Fun at the i_blog conference

little blogs on the prairie

i_blog was this weekend and I love love loved it! Attending the i_blog conference in Perry was fun and educational. I love meeting new people and new ideas. I promised my sister, who just had a baby on Tuesday, that I would tell everything on my blog.

What was i_blog? I_blog was a fun, three day gathering of Midwest bloggers. Held at the Hotel Pattee, and sponsored by several rock star companies, i_blog provided adult ed through workshops for bloggers. [It was like a home school conference without a vendor hall, but for bloggers.]

Swag? I didn’t go for the swag. But there were plenty of goodies – pads of sticky notes courtesy of Cozi, a notepad and $50 discount coupon from Hotel Pattee, Midwest Dairy generously gave an afternoon snack, recipe books, and insulated bags (they will fit two gallon milk jugs), and Land O Lakes gave coupons for free yogurt and cents off for cottage cheese.

There were also fantastic giveaways: Kum and Go gave two $100 gift cards, Verizon Wireless gave a droid 2, Midwest Dairy gave a handheld blender (that I won!), and Brett Trout gave two copies of Cyber Law. (I am too lazy to put an amazon affiliate link here.) Verizon Wireless had a booth full of goodies and info – drawstring bags, water bottles, key chain fobs, cozies, non-slip pads for your dashboard, ink pens, you get the idea. There could have been more on Friday, but I didn't attend that day.

Well, are you jealous yet? You will have to go next year. Wait until my next post. Then you'll really wish you would have been there.

OK, I have no pictures from the event right now. How about this one?  As I told the dairy moms at our Saturday morning breakfast, we saw Toy Story 3 Thursday night, and everyone loved it for their own reasons. I found these forgotten toys recently on closet shelf.

Giveaways

I love giveaways. I also like the way blog giveaways are usually designed -- you learn and see something new, and sometimes you get material goods. I like to stay current for occasional conversations, and I like being a consumer.

Here's my latest giveaway win from Tara at DSM Coupon Mom  (soon to be changing her name).

I love getting happy mail. Priority mail just seems to be extra special.

This is where my kids might quote_The Emperor's New Groove_ -- "...put that box in another box, and mail it to myself."

And for the big reveal.....

I won a leather photo album and coupon for free product!

Every giveaway works similarly. This one happened to require answering a question in the comment area. Most giveaways, like this one, are trying to grow their readership and do market research (did you read about MyBlogSpark in Tara's post? Yeah, me neither, but that's what I think it is), so "following" a blog, naming a favorite product, identifying a new piece of information, retweeting, becoming a facebook fan, etc. can also give you entries. More entries are presented, flawed in my thinking, as increasing your chances of winning. (hello? really? have you heard of dilution and saturation? that negates the extra entries) 

I will be having a giveaway later this year. Not so much for promotion (I'm not a business blogger), but to spread the blogger love and reduce my crafting stash. Let's vote: should I give away a sideways scarf or a yo-yo necklace? Look in the sidebar and vote for a week.