| Our Mamiverse blogging team! Lorraine Ladish, Mamiverse editor-in-chief, Monique Frausto from BlogsByLatinas.com and CurvesAndChaos.com, and ME! |
This was one of those blogging gigs that you hear others talking about and never think it will happen to you. Getting hired by your favorite companies to fly to an off-the-hook city and blog a concert and festival. Manicures, makeovers, tweeting, Instagramming and dancing to live music. It happened, right here (*holds arms in hair, points proudly down at my big head*), for reals, people!
Here are all the details!
About three weeks ago, Rene Alegria from Mamiverse.com asked me if I would be game to fly to San Antonio for Labor Day wekeend to cover the People en Español Festival presented by Target. I agreed in a second, not even knowing what it all entailed.
The weirdest thing for me was packing the night before. No craft supplies! Well, I did bring my trusty colored marker set and journal, but I mean nothing for demos, make-and-takes or prizes, etc. This was all about my fingers doin’ their thang across my iPhone.
*SCRRREeecchhh…* Insert sound of needle scratching across a record album.
This is me Friday, TWO hours before I was to leave for the airport:
“How can I be a REAL blogger and not even have an iPad? I need an iPad! All the serious bloggers have iPads! I’ll look so silly if I’m blogging from my iPhone. Seriously, Kathy, up your game, woman!”
Next thing I know, I’m at Target. I decided to break into my savings (that, ironically, was going to be for a new iMac desktop!). I choose the latest iPad model, a cover, and a bunch of extras. I walked to the counter and the girl rang it all up and…my card was DECLINED. Why? Because I went over my daily spending limit. Who knew I had one of those?
I’m one of those people who really tunes into signs from the universe. But in this case, it wasn’t a sign, it was a simple fact that I went over my daily limit. I NEEDED this iPad right NOW for this event!
I reached into my purse to grab my iPhone so I could call my bank to have the limit lifted. What do I discover?
For the FIRST time in my iPhone loving/using life —- I left it at home!
Right then, I KNEW it wasn’t meant for me to blow almost $700 on a whim. I really did need my hard-earned savings more for a new desktop, because my current one is slowly dying.
I raced to the airport and you know what? I didn’t need that silly iPad after all. I got along just fine with my trusty iPhone. Sure, someday I’ll get the luxury version, but for now, I’m A-ok. Funny how things like that work out, right?
So, back to the festival!
San Antonio is awesome, I love it there. This was my fourth visit and I never tire of the atmosphere, the people, all the sights and the Riverwalk!
We all met up and the best part for me was hanging out with some of my favorite peeps, my former Harper Collins editor, Rene Alegria, who is now the founder and CEO of Mamiverse.com, and his editor-in-chief/social media genius, Lorraine Ladish and powerhouse blogger extraordinaire, Monique Frausto from BlogsByLatinas.com and CurvesAndChaos.com. Just being around them infused my weekend with so much positivity and laughter and gobs of eye-opening social media tips! We danced, we ate, we laughed, we snapped pictures, we tweeted!
Here is my video overview of the weekend!
Some of my favorite highlights:
Target had a huge area set up for women to get makeovers. They also gave out a lot of beauty product swag. We were giggling because at one point, the announcer was talking about the makeover section and first he read the script in Spanish, but in English he announced: “Come rework your face!”
I loved the concert stage. There was always something cool happening there. Everyone from Selena’s family to Sheila E. to a band I fell in love with – Sie7e performed.
Here are other links about the event:
Round up by Monique.
Round up by Lorraine!
Here is a video by Sie7e, it’s reggae en Español, my fave! I bought his album as soon as I got home!
LINK
And here is one other cool thing – there was this company there called The Bosco (http://thebos.co)
They are based out of NYC and specialize in setting up photo booths at events. for this event, they had a printing booth and every time the the hashtag #TargetAtFestival was used in Instagram, a picture was printed out. About three times a day, we would run to the booth and scoop up our printed pictures! i’m totally going to use them in my art journal and smashbook!
