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Contest

Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Contest

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Contest has now Ended – Winners to be announced on Market Leverage TV Network WrapUp Channel on August 17 at approx 10:30am EST. You can go and view the Finalist Videos though. – Updated 08.12.09

Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack
Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack

I like to do things in a big and bold way. Ted Murphy does as well and IZEAFest 2009 is the biggest and boldest yet. Imagine 3 days and 300 bloggers invading SeaWorld (and as I recently learned Busch Gardens Tampa!) to learn how to be better bloggers, win prizes, party and even hang with RealShamu! That is what you can do if you attend IZEAFest 2009.

I mentioned Busch Gardens, check out this latest announcement for details.

Yes, you get to go to not 1 but 2 Awesome Theme Parks all for the price of 1 IZEAFest ticket! Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream, Here We Come!

What’s that you say? You don’t have an IZEAFest 2009 ticket? Never Fear!

BenSpark.com along with IZEA, MarketLeverage, XShot Pix, ZINK Imaging, Martha Decker, EBOOST, brite-View, The Dirty Shirt, Flipbac and PokenGirl are Here to Help!

I’ve teamed up with these great sponsors to give some lucky winners amazing prizes. One lucky winner is going to hang with me at IZEAFest 2009 and go on a very special outing and that lucky person will also receive the Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Grand Prize Pack! But never fear I have prizes for two runner ups as well.

How to Enter for the Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack?

In order to qualify for the Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack you must do all of the following:

  • Create a 60 second video (no less thank 45 seconds and no more than 90 seconds) of yourself answering these questions:
  • “Why do I Want to Hang with BenSpark at IZEAFest 2009?”
  • “How will IZEAFest 2009 Change My Life?”
  • “What Am I Most Looking Forward to at IZEAFEst 2009?”
  • Videos should be tagged with izeafest, benspark.com and marketleverage
  • Post videos to Youtube, or Vimeo or Viddler or all of them. Important – LEAVE a comment here with links to the videos.
  • Write a Blog Post elaborating on the questions and embed your video. Take a look at my 10 Great Reasons to Go to IZEAFest 2009! & 10 Items to Bring With You to IZEAFest 2009 posts. Read them and add an 11th reason for both in your post.
  • Posts should be tagged with izeafest, benspark.com and marketleverage.
  • Your post should link back to the contest post https://benspark.com/ultimateizeafest.html and encourage others to enter. It’d also be nice also to link to the contest sponsors for their great contributions.
  • Leave comments with links to your video(s) (if posted on multiple sites) and your blog post.

*Videos and blog posts will be judged by a Panel of Bloggers : Murray Newlands, Eric Schechter, Tim Jones and Kim Ann Curtin the winning blogger will be selected on Tuesday August 11th and announced the following Monday August 17th on MarketLeverage TV. The winner’s video will air on the show as well!

How to Enter the for the Runner Up Prize Packs.

So, if you are just looking for IZEAFest 2009 tickets and maybe a few extras then here are ways to enter. These options below do not qualify you for the ultimate prize pack. These qualify you only for the Runner Up Prize Packs.

What is so Ultimate about this Prize Pack anyway?

The Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack includes: An IZEAFest 2009 pass for the entire event including the Kickoff Party at Busch Gardens Tampa on Thursday October 1, 2009 & Blogger Takeover day at SeaWorld on Sunday October 4, 2009. This pass also gets you into all the parties, the swag and the speaker sessions. Did I forget to mention IZEAHunt you get to participate in that too. This pass alone is one highly sought after prize!

But that is not all: The Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack ALSO includes:

What about the Runner Up Prize Packs?

There will be two Runner Up Prize Packs.

  • The Runner Up IZEAFest 2009 Prize Packs includes: An IZEAFest 2009 pass for the entire event including the Kickoff Party at Busch Gardens Tampa on Thursday October 1, 2009 & Blogger Takeover day at SeaWorld on Sunday October 4, 2009. This pass also gets you into all the parties, the swag and the speaker sessions. Did I forget to mention IZEAHunt you get to participate in that too. This pass alone is one highly sought after prize!
  • An XShot from XShotpix.com.
  • A Flipbac – an angle viewfinder and LCD screen protector for digital cameras. From Flipbac Innovations.
  • Added 08/03/09 – A Poken of your choice from PokenGirl
  • Some BenSpark.com Swag
  • 1 Tube of Orange EBOOST and 5 Pink Lemonade Daily Heath Booster Packets

Official Rules

  • Ultimate Prize Pack and Runner Up winners will receive their prizes at IZEAFest 2009 (except the registration code for IZEAFest 2009 which obviously will be provided ahead of time). The winners must attend IZEAFest 2009 to receive the prizes. No prizes will be mailed to winners. If you win and do not go you forfeit your prizes.
  • Winners must agree to be photographed with their winnings for a follow up post about the contest after IZEAFest 2009.
  • All links need to use the rel=”no-follow” tags. We wouldn’t want to piss of Google.
  • Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack winner will win based on their video and blog post and will be determined by a panel of judges, who will be announced in a followup blog post. The Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack winner will be announced on MarketLeverage.tv. They will also be notified via e-mail. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen.
  • Runner up winners will be randomly selected using Random.org from all valid entries and announced on MarketLeverage.tv. They will also be notified via e-mail. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen.
  • You may enter for the Ultimate Grand Prize Pack and the Runner Up Prize Pack but you may only win one. I.E. if you win the Ultimate Prize you cannot be selected for the Runner Up Prize.
  • The Contest is open from July 17, 2009 12:00pm EST to August 11, 2009 12:00pm EST.
  • I reserve the right to final say in any dispute. By participating you agree to these terms.
I want to thank all of my sponsors for donations of such great prizes. Special Thanks goes to Ted Murphy & Ashley Edwards of IZEA for the IZEAFest tickets and believing in me enough to be an IZEA Insider. Additional thanks goes to Dina Ricobonno, Michael Daoud, ZINK Imaging, Martha Decker, EBOOST, Jennifer Leet, brite-View, Kristin from Flipbac, PokenGirl, Murray Newlands, Eric Schechter, Tim Jones and Kim Ann Curtin.

I am still looking for a couple more things for the Ultimate Prize Pack – see specifically #’s 8, 6, 5 & 3. If you are a company attending IZEAFest 2009 or another blogger who is interested in donating a $150 – $200 prize, your products or something else to the contest please use my contact form and talk to me.

Blogging, Conferences, Technology

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009

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This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

XShot with John Chow

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

Swag Table #3

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper – ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!


So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.