Day One has come and gone, and already I think the organizers of this year’s Mom 2.0 Summit can officially call the conference a success, even over last year’s inaugural event. This year, the conference is quite a bit bigger – maybe half again as large as the one a year ago – but it has managed to keep its intimate feel intact, while still providing awesomely engaging speakers and a spellbinding amount of information on how to enhance your business’ online presence.
After a bit of a bleary-eyed start (apparently partying like a rock star at the previous evening’s Mad Men party wasn’t the best of my ideas), I managed to make it to the second half of the morning’s keynote speech – a good thing, too, because one of the panelists was Heloise. Yes, that Heloise.
She positively dripped with southern charm, telling us stories of how she took over the Hints from Heloisefranchise from her mother (the original Heloise) on her mom’s death. Heloise even took the time to pass along a cleaning tip to a hapless conference attendee, who had inadvertently dropped a raspberry on her crisp white trousers – talk about being at the right place at the right time!
More riveting, however, was the second keynote panelist: the truly enchanting Gretchen Rubin, author of the new book, The Happiness Project. The idea for her book began when she was on a cross-town bus: in her words, she asked herself, “What do I want from life, anyway?” She realized that ultimately, she just wanted to be happy, so spent a year testing the wisdom of the ages, scientific studies and lessons of popular culture in an effort to see if it worked.
The result is this new book – which I’m dying to tuck into. (Admittedly, one of the other reasons I can’t wait to read the book is because we share a similar story: as a former attorney who made the decision to follow her passion as a writer because she’d “rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer,” I know exactly what she means.) Immediately after the panel, I bought a copy of her book and had her sign it.
After the keynote and a brief break for networking, I ducked into the break-out session on “Redefining Success,” led by novelist Coert Voorhees and writer Alice Bradley, moderated by the always-insightful Brené Brown. This panel was specifically geared toward those who make their living as writers: Coert made the interesting point that for writers, the definition of success is 100% out of our hands (and in the hands of critics and those who choose to read our books); that the best we can do as writers is just to continue to write to the best of our abilities, consistently and constantly.
Alice agreed, stating that reframing certain negative aspects of the writing career, such as rejection letters and bad reviews, into positive signs of “proof you did the work,” is essential to keep pursuing your career. The panelists continued to talk about the writing life and achieving balance with personal life, and how to reconcile society’s definition of success in terms of money with personal definitions of living a fulfilling life. Definitely my favorite conference discussion thus far.
After some downtime connecting with some far-flung friends (including the ever-engaging Maggie Mason, and particularly Leah Peterson, who, since I saw her two years ago, is now a consultant for the hit Showtime series, The United States of Tara), I decided to go to the panel discussion on “Decluttering,” led by April Welch, healthy-life guru Elizabeth Irvine, and moderated by style maven Susan Wagner. The panel was pretty much what you would expect – that slowing down and organizing is essential to living a more peaceful, decluttered life. But Beth’s reminders of “staying in the present moment,” and “setting your intentions for the day each day, and dedicating your energies” were welcome reminders.
Finally, it was time to slip into something a little more festive and head to the Mom 2.0 Photo Exhibit and reception at the FotoFest Gallery. This event was really amazing: not just because of the great drinks and food (a rented taco-truck – how complete inspired is that?), but because the space is so beautiful, and connecting with inspiring women entrepreneurs among the breathtaking art of talented women photographers is just not something that happens every day. This was definitely the highlight of my day.
On that note, I’m off to get ready for Day 2 of the summit, where I’m hoping to follow a more technical and professional track today. Also, of course, I’m excited about being on my own panel, “Using Other Forms of Media – Photography, Audio, Video, Art – To Enhance Your Website,” along with Rob Morhaim of Deca TV and writer Rebecca Woolf. I have a feeling it’s going to be a lively one.More soon!
Karen Walrond is a writer, photographer and the creative mind behind Chookooloonks.com. Her book, The Beauty of Different, will be published this fall by Bright Sky Press.
