This past week my family and I had the opportunity to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and experience more magic and “pixie dust” than we ever though possible. I have had a lot of questions from readers about what this celebration is all about so I wanted to share what it is as well as my top take-aways from the conference.
Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and Conference
Just about 2 months ago I received the highly coveted and magical email letting me know that I was invited to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in Disney World. I was excited, shocked, etc to find out that I had been invited. I have attended several blogging conferences in the past three years, The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is an invitation-only, professional conference for social media-minded moms and dads and no one really knows what criteria is used to be selected to attend. That is why it is so magical when the email shows up inviting you. I first heard of the conference about 2 years ago when I was a baby-blogger, and hoped that one day I would be invited. It was fitting to realize that the conference fell on my 3 year blogging anniversary. What a perfect way to celebrate! We surprised my kids about 10 days before we left and had a Disney Countdown Printable and Disney Chain to count down the days! Those were a long 10 days!!
What is a Disney Social Media Mom?
Disney Social Media Moms (and dads) are professional bloggers who have an influence across Social Media as well as have a love for all things Disney.
What do you do at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration?
The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration is made up of family activities for bloggers and their families at Disney World, as well as a conference day where we learn and network with the other bloggers in attendance while our families spend time at the parks or meet and greets. But, don’t feel bad for those of us in the conference. It was amazing! And we had plenty of time to spend in the parks the other days we were there.
Conference Day Inspiration and Speakers
I will devote several blog posts to our Disney Social Media Moms experience and tips for traveling to Disney world, but I want to start with conference day. Our conference day started off by hearing from George A Kalogridis, the President of Walt Disney World. Great way to start off the day! He talked about the power of social media and shared some fun news about Disney World, including the new Avatar land being built at Animal Kingdom! It will open in 2017 and I can’t wait. It looks like it will be amazing! Here’s a sneak peek:
We then heard from Eva Smith, Head of Marcomm and Insights at Pinterest. She talked about how to best use Pinterest to grow our business and to connect with brands. A few statistics: 55% of all women ages 18-54 are on Pinterest and 80% of those pin from a smart phone. We love our technology! 🙂
If you are trying to grow a Pinterest following she shared a few tips.
- Start with a great image that is clear and vertically oriented. Make sure it is clear what that image is and what need it fills for your followers.
- Write helpful descriptions. How can your followers integrate that pin into their lives? Use longer descriptions that show how to use, how to wear, etc.
- Make sure the pin links to a useful destination. If the pin doesn’t go anywhere it won’t be useful to your followers.
- Use Analytics to learn what people love and which are your most successful pins. You will also learn who your audience is and be able to track the Pin-it button leads.
Our next speaker was Pixar Animator Jonas Rivera who is the producer of the new Pixar film Inside Out. He showed us the entire process of producing an animated film and showed how long it actually takes. Inside Out took them 5 years to create! We got to see a preview of the movie and it is absolutely adorable and fun. Watch for it to come out mid-June!
Janice Balgemino talked to us about Disney Infinity and the new Disney Infinity 3.0 starter pack that includes Star Wars characters! Also Mickey and Minnie are new and they are adorable.
One of my favorite speakers of the day was a young girl named Vivienne Harr.
Vivienne saw a picture of young boys who had been sold into child slavery in Nepal and she knew she wanted to do something about it. She decided to sell lemonade for 365 days to try and raise enough money to free a child slaves. At first she was only making a small amount but then had the idea to let people choose the price they wanted to pay for the lemonade, letting them know of her goal to free child slaves. The money started rolling in. She was eventually able to bottle her lemonade and sell it. When forced with doubts of her ability to make a difference she said, “We don’t think of the reasons we can’t. We think of the reasons we must.” What an inspiration! I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. She also said we need to take the focus off ourselves and put it towards people who need our help. She now has a documentary coming out called #Standwithme that documents her journey to end child slavery.
Our next speaker was Chris Brogan, CEO of Owner Magazine and Top Social Media guru. I could talk all day about the things he shared with us but my main take away was that you can’t be everything for everyone. Get specific about your audience and be okay when people aren’t interested in what you do. You don’t have to make everyone happy. And he said that if he could tell his younger self something it would be to “fail faster and learn fasterer.” Don’t be afraid to fail!
We heard from Jeffrey Epstein from D23, which is Disney’s official fan club as well as Dr Tonya Almann, early childhood development expert who shared information about Disney Imagicademy, which we love!
Another favorite of mine was Donald Driver, former wide receiver of the Green Bay Packers. I should definitely write a post about the things he spoke on. He spoke about the reasons we blog and the four things holding us back from reaching our goals are fear, doubt, insecurity and worry. It doesn’t matter how successful you get, you will still have fear, doubt and worry. But, never be insecure! Know who you are and be confident. Also, don’t blog to get attention, blog for a reason and be careful how you treat people. He has a new book out about bullying called, “Quickie Stands Up to a Bully.” It has a great message for kids and my boys have enjoyed reading it!
To end the day we learned about Youtube from HeyKayli and the Maker Studio’s team. And we ended our day with an exercise on creativity from Lee Kitchen who is the Creative Problem Solving Expert for Disney.
Overall the day went by so quickly! I left inspired and ready to find ways to use my blog for good and to make a difference. I’ll be sharing the details of some of our family events and time spent in the park over the next few weeks but the conference was really amazing. Watch for details about our hotel, Disney’s Yacht Club, as well as the different family activities and tips for planning your next Disney World Vacation.
You will also like:
Disney Countdown Printable
Disney Countdown Chain
hi do you know if the star wars trailer that they screened before inside out was a new one or one of the previous two that are already out?
thank you