What did I do at BlogPaws – networking, of course! What else would the Chief Blogging Officer do? Since my blog was a finalist for Best Dog Blog at the Nose to Nose awards, we got to walk the red carpet Saturday night too! I would say about 75% of the conference, Mom had only me or Bailie with her. We each have such different interests, it is just easier that way, but for the red carpet walk, we were all together.
The first official day of BlogPaws, I had to go and get my badge. I was in shock when I went up to the counter and the ladies did not know who I was! Can you believe it?
I had to choose a dog, cat, or dog and cat swag bag. Naturally, I chose the dog bag. Those cats of mine don’t need anything, and I always find something in the exhibit hall to bring home to them anyway! After I got my swag bag, I made sure I really had one for dogs and there was no silly cat stuff in it. A dog has to watch her stuff.
During the conference I did attend a few of the sessions to help improve my blog. Most of the time I sent Bailie instead, so I could get some beauty rest up in the room. One advantage to having more than one pet at a conference is you can split up all the work. It is also pretty crowded so it is easier for Mom with one dog at a time.
While Bailie toiled away on her PR Dog job, I got down to business networking with some of the brands I work with. It is always good to meet fur to face! One of the first folks I ran into was Shelby at dogIDs. My sisters and I did a collar review for them about a year ago. Good stuff!
I finally got to meet Betsy at the Merrick booth. I love Merrick food and treats, and I love Betsy since she sends us tasty stuff, including Alpine Rabbit Stew…not that I’m into wabbit or anything!
Merrick was also doing a video to help feed shelter pets. For everyone who participated, Merrick donated meals to the participant’s shelter of choice. When all was said and done, they donated almost 30,000 meals! Mom and I did a 2 second spot where she said one word…Mom prefers to be the one taking the photos, not being in them. You can catch us around the 43 second mark. We requested our meals go to the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley where Mom has adopted almost all of her shelter pets including our kitties Bert and Sophie.
I got to meet my friend Keona at the Full Moon Pet booth. She has such tasty stuff and sometimes sends me goodies to review.Β In this shot she was teasing me with some chicken jerky! Bailie and I were actually both along at this booth, but we had an incident with each of us stealing stuff off tables in booths. While Mom and I were talking with Keona, Bailie was stealing mouthfuls of Spot Farms treats, not good. Mom made the executive parental decision to only have one dog at a time in the exhibit hall from then on.
My friend Sydney from Chewy.com attended BlogPaws this year for the first time. I had a tough time locating her, as she didn’t have a booth, but I managed to find her after a keynote speech. She is so nice, and it is great to finally get a sniff of the one who sends me the tasty packages every month! I think she will be back again next year!
Naturally I had to stop by and do some shopping at my friend Flea’s Jones Natural Chews booth. I got a nice bag of goodies for my sisters and I. The hard part was not eating my pigs ear immediately. Man was it good!
I made some new friends at the Glyco-Flex booth. They had treats lying out on the table which being a trained scent hound, I found immediately and gobbled up. Mom said it was rude of me, but I figure finders keepers!
Sometimes I do some tasting and posting for WellPet, so it was nice to meet my friends at their booth. I know they will want to work with me even more now that they have met me in the fur.
Another stop I made was at the Natural Balance booth. I really enjoy their treats. I got some last year at BlogPaws and found them pawsome, so I was excited to see what they had to offer this year.
Lucky me, I got to be in a video Natural Balance is making about dogs around the country. We had a lot of fun making the video which will be coming out sometime in the next few months. I will let you know when it is out. The guy behind me is their video person, so I figured it would only be fair for me to take a photo with him.
At the end of the day, it was time collect my sister and hit Yappy Hour! It was really great meeting with so many brands. I know I often get comments about how I like everything, but the truth of the matter is, I’m selective about who I work with and what I post about. I turn down a lot of opportunities as it wouldn’t be right for My GBGV Life, and I have gotten products I ended up not liking and don’t post about. It is important to me to only work with companies I can support, and I only post about products we actually use in our own home. Bloggers probably know this, but non bloggers may have wondered about it.
Don’t forget to enter the K9 Bytes $50 Shopping Spree giveaway which ends tonight! If you are a multi pet family, have you put out a post and linked up to the blog hop yet? Get thinking and join in the fun!
Seems like you made the most of the BlogPaws experience. Was that swag bag amazing or what!
It was great, plus I got to pick up even more stuff in the exhibit hall!
Looks like a busy/fun/tasty time! It is great that you got to meet so many sponsors.
Time was really too short, but I will be back next year.
Love seeing your photos from BlogPaws, Emma! Jeffie, Rudy and Rosie are so jealous you got to meet Sydney from Chewy π
Mom and I were really excited to meet her. She is just as nice as we imagined, but it was odd she did not smell like treats.
