Well I arrived in Chicago earlier tonight and am currently writing this post from the Fairmont Hotel where I'll be attending PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference for the next two days. I was lucky enough to arrive earlier than expected by flying stand-by on a USAir flight out of Charlotte to Chicago. I was in the very last aisle in the back of the plane, but made friends with the flight attendant who got me some free snacks from first class since I bought a beer. Can you believe they charge $7.00 for a Bud Lite? Anyhow, I wrote this post earlier today before I started my travels since today was my guest blogger day at the Lip-Sticking Blog. So here it is is.
The last couple of days I've spent in Myrtle Beach, SC visiting my parents who moved down here about three years ago from New York. My mom's been battling breast cancer which spread to her lungs, so it's been rough on her and my dad, especially the last couple of months. She seems to be improving from an infection she caught a month ago. That's the thing with cancer, it doesn't always kill you. But once you have it any little thing your body catches can.
Anyhow, I've been trying to talk them into hooking up the old computer that all us kids bought them years ago so that we can stay connected online. Last time they hooked it up they used the old telephone modem, so I explained to them how times have changed and they don't need to tie-up their phone line anymore.
We called the local Time Warner Cable company to try and get some prices and info for them and it was so confusing. After waiting on hold for a very long time we finally spoke to someone who gave us way too many options. Do you want the combination package with Internet and cable, or how about adding the phone to the package? For just Internet, what speed to you want? They offered us 5 different prices for different speeds. It shouldn't be so difficult!
I was also trying to explain to my mom what I do for a living now. She still doesn't quite understand since I don't go to an office and work for someone else. We had a discussion about social media, but she has a hard time grasping it. Hard to explain to someone who doesn't even use email I guess. She's listens to my sister and I talk about "I posted it on Facebook", so I showed her a few pages, but she really wasn't very interested.
So, I'm heading out soon and flying to Chicago from here to attend a two-day conference that starts tomorrow. It's PMA's annual Promotion Marketing Law Conference which this year's theme is "Staying Connected @ The Speed of Change which is taking place at the Fairmont Hotel. The PMA, Association for Integrated Marketing has again invited me back as a guest blogger, or member of the press as it is also referred to. I thought I'd better disclose that right up front.
The timing could not be more perfect for this conference this year
because of all the headlines the FTC has recently been making regarding
the
new impending social media endorsement guidelines
which focus on bloggers. David Vladeck, the FTC Director of the
Bureau of
Consumer Protection, will be giving a keynote session which hopefully
he'll help guide us through all these new regulations. Rosemary Harold,
Legal Advisor to FCC
Commissioner Robert McDowell will join Bob Corn-Revere, a former in
house attorney for and expert on the FCC who will also address the
audience.
Overall there will be 100 speakers and 40 plus main sessions that include professionals from major brands such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Facebook, Google, GE, General Mills, Hanes, McDonald's, Microsoft, P&G, Tommy Hilfiger, T-Mobile, VISA and more. I'm also looking forward to the invaluable networking opportunities and catching up with many people that I've know for years in this business and of course meeting some new ones.
So anyone that is planning on being there, please look me up. I'll be writing more about the conference on my blog, Donna's Promo Talk as well as updates on Twitter. So stay tuned, it should be very interesting.
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