Convention - Day 2

Day 2 – Thursday for convention - the saga continues :D

Day two started out with Opening session. I have to admit that I cried a little with all the emotion that boiled up entering the auditorium. First you were greeted with cheers and high-fives by workers from the home office.

Then you see the absolutely fabulously decorated stage.

Then as you look around and see the thousands of demonstrators surrounding you all cheering, laughing, and dancing to the music…words just fail to describe. It is only something that can be understood when experienced in person. And you absolutely should! Start saving now!

Here I am with two demonstrators that I sat with at the regional conference in Orlando, Debora and Freda! My Stampin’ Up! friends just keep growing!

Of course they introduced the theme song for the conference with an excellent singer and great dancers. The song of “Grow, Grow, Grow” was played often and very catchy. I found myself singing it throughout the week.

They introduced two new marches this year. The first was for all demonstrators that this was there first time at convention. The march made you realize how many newbies there were! I was technically considered a first timer as I had to drop as a demonstrator and then re-up when I moved to Florida. So I did not march but did attend the first timer breakfast. The second was for any one that had recruited anyone in the last year. Thanks to Carol, I got to march! This picture is from the big screen and is terrible but I’m posting it anyways.

We then all got to ooo, aaah, and scream as the unveiled products from the new Holiday Mini! I am so excited and desperately wish I could share with you all the new and truly wonderful things in this catalog; however, you will have to wait until it releases. Note though, many of the samples that I will be posting is using products from the mini so pay close attention! Shelli revealed that they have developed an exclusive scoring tool for Stampin’ Up! It will be available in the Holiday Mini Catalog. Prize Patrol gave away the scoring tool! Stampin’ Up! shocked us all by giving every attendee a pack of 8 Mini Catalogs! They also showed a bag made of fabric that will be in the Holiday Mini which was then made available for us to purchase in Memento Mall. Of course I headed over at lunch and got myself one!

Right after the general session, I had my last organized swap, Above and Beyond Christmas cards. The cards I got from this were just fantastic! After lunch and some picture taking we headed off to our afternoon classes. My first class was a Garden Tour. This is a sample workshop and was demonstrated by Megan Daves. She was an excellent presenter and I learned some tips and tricks from her. Many of you may already know these but here are three of the things I took away from her:

1. Use a posted note as a “handle” to feed small paper into a punch!
2. Run paper through a crimper several times to help break down the fibers in the paper before crinkling. The paper will split apart faster the\an trying to use a bone folder!
3. A way to keep customers from using too much SNAIL, as taught to her by her daughter, is “dot, dot, not a lot”. Too cute!

Here are the workshop projects she demonstrated

My second class was called Filling your Garden by Cori Hancock. This class talked about the changes to the Hostess Benefits. It helped us understand why the changes were made and help us better understand them. The biggest reasons for changing the benefits were; to simplify them, add flexibility, increase workshops, and increase the average order size. I think the new hostess benefits are fantastic and looking forward to introducing them to my customers.

We wrapped up the day was a second main stage session. Here we saw commercials made by demonstrators, so cute and funny. We had a demonstration by Shelli’s daughter Sara. She usually presents with Shelli but this year struck out on her own. She armed us with ways to answer some arguments that customers present to us.

1. I’m not as creative as you; I can’t do that – she introduced the Great Day Simply Sent kit
2. I don’t have time –She used Big Top Birthday Quick Accents, Perfectly Penned stamp set and Note Cards to make 20 cards in minutes.
3. I don’t have space - she showed us a 6”x6” scrapbook she made with a Simply Scrappin’ Kit in only 1 hour on a car ride.
4. I can’t afford it – all the things she made were with very little materials and therefore very inexpensive. Plus she showed us how one of DS Paper is not a bingo sheet but an advent calendar and how you can make 4 advent calendars as gifts for the cost of one DS paper pack

She also showed us some projects that weren’t as simple because she wanted to. Here are some of her projects.

At the end of her presentation she brought her daughter on stage and then gave everyone attending the Great Day Simply Sent Kit!

After the convention finished for the day Kari, Jan and I headed for dinner. We found a wonderful place called the Olive Bistro. It serves Mediterranean food that was just Wonderful! And the best part is, it was right next door to the hotel!

Come back tomorrow for "the rest of the story".