Oh that was great to discover BlogPaws with you… it seems as you can eat your way through the event … so much treats and toys … it’s like being in a doggiepawradise :o)
Mom said it was a nightmare when she took Bailie and I together in the exhibit hall. We were both stealing stuff left and right! Food everywhere, it was great! You would love it!
you are definitely famous now – two videos – and all that attention…well deserved though – you do an awesome job
My approach is very different from Bailie, but together we cover all the bases.
Wow, you sure got to meet an awful lot of great peeps!!!
α¦ husky hugz α¦ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
It’s really neat to actually meet the folks I email and work with.
Wow Emma, what a jam packed show…you must be exhausted. Good think you had Bailie to help out!
I was pretty woofed after we finally got home, but it was a lot of fun too.
Loved hearing all about your adventures.
Good, because I seem to have a lot of them!
What a great time you gals had and got to hang out with lots of great brands. You did a excellent job!
Splitting up the work with Bailie really helped us cover more ground.
Just reading this made me exhausted all over again!
LOL! It sure was tiring.
Always a fun time. Meeting new people, trying new stuff.
Maybe you will go next year in Phoenix?
Your nose was working way overtime at WellPet! You gave a great review of products at PetBlog. I know what you mean, some things are not to my liking either. I am sorry Bailie was the wild child and helped herself to anything and everything she could put her paws on…my kind of girl! XOXO Sparkle the PBGV
Actually, I was getting my nose into stuff too. Mom was embarrassed, but hey, it was a pet event!
Thanks so much for sharing the fun times! We do enjoy seeing what we missed.
Just so sorry you missed it. I didn’t get any photos in the cat lounge. I will have to do that next year.
What an incredible trip, you guys must still be catching up on sleep.
No surprise, Bailie’s batteries recharge really fast, me, it takes a bit longer.
pawesome, pawesome recap Emma!! You sure worked that conference! You rock! Barks and licks and love, Dakota
What an adventure!!! Good work — a little work, a lot of fun — the perfect event. We love your photos. Did you stay in the hotel room alone sometimes? And you didn’t mind? Mom can’t leave us alone in a hotel room — we bark and cry!! Keep up the good work, Emma. Your doodle friend Dash
I do stay in the room alone or with Bailie sometimes. I like to get my beauty rest and I don’t mind at all.
How could anyone not recognize you? I loved meeting all of the great folks that bring us our favorite foods and treats! You sure took some lovely photos! β₯
Thank you. I couldn’t believe some people didn’t know me, do they live under a rock or what?
Wha a wonderful schmoozer you are Emma!!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
I do a pretty good job of it!
Emma, you were a busy girl and your Mom was really on the ball with capturing those cool photos!
My photographer was real busy all the time, that’s for sure!
Great re-cap Emma. You sure know how to work a room π
When I’m on a job, I work it hard!
Another great post π
I’ve nominated you for the Liebster award!
http://dais15pops15.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-liebster-award.html
Thank you!
It looks like you had an awesome trip and learned a bunch! I bet it was so fun meeting everyone!
It was Mom’s third time, my second, and each time gets better. It is unbelievable!
Looks like between you and Bailey – you all covered lots of territory, you nose to nose experts you!
We worked the conference from top to bottom and side to side, leaving Mom in the middle somewhere!
Seems like you had a fun but busy trip π
Laika & Vaks.
It is always fun, but exhausting too.
Emma, I would say you are an expert networker, and definitely made the most of the conference. Great work!
Between Mom, Bailie and I, I think we covered a lot of ground.
Looks like ya had a lotta fun! I wonder if da Merrick booth had Texas Toothpicks – dey are one of my favs.
No they didn’t have any of them at their booth. They are good, I’ve had them too!
So fun Emma! Interesting about the comments. I turn down stuff all the time too. It’s not fun to post about stuff you don’t think you’d like, so why do it?
The longer I blog, the more picky I get, but I seem to also get more requests for good products as well. Many non blogger readers have no idea about how it works with products, so I wanted to mention it.
Emma, you got around! The mom said she saw you in the elevator.
I did do some of my best networking in the elevator. At first we were not happy it was such a slow moving elevator, but in the end, it turned out to be a good thing.
Looks like you made great use of your time there! Good idea to have Bailey as backup so she could work the conference while you were resting! Lots of brave folks in that video! I would have avoided that area personally! Eeek! π
It was a blast, and when you are at BlogPaws you sometimes do stuff you wouldn’t ordinarily do and it is fun.
Great rundown, Emma! It was so nice to meet you at BlogPaws last week.
I got to spend quite a bit of time with Bailie as well, and you can be very proud of her PR work. She represents My GBGV Life well!
She is a hard worker and loves her job. I prefer to be more quiet and let folks come to me. It was great meeting you guys!
You’re such a superstar Emma! Me (and mom) are lousy at networking! But we are really excited about the Natural Balance video and hope we make it! Love Dolly
As Mom says, she created a real diva and now I need to work on being less of one I guess. I love networking with humans. We can’t wait to see the Natural Balance videos when they come out. They said they will trickle out slowly, so we shall see.