Wynn Las Vegas, very swanky
Yesterday morning was one of my proudest moments. I joined Liz, Christine and Lynnae on stage in from of 750 badge-wearing conference-goers where we sat Oprah-style on upholstered chairs and talked about the economy, the relationships retailers and brands need to build with shoppers and why they should care about what we bloggers think and say.
We told them we're wise to the grocery shrink ray. We're worried about food and drug safety. We want to eliminate HFCS and reduce wasteful packaging. We want to know about the people behind the products and about how the company treats its employees. We want transparency and a two-way dialogue with our favorite brands. We listed examples of companies that are listening and responding to consumers and offered a quick crash course in social networking.
The audience was filled with raised hands during a 15 minute Q and A and feedback about the session has been overwhelmingly positive.
But Las Vegas wasn't all stage lights and cordless mics. I got to hang out with Liz (of Mom-101 and Cool Mom Picks fame), who is even funnier in person than she is online. She regaled me with stories of her glamorous life as a high-powered NYC creative director at Deutsch in the 1990s and taught me how to play Blackjack (I was doing it all wrong). And as if it wasn't cool enough that we're both started our careers as big agency copywriters, we're also both partnered with guys with nontraditional careers and mothers to girls the same ages.
Liz in front of one of the Wynn waterfalls
Last night Larry took all the mom bloggers out to eat at Switch, a restaurant in the Wynn complex that uses some magical stagecraft to change décor every 30 minutes. I had a lobster salad, lamb chops and a peanut butter chocolate lava cake with bananas. It was fabulous-as it well should be for the price!
Lamb chops
After dinner we went to the nightclub Blush for complimentary champagne and a chance to feel really old and modestly attired.
