I love being part of such a big program. The best part is the relationship side – meeting so many new people and reconnecting with so many people I’ve been social with online. My only regret is not getting to spend time with everyone.

I love meeting the moms and meeting their families.  I’m so struck by how they manage so many things at one time and still maintain huge smiles on their faces.  I tend to usually get the comment “You look stressed.”

I love seeing the looks of joy and awe in the eyes of the children.  At the Disney Junior dance party the kids seem to be mesmerized by the characters and the action on the stage.  It was so much fun to watch.

At the Talk with a Disney Chef & Sommelier, I was so impressed by the questions asked by the group. They were asking things I never would have thought of – so insightful!  This was a big hit.  Who doesn’t enjoy some serious Disney dining?

The speakers were awesome!  Chris Brogan (above) delivered another humorous yet informative talk.  He’s just plain spectacular.  What I love most is how he engages with the audience.  He mingles with them during the entire conference. This means so much to people – uh – called relationship building!  He’s a master at it.

We scattered little surprises throughout the Celebration, like a Duffy surprise after lunch.

Ah, to be back at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort – lakeside, on a gorgeous spring night, listening to live music. That was nice!

This weekend I’m planning on a super-duper mani/pedi to get relaxed.  I may even pay a few bucks extra for some extra foot massage time. Just sayin’…..

I’ve been spending this morning working on last minute emails and documents for the conference.  My Mikita has been right by my side waiting patiently for me to get done and spend quality ball time with her.  I’ll take a few breaks and entertain her since she’s been such an angel today. I’ve got iTunes cranked to my favorites songs and looking out the window at a spectacular gorgeous day.

I love putting events like this together.  While some days it’s no picnic the reward happens when it all comes together when everyone arrives.  There is an extremely talented team working together on all the details.  That’s also what makes it rewarding.  I’m blessed to work with awesome people.

The weather forecast for this week (as of this morning) was sunny and warm. Let’s keep our fingers crossed it stays that way.

Looking forward to meeting and seeing everyone in a few short days.

Our journey was a three-hour trek from start to finish which included gearing up and the mini-training.  Walt Disney World Moms Panelist and blogger Suzannah of Zannaland has a terrific summary of the experience on her blog – here.

For me the most terrifying  (and yes, I mean terrifying) part were the two walks across the shaky, swaying rope bridges.  First over the hippopotamus river, then once you catch your breath from that it’s on to crossing over the crocodile pit.

Yes, those are real live 20-foot crocs below sunning on the island and swimming in the water.   Oddly, I was so nervous being so high up and concentrating on the swaying bridge that I never looked down at the ground.  I was holding on to both sides of the ropes so hard and focusing on where my next step would go.  As you look closely at the bridge you can see the planks are unequally spaced and purposely broken so you have to walk very slowly and carefully to not fall in between them.  UGH!!  I have no idea how those other people managed to stop and shoot photos while on the bridge.   The cool thing about Disney is they have the trek guides taking professional photos of you all along the way.  So when I download my Disney Photo Pass pictures later today there will be some of me actually on the bridge making the terrifying journey across.

The good news is – I did survive.  I made it across both bridges albeit with quite a few more grey hairs on my head.

And from there the trip was a piece of cake.

My biggest challenge with this experience will be the high-in-the-air rope walk over the crocodile pit.  Yes, the height scares me some, but my bigger fear than that are the crocodiles.  Living in Florida my whole life I have a huge fear of alligators and reptiles in general. Huge fear!  So, if I can overcome this I think I’m going to have an amazing time!

Wish me luck!  Check back here for post-trip pictures.

I watched every single episode of this year’s show and was really torn between who should win – Crystal Bowersox or Lee.  They both were fabulous singers but with completely different styles.  Lee really started coming out of his shell the last few weeks and won the audience over with his shy personality and his great vocals.  After seeing him today work the crowds, he really does seem like a genuinely nice guy. I’m happy for him that he won, and I have no worries for Crystal whatsoever.  She’ll go on to also have a stellar career as well.

Lee signs autographs for the fans at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Memorial Day (May 31, 2010)

The finale moment of the American Idol Experience where Lee DeWyze congratulated the shows winner.

Lee DeWyze on stage giving good luck wishes to the performers.

Brody – the man in the middle – was the winner of the day’s first show at American Idol Experience.  He’ll go on to compete in the finale show.

And finally, I became a photo-journalist of sorts today – when WESH picked up my TwitPic from the parade.  Pretty cool!

]]> http://leanneslife.com/2010/05/31/american-idol-lee-dewyze/feed/ 1 http://leanneslife.com/2010/02/16/disney-social-media-moms-celebration-photos/ http://leanneslife.com/2010/02/16/disney-social-media-moms-celebration-photos/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:39:31 +0000 Leanne http://leanneslife.com/?p=954 The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration officially wrapped up four nights ago and I’m still in recuperation stage.  Although today I finally was able to put in a full work day without zoning out. My apologies to my online friends because I have not been keeping up with the content demand. And I’m so thrilled about you visiting my site. I’ve never had so many comments on any one post before and it really thrills me to no end. (Insert giddy smile here.)

I still need some time to gather my thoughts for a coherent blog post on the entire event. I’ve been visiting some of the site from the bloggers who attended and I am so impressed with their writing talents and amount of content they publish.  Janice and Susan from 5 Minutes For Mom are simply amazing!  Their energy levels are through the roof and it shows in their website.

