Top Ten Thursday – IzeaFest

For today’s Top Ten Thursday post I wanted to finally do a recap of IzeaFest.  Of course one post won’t be good enough so I do plan to blog even more details of the trip soon.  Below in no particular order are the Top Ten parts of IzeaFest that made it so fabulous.  I can’t wait to return next year.  The whole conference was amazing as well as the people that were there.

1. IzeaHunt – We got messy, we had fun acting like kids and we even broke some rules.  We went on a live scavenger hunt around the town trying to earn points for collecting items while taking photos and videos of our team.  I live tweeted the entire time for bonus points.  The first rule was to paint our faces completely which got us in a little trouble with the security guards, but no fear we didn’t actually get tickets.  Thankfully Hooters Restaurant allowed us to use their restrooms to wash our paint off.  The excitement of asking strangers for things and working as a team was fun.  Unfortunately we didn’t win the awesome prizes but I’d participate in an IzeaHunt again!
2. IceBar –  This was the coolest bar I have ever been to.  The nightclub itself had a regular dance floor, a place for karaoke and a bar to order drinks.  This area was called the Fire Lounge and was normal temperatures.  Then you could walk into the IceBar area where everything was made of ice, therefore it stayed below freezing inside.  They gave you warm outer wear to put over your clothes and gloves.  The cups that you drank your drink out of were even made of ice, the bar was ice and we even took photos in a really cool ice sculpture chair.  This was a great experience and the dancing during karaoke was a blast too.  What a party!
3. Sea World – I love Sea World.  My kids love Sea World.  Matter of fact, I have taken the kids to Sea World in San Antonio twice this year already and hope we get to go back closer to Christmas time after all the holiday lights are in action.  IzeaFest gave me the opportunity to visit Sea World in Orlando for the first time.  I was so excited about this part of the conference because I couldn’t wait to ride the Manta.  From the time I was little until this very day if you were to ask me what one super power I would want, I’d tell you the ability to fly.  When I saw the Manta in action via You Tube, I was stoked.  I had heard it was the closest sensation to flying and the truth is, it was!  I even created a few 12seconds.tv clips all about the Manta.  I also got to feed the sting rays which was really a neat experience.
4. 14yo Tommy Fishback – When this 14 year old boy came on stage to conduct a five minutes of fame, I think I speak for the whole crowd, we were blown away. His knowledge was amazing and his insight on things was truly overwhelming. I was pretty much speechless and beyond impressed.
5. Howl-O-Scream – This was a fabulous way to kickstart IzeaFest. When loading on the buses we were given a red Howl-O-Scream bag with light up necklace, t-shirt and front of the line passes that allowed us to skip ahead at most rides and all haunted houses. Arriving at this theme park together as a group made it a blast. The whole park was decked out in a vampire theme and they had several scare zones set up around the park that were just about as good as some haunted houses I’ve been in.  The best moments for me at Howl-O-Screams were going through the haunted houses with some of the other attendees and watching them get scared.  I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at people like I did at Courtney and Tasha when they about wet their pants in fear.
6. Dinner with Drew and Family + Crew – The very first evening I arrived at IzeaFest Drew A.K.A. BenSpark invited me along for dinner with his family and some other bloggers.  It was a great way to break the ice and get to know some of the people attending the conference in a small setting.  I met some amazing people during this dinner and really connected with them.  Although it was my first time to meet everyone there besides Alan, an old friend, we all jumped right into conversation with no sweat.  This was a great first memory to go home with from IzeaFest.
7. Prizes from BenSpark Contest – The main reason I made it to IzeaFest was thanks to the amazing ultimate IzeaFest contest held at BenSpark.com.  I plan to write more about the swag I got during the whole conference, even outside of my prizes, but there is no way I couldn’t include the prizes I won in my Top Ten list.  I was very blessed with all the products I received.  The ticket to get into the conference was great in itself because that is what lead to the rest of the items on this list by being able to go.  In my blog post that announced I won I listed each item I was receiving and they are all wonderful.
8. Ted Murphy – Watching the man behind the conference in action.  Ted was just as inspirational in person as he is online.  He has a great presence that you can feel.  Seeing all he has accomplished with Izea, hearing him speak and then watching him goof off made me really feel like I knew who he was.  Seeing him stick his tongue out and plow his whole body into cake made him seem more real; down to earth, having fun yet accomplishing his goals in the meantime without being an uptight professional.  He tried his best to connect with as many of the attendees as he could and although we didn’t get a chance to spend much time together I must say he is a true inspiration to me and I look forward to reading more of his posts each day.
9. Sessions – I learned so much at IzeaFest and even some of the sessions were over my head.  I just took notes and brought them home to research later.  I am very pleased with all the information shared and even if I didn’t understand something during a session I think that is much better than not learning anything new.  At least I was able to come home with information to read up on.  I am still working on implementing all the new ideas I got during the conference and excelling more as a blogger.  All that I learned during the conference made the expense of traveling to another state all worthwhile.
10. People – I could write several posts about the people and connections I made while at IzeaFest.  I hate to list names because I always know I will leave someone out that was important during this event.  Of course right away I met wonderful people like Drew and his wife Allison, Dina from Market Leverage, Buck, Tim and Dave.  Before the end of the weekend I had made some other wonderful friends like Courtney, Tasha, Michael with xShot, Christine, Omarr, Ashley, Toni, Pat, Martha, Melinda, Rob and Connie.  I know I missed some people, I’m sure of it.  If you are one of those people, I am so sorry.

Although there was much more that took place during this amazing weekend and plenty of other things that made the conference one of the bests, these are my Top Ten.  I hope to get a chance to write more about the conference soon and tell all about the cool goodie bags, business cards and other swag I collected while at IzeaFest.  I am sure I’ll be introducing my readers to even more great connections I made with other fabulous people soon.

I have lots of photos from this fabulous conference in my Flickr set.