BlogHer Recap

Mommy bloggers and tons of free stuff.

That sums up BlogHer in one sentence.

Okay, so maybe there is a lot more to BlogHer than that. It actually is a really cool event and I enjoyed getting to experience it. The conference had close to 5,000 attendees. Attendees were able to hear from guest speakers likes Martha Stewart and Katie Couric. President Obama even addressed all the attendees via live video feed on the first day.

BlogHer is all about building relationships and getting your name out there while connecting with other bloggers and brand reps. There are also numerous workshops and parties throughout the weekend. The agency I work for attended BlogHer on behalf of several of our clients. Here are a few pictures of our booth...

Our "business card." Banana flash drives with all our product and contact info. 

The "greenhouse." Doesn't it look awesome? The day before this space was just a 10'x30' section of a huge ballroom. 

More greenhouse pictures. 

Our fruit carving station! We brought in a fruit and vegetable carver from DC - he was so great! 

How awesome is this? 

Between our shifts, we were able to walk around to the other booths. It's really neat to be able to see all the various ideas from the brands come together in one place - lots of creativity. 

Remember the free stuff I mentioned at the beginning?  We were able to get in on some of that as well :) I came home with a nice little tote bag full of samples. 

Men in High Heels?

Several weeks ago, I got to work an event like no other in downtown Greenville. The event was called the Ecy~Shoes N' Chic Men's High Heel Race. NYC and other big cities do high heel races, so why not have one in SC? You may remember the shoe fashion show I worked in March for Ecy~Shoes N' Chic, who is one of our clients at TK PR. The 1st Annual "Run a Mile in Her Shoes" Men's High Heel Race was another awesome event my boss planned that was a success.

I wasn't so sure how this event would turn out. I knew it would be great, I just wasn't sure how many men would actually want to participate. I've heard of high heel races in big cities, but we are the first ones to ever do a men's high heel race. Who would have thought Greenville, SC would be the first to do something like this? We may be the only ones to ever do it, but who knows? Maybe it will take off and we will see them spread to other cities.

One of the main goals PR professionals strive for is to get people talking. In this case, they may not have actually been talking about the client, but people were talking about the event itself because it was so unique. Ecy~Shoes N' Chic teamed up with American Diabetes Association since the race dealt with feet and diabetics often have feet complications. Most of the registration fee went to the ADA ($15 out of the $16.25 fee). It's important to team up with a cause when planning something like this because you need to have  reason why participants are running. Since the race was downtown, Soby's decided to donate free brunch vouchers to all the participants. So for $16.25 you got a free brunch, a t-shirt, donated money to a good cause and also got to be a part of the one-of-a-kind race.

We had 47 men race. While that may not seem like a lot, you wouldn't believe the amount of news coverage the race got. We were on every news station the day of the race and the morning after. People loved hearing about this. Here is a sample of the coverage we got.

The men that raced were so into their heels. I know that sounds weird, but it was hilarious. Most of them were extremely ugly heels because let's be honest, you might not be able to find pretty shoes in sizes 12 and up. I don't think the men really cared. Some of them even came with skirts or kilts on over their running attire. Here are a few shots from the day.

Pedal Chic offered to donate $50 to the ADA if someone was willing to wear this pink skirt. We had way too many guys ready and willing. 

Waiting at the finish line. 

1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. 

The race was only .1 mile. It wasn't long at all, but I was shocked at how fast these guys ran. However, some of them may have cheated a little by duck taping their shoes to their feet :) Now they have a taste of what women go through all the time. 

Just Call Me a Working Woman

I finished up my first week of my new internship last week. I am still working with Taryn two days a week, but I got another part time internship at Full Circle Public Relations in downtown Greenville. I work at Full Circle PR MWF and work for TK PR on TTh. Not only do I get to go somewhere different everyday, but I also do different tasks at each job everyday. I like that. I could never do a job where I do the same thing every single day. Although I tend to schedule out my days and have many routines I follow, I enjoy having a different to-do list everyday at work. 

Working at Full Circle PR is a totally different experience than working at TK PR. Although I am working for more than one person now, Full Circle is still a small PR firm with only four employees. I am the first intern they have had :) I enjoy the people I work with; all of the employees at Full Circle are women. I like working with all women and have actually worked primarily with women in all my jobs so far. 

I have done a wide variety of tasks at Full Circle PR. Their client base is completely different from Taryn's. Taryn's niche is small businesses, mostly in the luxury industry (fashion, beauty, travel, food, wine and more). Full Circle represents bigger businesses: Costa del Mar sunglasses, Hubble Lighting and Milliken Flooring to name a few. We are also doing some short term projects with Rack Room Shoes and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The employees at Full Circle usually only work on one account, whereas Taryn works on 10+ different accounts. However, it is important to realize that bigger clients require more extensive, detailed work. 

I researched a lot of various social media strategies last week. It's interesting to see how different companies manage their social media accounts. I have also seen the detailed work that goes into monthly reports presented to clients and the meticulous process of recording everything you do for a client and how long it took you. While it is not fun to record every little thing you do, it is how you bill the clients for the work. No record, no money. 

During the past week, I have also attended at least four meetings. That may not sound like a whole lot, but I am just getting started. The first thing I did when I walked in last Monday was go to a status meeting. While meetings may sound boring, I have learned a lot just through listening at various meetings. Meetings can even be fun sometimes-especially when they are meetings to brainstorm ideas. 

My favorite part of my job so far is getting to write. The field of public relations requires a lot of writing, so it is important to enjoy this aspect of the job. I have to post to the company blog every Friday. I also will be helping with some of the blog posts for the client blogs we manage. I posted my first post last week and it is currently on the homepage of the client's website. 

I am really glad I started this blog several months ago. Not only has it helped me write frequently, but it's not quite as intimidating when I am asked to write a blog for work. Blogging is something I do for fun, so it doesn't always seem like work to me :)

Sorry if this post was long and heavy on information about PR. I enjoy reading/hearing about other people's internships, so I thought I would share what I have been doing :)

Walk this Way

Fabulous shoes. Fantastic accessories. Models walking the runway in burlap sacks. The first two sound normal, the third not so much. This list basically makes up the components of the Walk this Way runway show I worked at Thursday night. The runway show was the first event I worked at for my internship. Definitely a success. Very fun and unique event.

 A few months ago Taryn (my boss) added Ecy Shoes n' Chic to her list of clients, a dream client for her. Ecy Shoes n' Chic is a new shoe store in downtown Greenville. If you are in Greenville and haven't checked it out, you definitely need to go by. Taryn told me about the event a few months ago and I have been looking forward to it ever since. It was definitely a fun event, but it made me realize I never want to be a full-time event planner. Events are hard work! The event itself was glamorous, but the seven hours we spent setting up and rehearsing the event were anything but glamorous. However, I will say that I enjoyed unpacking and putting all the "outfits" together for the models. I loved opening each box of shoes to see what I was going to find :)

Here are a few shots from the show. The show was held at Thornblade, and as you can see, shoes and accessories were the main focus. Ivy Salon (another one of Taryn's clients) did an awesome job with the models' hair and makeup.