’m pulling the review/giveaway.

Pull it – we deal with 1000’s of sites and bloggers and none of them have an issue with the policy.

In fact I think it’s pretty standard that you wait for confirmation rather than assume.

 

Thanks!

You work with thousands of bloggers and sites, which apparently means I don’t matter.  Okay, so basically I’m a idiot for assuming that since I received the review copy I would also receive the giveaway copy. Did I not read this right?

“For further review copy and giveaway requests, please contact XXX@XXXXXXXX.com and include your full mailing address with your request for specific product.

No, I never received an email confirmation stating I would get the review or giveaway product. However, once I did receive the review product in the email that is normally confirmation that the giveaway is a go. As it is with the hundreds of other companies I have successfully worked with in the past.

I can think of numerous giveaways where I never received a “confirmation” email. I just received the product to review, did the giveaway, and the company did exactly as was discussed.

I did get a little snarky back, which is not usually my style but again, this is something I would not have agreed to do as just a review and I knew it would have been a huge success with my readership.

This is completely different from every other company I work with including huge brands. I guess it’s completely my fault for not being able to read between the lines.

Please remove me from your list.

Sorry I wasted my time.

I received confirmation I was removed from their list. Of course, I’ve shared who this company is with my closest blogging friends to warn them not to work with this company. Apparently, some have also had a bad experience with them as well.

What do you think? Would you have thought the giveaway was a go when you received the review copy?  Should I have handled this differently?

Update: It could have been worse. I could have been calling a really, really bad name like the Bloggess! (If you are offended by bad words don’t click.)

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