Vegas: Blogger Meet-Up, TpT Conference, & Some NEWS!!

Sorry for the delay, friends! We headed up to Minnesota for a road trip to visit my husband's brother and I never found time for my continued Vegas post. Basically....LIFE happened!! Ever have that happen to you?! ;)

So, let me continue...

Wednesday night in Vegas, was the FABULOUS Teacher-Blogger Meet-Up! Just like I Teach K!, this was my first time attending this event. MUCH to my surprise, when we arrived we got to fill up a bag with all kinds of teacher goodies!!! I mean, seriously, look at this!! On top of all of that, they had tons of big prizes that we put our name in for drawings and a free drink from TpT! Even though I didn't win any of the big prizes, I think all of this below plus the experience equals WINNING! :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the amazing teachers that helped put this on and to all the companies that sponsored!! It's so awesome to feel so appreciated! 

This is a picture of most of the teachers involved in setting this event up. Do you recognize them?! :) I must say, it's pretty sweet to finally meet/see so many bloggers that I follow and look up to. There were SO many in one room! Look at this packed house!

It was a fun night mingling around and meeting people. I must say, I am typically pretty shy when I'm around a ton of people I don't really know, but I met these sweet new friends and we roamed around together! It definitely helped me chill out and get out of my comfort zone. These are the ladies from All Y'all Need and another new friend Barbara and her friend Jennifer (not pictured). Seriously super sweet ladies! It was so great to meet you!

As we were roaming around, I met Cheryl from Primary Graffiti and Kathleen from Growing Kinders. It was great talking to Cheryl about the possibilities of looping and the pros and cons since I had considered looping the past two years. She was so sweet, friendly, and so willing to share her tips and tricks! I greatly appreciate it too!!

My friend, Elizabeth, from Kickin' It In Kindergarten was part of the team putting on this big shindig, so I didn't get to talk to her long, but we did manage to get a picture! Like I said, it's so great to finally meet the people you have been blogging with for so long! New real friends!! :)

Now we will skip to Friday...the amazing first annual Teachers Pay Teachers Conference!! Can I just say how honored and proud I am to be a part of such a wonderful community! I knew it was a fab community before this conference, but after being there with all these other teachers and the founders of this company I realized how TRULY fabulous it is!! If you were there, you know exactly what I'm talking about! It was so inspiring to hear from the founder, Paul Edelman, and from the two million dollar best seller, Deanna Jump, about their story to success. They started out just like you and I as teachers and even struggled to make ends meet, but with the help of TpT and its success (thanks to all teachers and Paul's vision!!) you can see where they are now! SO INSPIRING!!!

I had the opportunity to listen to Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills share their ideas about making products and how their products have evolved over the years. Most of what they shared was so reassuring that what I am doing in my products is right or at least what the top sellers are doing. They had some great reminders and tips to share and of course they are always so fun to listen to! :)

Then I attended the session over the data advantage with TpT Head of Data, Ryan Van Meter, and Kelley Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory. This session was so interesting!!! I feel like this is part of TpT that I never see and it was just reassuring and good-to-know information to help grow my store. We also got some sneak peeks into what will be coming!!!! Check out these statistics...aren't these nice to know if you are a seller?! Most of it matches up with my sale patterns.

 

That afternoon, I attended a session about quality of products with Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade and Erica Bohrer from Erica's Ed-Ventures. They were so fun to listen to and had some more great tips for creating products that were very helpful! It was nice because it was very laid back and we were able to ask questions as they went on. My last session was with Erin from Lovin' Lit. She shared her keys to success like finding your magic ingredient. It's mind blowing how quickly she found success and it was so inspiring to hear her story too! She gave everyone a CD full of resources on it as well which was super sweet of her! 

It was an AMAZING day full of learning and collaborating and I'm so glad I got the chance to be a part of it!

There was a TpT Happy Hour afterward that I ended up skipping out on this time, but it looked like a lot of fun with drinks and a photo booth from the pictures I've seen! I know, I know!!! Why would I skip out on something like that?! Well, to be honest, I wasn't feeling the best and couldn't take full advantage of the two FREE drinks they gave us. Are those clues as to some news with me?! I haven't shared this with all of you yet, but you guessed it! I am pregnant!! Our first, sweet baby is due on December 29th and I am almost 18 weeks now. My husband and I couldn't be more excited!! Every day is already a new adventure and we can't wait to meet our little one!

 

 

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed a little review of my adventures in Vegas this summer. I head back to school very soon. I can just see my summertime slipping away! *tear* I am helping with enrollment in a week and then teachers start back on the 5th of August. My kinders start coming in for one-on-one assessments on the 12th and their first day is the 15th. I'm very excited for this year with my new teacher partner, but I can't believe it's almost here! I guess another plus is the sooner we get started, the sooner December will get here for us to meet our little baby! :) Wish me luck, it's going to be tough going back to school and not having time for my daily naps! Haha!