This year is the fourth time Disney World has hosted about 200 bloggers and their families at the resort. The invite-only conference put together by Disney's marketing and social media teams, is a chance for families to experience deluxe resorts, park hopper tickets, behind the scenes looks at new attractions, premier swag and giveaways and great food from the Disney chefs at incredibly reduced prices. It's a hybrid of a conference, press junket and vacation.
At the conference we have an opportunity to hear from various Disney execs and departments and hear about the new developments within the parks and other Disney departments like cruise lines, Interactive (gaming and multimedia), social good and Disney Destinations. During the day, we bloggers listen to motivational speakers and business execs to learn about marketing, writing, promotion, branding and social media while our families run around the parks. At night, we're all treated to things like fine dining, character appearances and entertainment.
At the 2010 event, Ann Foster, Director of Disney Destinations, said in her presentation that we only have 18 summers with our kids. That really stuck with me. Tyler will be 11 this year so half our summers are gone! I love that, when he looks back on his childhood, he'll have so many memories of our time here. This year will be extra special because we surprised him by inviting his best friend and family to come along with us. Disney truly knows how to put on an event and this conference never fails to disappoint. I'm incredibly blessed to be attending for the third time.
If you want to follow along with this year's discussion you can connect with Disney Social Media Moms in several ways:
Eventifier (not sure how long this link will be live)
Twitter Search #DisneySMMoms
Disclosure: While Disney is the official host of the conference, we are not attending as sponsored (hosted) guests. All opinions are my own.
