The Cybermummy weekend....

Here I am at the start of the week following the Cybermummy weekend and I am a little tired after the experience.

As myself and Wendy were travelling from our homes in Shropshire to London, I was apprehensive about the pure logistics of the long journey.  Both Wendy and myself are born Southerners but since we moved to Shropshire neither of us venture 'Down South' very much any more.

As we were lucky enough to be chosen of be part of the Hyundai Cybermummy Car Share Initiative the journey down was done behind the wheel of a gorgeous black Hyundai Santa Fe.  I was spoiled as it was an automatic version which was great as I drive an auto myself - that in itself was a real help as I was worried about having to remember to change gear!  It was a chariot of beauty and space and I really missed it this morning as I climbed in my old, L reg, car for the school run.  The Santa Fe is spacious and very responsive to drive and I had been pleasantly surprised by how luxurious it had been.

Hyundai set each car a series of photographic challenges on the way to Cybermummy - 9 items to be found, photographed and uploaded to Twitter through Twitpic these included:

...a pint of milk!

A Phonebox and a letter box...

Double whammy - both together!

As Wendy was driving and I was using my Blackberry to get photos of the required list of objects, it mainly consisted of wendy seeing what we needed and me attempting to photo it out of the window - not always easy!

Nearly a 'men at work' sign!!

The challenges really got the whole weekend off with a bang - thanks to Hyundai for making this happen and for the lovely hamper of goodies that were waiting for us in the car on the way down and again on the way back.  The hamper contents of sweets, crisps, water, neck pillows and so much more were really well thought out and a lovely touch.

My lovely sponsor Teething Bling UK had provided me with a Teething Bling T-shirt and so that was a godsend on the morning of the conference as I had no dilemmas on what to wear and as I had a panic at 6am that morning as I realised I had left my business cards on Wendy's living room floor - Noooo!  The T-shirt was lovely and many people asked about Teething Bling because of it.

I had to go 'cardless' but here's what I could have handed out...

Note to self:  Recheck your cards are in your bag!

I was sad about the cards as they included photo's of Tala with his Teething Bling from our review.

The other note to self I will make about the weekend is to buy a watch! We sadly missed Sarah Brown's talk as we had been given wrong directions to our destination, headed the wrong way and ended up arriving after the talk had started.

I was amazed by the brands that were present at the event, from Butlins, LeapFrog and Crocs to Disney and it was really nice to see new prototypes of upcoming products and get to talk about existing ranges and the PR staff at the event were very knowledgeable. There were quite a few up and comings that I would love to review.

I attended the Social Networking workshop in the morning and learned all about the ins and outs of Twitter and Facebook.  The speakers introduced me to Bit.Ly and that I should 'think as a brand' and the importance of Twitter lists and using Tweetdeck (which I don't currently do but will soon!) as this makes Twitter news feeds and RT's easier to follow.

Facebook essentials included a photo carousel to my Facebook Blog page and the importance of links to your blog/website/twitter account and anywhere else you are should be on your info details on Facebook.  Discussions on your page were also important so I shall make sure I work harder on that - the photo carousel was done this morning ;)

In the afternoon I attended the Crowdsourced Keynote speeches, which were some of the best, self nominated, blog posts of the past read by the bloggers themselves.  One particluar post about, shall we say certain bedroom toys, and how to dispose of them was read exceptionally well and really came alive which can be difficult if you are not used to public speaking in front of so many people.

So many bloggers in one place.

All in all my experience was a positive one and I really liked meeting Super Amazing Mum and the lovely Sharon from I-heart-motherhood, Sonia from Mummy Loves as well as lovely Emma Bradley and the gregarious Simone as well as the lovely ladies at the Friday get together organised by Sandy Calico of Baby Baby whose goodie bags on the night were a real treat.  The food on the Friday night and the company were great.

My down sides were no Curly and Candid or The Boy and Me - hopefully next year, and the oversight of my business cards.  On the brands front I missed Lord Dodo due to our lateness, which is a shame as I really love my Dodo Pad.

The food was a rather small amount served in a cardboard take-away style pot to be eaten whilst standing - I was paranoid about spilling it and it was hard to mingle with watercress hanging out your mouth!  The pudding was lovely but was in my opinion larger than the main... had to stop for a burger on the way home.

I am, as I said at the beginning, tired but content but I just wish I could have a bit more energy so I can work on all I learned over the weekend!

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