While I gather my thoughts, here are some photos from the event. These are a compilation of my pictures, plus photos from Preston Mack – the official Disney photographer on Friday, and Josh Hallet of hyku.com who attended Thursday’s breakfast with Guy Kawasaki.

Kathy Ireland captivated the audience with her eloquent presentation.

Backstage with Kathy Ireland. What a beautiful person she is!

Walt Disney World Resort President Meg Crofton welcomed the moms to the first ever Social Media Moms Celebration.

Maxine Clark, founder and Chief Executive Bear of Build-A-Bear Workshop delivered the opening presentation that set the tone for the rest of the day.

Cool shot of the American Adventure rotunda where Guy Kawasaki presented. Photo compliments of Josh Hallett, hyku.com

Marissa Jaret Winokur had the crowd laughing with her creative presentation on how she uses social media.

Chris Brogan and moms from the conference at Epcot on Thursday nights.

Chris Brogan and me at the end of the day’s events on Friday. Oh yeah – the Muppets showed up for the festivities, too!

ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover star Ty Pennington at Thursday’s Volunteer Family Celebration event at Epcot.

The new Guinness World Record for structure made out of canned food. The food was all packaged up and distributed to local food banks in Florida and Georgia, enough to feed 70,000 meals!

We wrapped up a very fun yet busy 3-day social media conference for moms and their families at Disney last week. For me, it was exhilarating to meet so many people that I’ve befriended through Twitter over the past year and to finally put real faces with Twitter IDs and avatars.  Some people were very easy to recognize from their itty bitty photos on their bios and others totally caught me by surprise. (Yes @dcanoli I’m talking about you!) It was wonderful to see some of my online friends again in person – Allison, Jeni, Cooper, Erin, Janine, and of course, my WDW Moms Panelists Margaret, Diane, Kathy, Joanne, Terry, Suzannah and Andi.  It was just such an experience to meet so many wonderful people and spend time with them.  I also have to give a shout-out to Susan and Janice, Jennifer, Amy and Maria for all their help in making this event a reality. I know I’m forgetting many folks and I’m so sorry. I think if I recalled everyone this blog would be 20 pages long.

More to come on the activities and wonderful speakers.  (Such as Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Kathy Ireland, Maxine Clark, Marissa Jaret Winokur and the hilarious Maryellen Hooper)

I spent part of the day yesterday (New Year’s Eve) at the Magic Kingdom working a Cross-U shift. For those not familiar with this every so often, usually during peak periods, salaried cast members will be asked to work a shift in the parks to help out.  The exciting and sometimes intimidating part of this is that we have no idea what job we’ll be assigned until we show up for our shift. My assignment this year:  Popcorn stand at the Castle hub in the Magic Kingdom. I was in charge of filling the popcorn orders as they came in. It was pretty easy because there were only two size options – a small box or a souvenir bucket. Once our team got a flow going we were rockin!  I’m positive we were the best and most efficient popcorn stand in all the parks yesterday.

It was so much fun to see everyone at the parks having such a good time. At 4pm the cast started handing out the New Year’s Eve hats and horn blowers which quickly added to the buzz along Main Street.  If I had anyone to hang out with I might have just stayed at the park for the rest of the night to ring in the year. It seemed everyone was having a great time.

I feel very blessed going into 2010.  While I have few tight personal friendships, those that I have I cherish.  I am also grateful for the many wonderful people I work with and for those amazing people that I met through work (read: Moms Panelists and bloggers). Your support and encouragement means so much to me.  I appreciate everyone so much and wish you all the very best in the coming year.

For those that have asked – Jefferson is doing fine.  He cooperated so quickly I am actually stunned.  The boxer shorts lasted less than 24-hours.

Here’s where the lump was removed from his right hind leg.

Happy New Year to all!

I flew in late Wednesday night and came home Friday afternoon.  One of the benefits of working for a large corporation (The Walt Disney Company) with multiple sites around the world is the ability to travel to some of those locations and visit with colleagues I don’t get to see very frequently.

After we got through our mandatory work stuff (you know, meetings etc…)  my colleague Tom and I snuck out for a little Disney fun.  Tom had never been to the Disneyland before so it was all brand new to him. This was my 3^rd time in the park so I led him to my favorite attractions first.  I knew he had to experience Pirates of the Caribbean – Disneyland style.  Their version of the attraction has some awesome differences from the one at Walt Disney World – like 2 waterfall drops, air blast effects and a longer ride through the storyline. It’s a must do if you get a chance to go there.  I love it

We then made our way over to the Haunted Mansion.

Again the exterior of their Mansion looks very different from the one in Florida. I have to say – this attraction blew me away!  The Haunted Mansion Holiday is inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.  The holiday overlay starts from the moment you walk into the first room and then continues throughout the entire ride. It is amazing and so much fun.  I have to admit, I was not expecting such a fun experience and was taken aback by all the attention to detail the Disney Imagineers put into this attraction. I know, I should never be shocked at how they always think of everything, but it was inspiring to see such creativity.

With just a limited time for fun over, we had to boogie on back to the hotel and head home.  Side note:  The lack of direct flights from LAX to Orlando is frustrating.  Our choices were either to leave at 7am or the red-eye at 10:45pm.  We opted for the 2:30pm flight that stops in Atlanta and got us back in Orlando at 1:00am Saturday morning.  LONG DAY!

View from take-off at LAX.

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