Tag Archives: Tickets

Photo-A-Day

Two Blogs Collide

Two Blogs Collide
Photo-A-Day #1401

Today started with a very exciting morning of scoring 12 tickets to the Thursday June 25th show for Jimmy Buffett’s Summerzcool Tour. Even Buffett has gone Web 2.0. He’s on Twitter but his tweets are protected, that is no way to be social on a social network. But one thing that is being handled really well is the FaceBook account because every one of the shows in the Summerzcool tour has an event page. Our group is a large one and we shot for Thursday to guarantee (or hopefully guarantee) getting tickets. We got so many. I hope we can find homes for all of them. My best set of tickets were in the 4th section under the covering at the Comcast Center.

After that we packed up and went off to Bryant University. At the university there was a Chinese New Year Celebration. Since I am trying to learn Chinese in 15 Minutes A Day I thought a cultural immersion adventure would be great. I was right, it was pretty fun as there were dancers, martial arts students and singers.

We arrived to a fully packed gym with hundreds of seats. On stage awards were being given out for various reasons including many for service to the Chinese community. The United States Postal Service was also there for an unveiling of the Year of the Ox stamp. I was able to buy three sheets of stamps and I got a free Year of the Ox pin.

Unveiling the Year of the Ox Stamp

I also got some materials from a Chinese Christian Church that I can translate sometime.

The different acts that performed were very talented. There were some dancers like the ones above. The Dance was called Pretty Girls (Sichuan Opera) and was performed by Art Troupe of the High School Affiliated with the Renmin University of China. I edited the photo two ways here is the one with more saturated colors.

More color

Eva absolutely loved the dancers. She was rapt with attention and she also was very friendly. She was waving to everyone, dancing and trying to say hello to all the other kids. I have a bunch of photos from the day under the tag Chinese New Year Celebration.

You might notice that I got some nice shots of people performing. I was glad I brought my Xshot with me because I used my Xshot to take photos above the crowd. I also used the custom timer on my camera to take 10 photos in 5 second bursts and then kept the ones I liked.

Conferences

10 Best Reasons to go to IZEAFest 2009

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Before I get into the 10 Biggest reasons to go, here is the #1 way to get there in style! Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

Yes, I am going to tell you about the 10 BEST Reasons to go to IZEAFest 2009. How do I know that these will be the best reasons? Trust me, I know IZEA and I know that they DO IT UP BIG!

#10. Location – IZEAFest is in Sunny Orlando, Florida which is home to some amazing theme parks like Disney, Sea World and Universal. Last year there was a blogger takeover of Universal. This year, who knows. But I do know it will be an amazing time. This Year IZEAFEst is at SeaWorld and it was recently annoucned that the opening party is at Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream!

#9. SWAG – IZEA certainly does know a thing or two about swag. They were very generous at IZEAFest 2008. Check out my Swag Bag.

@izeafest Swag Bag

#8. Friendships – You get to see people that you have probably only talked to to twitter or through your blog. Now it is time to make some connections to real live people in real life.

Post IZEAHunt

#7. Sponsors – Sponsors for IZEAFest rock. Last year there were a ton of them and this year a ton more. My money is on somebody like BluFrog supplying us with Energy drinks so we can keep up with Ted Murphy.

#6. The IZEA Team – People who are working at IZEA have a phenomenal way about them. I am so glad to call them my friends. IZEAFest wouldn’t happen without Ashley. That man rocks!

Ashley & MeAndrew and Trevor

#5. Food – Oh man the food at IZEAFest is so good. We had tons of great stuff at Watiki and various other restaurants. I myself would certainly love to see a Blogger takeover of Pancheros. Every time Ted Tweets about them I want to eat there and I’ve never been.

# 4. Cake Plows – Speaking of food, oh man the things we do to cake.

Post Cake Plow

# 3. The Speakers – Each year IZEAFest ratchets things up a notch, last year they even got John Chow, Jeremy Schoemaker, Stephanie Agresta and Neil Patel to do a Big Money Bloggers Panel which I moderated. I was nervous as all hell. This year the list is also very impressive with people like:

You will also have a chance to meet the members of the IZEA advisory board:

– Michael Brito (http://www.britopian.com)
– Brian Clark (http://www.copyblogger.com)
– Jim Kukral (http://www.jimkukral.com)
– Neil Patel (http://www.quicksprout.com)
– Wendy Piersall (http://www.sparkplugging.com)
– Jeremy Schoemaker (http://www.shoemoney.com)
– Missy Ward (http://www.affiliatesummit.com)

Along with our IZEA Insiders:

– Kathleen Argonza (http://toughgirl101.com)
– Drew Bennett (https://benspark.com)
– Laurie Brosius (http://laviedelaurie.com)
– Brett Bumeter (http://something-about-harry.com/)
– Elizabeth Edwards (http://table4five.net)
– Corrin Foster (http://corrinrenee.com/)
– Lisa Martin (http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/)
– Steve Sanders (http://steven-sanders.com)
– Heather Smith (http://socialspark.com/bloggers/heather-in-beautiful-bc)
– Julie Vazquez(http://juliesjournal.com)

2. Ted Murphy – I bet you were thinking that I would put Ted Murphy as my number one best reason to attend IZEAFest 2009 but you are wrong. Ted is an amazing guy but he is merely a catalyst for the most important part of IZEAFest 2009.

Allison and Ted

1. YOU – Yes having YOU at IZEAfest is pretty much the best thing about it. By being there you are saying that you love blogging about things and having fun. You want to learn and interact with an amazing group of people. You don’t have to be famous or have a huge blog, you just have to be you and have a willingness to have a great time. That is the best thing about IZEAFest 2009, you being there. So grab your Early Bird Ticket today and Save $50. Only 30 are left. The value you get for your money is the BEST value of all conferences around by far, it is the most inexpensive and gives you an up close and personal look at great blogging and bloggers.