My friends have to be the most loving people in the world, and they are a hell of a lot more laid back than me. I’ve considered writing this blog for a few weeks now, but I figured after today, and the fact that I just purchased MommyCon tickets for next year, I need to write this.
Next year I am going to MommyCon. This time with a different group of friends, and hopefully this time with a different experience and expectation. As my most read blog is an example of, I hated my 2014 experience of MommyCon. Being that I was there as an onlooker more than I was there for myself, it was a great chance to blog, and that was about it. It was full of swag, I give MommyCon that, they are great at giving away stuff. However, my experience felt cheated because if I went by what the press release said to expect as an experience, I would have been sorely dissapointed. In general I was dissapointed. It was not run well, it was a small space and too many people. I swore that I would never go again. I hate the way everything was, and I hated that the owner and her staff just weren’t as professional as I would have liked. I did similar things with 6 times the attendees for a living, I knew it could have been done better.
However, I am working on my growing and letting go skills. Honestly, I saw a ton of periscopes from 2015 MommyCons and I can see that they have changed the way things are run now. Jen Apea over at SprayPal is one of my favorite Periscopers and she has such praise for MommyCon. Kim Rosas is at every single one of the MommyCons it seems and she had high praise too. I can only hope that all their praise and their answered questions, and I have had many, are real reflections of how Mommycon has grown and changed.
I can’t blame the behavior of the guests on MommyCon, but it was a huge reflection in my opinion of the culture that manifests around this conference. So I am concerned that it will be a similar seething pool of judgement at the next MommyCon. I can only hope that is not the case. I can judge the staff, but some of them were volunteers who were there for the free tickets, so maybe that is not a great reflection either. I can judge the owner, but then again, she maybe was just having a bad day with not the most put together vendors, and we all have bad days, so maybe that isn’t a good reflection.
I think what this rant is getting at is, everyone has bad experience, everyone has bad days, and while your behavior can directly impact or make a first impression that will last, people need to let things go and move forward. I am going to MommyCon again, just because my friends are going. I want to go with my east coast girls, and I want to see them. This is a chance to get free swag and see them, all in the same strike. So I am going. I bought my ticket, and I am looking forward to a better experience.
Jen Apea from Team Spraypal, had a great explaination and defense for MommyCon being such a crap experience in the past; they had growing pains, they grew faster then they could handle, and the 2nd year was out of control. But they have since gotten better, have paid staff, and apparently it runs a lot smoother. So here is to two years later and a different experience!
I’ve grown, the way I handle crazy situations, my calm zen, has all changed. So maybe its time to give MommyCon another chance. The resources there can be amazing, and if SprayPal and Kim Rosas are going to promote them as an improved conference, I am going to have to get with the program and try it again.
At least if it sucks again I can say that it was a true reflection, versus just one bad day! Well in theory, I am going to MommyCon twice next year, so it will need to be a best out of 3 scenario.
Cheers to second chances, cheers to a weekend with the Girls, and cheers to an awesome kick off to this week, its only Monday and I can already tell its going to be amazing!
The Jayne Project 