Because we are heading to SeaWorld in Orlando in October Eva is getting very excited. Eva is now very much smitten with watching Youtube videos of Shamu and the other SeaWorld Orcas. I’m sure that someone is going to tell me that this is not Shamu and that is fine. I’m not going to go telling an almost 2 year old, “now honey that is not actually Shamu that is Kayla or some other Orca.” The response that I will get is “Shamu!” And basically that will be the response you get from me too. Every Killer Whale in that show is Shamu to a little kid. Shamu has the best PR people. This was the video she was watching.
Oh and she asked me to put the stickers on, this is not some sponsored post. I’m an IZEA Insider and as such I have promotional materials for IZEA that I give to people when I talk about IZEA. I was doing a project with the stuff and Eva wanted a sticker so she ended up with a bunch of them. The Ted Murphy one however, I made those. Eva loves to wear Ted Murphy stickers. In our house Ted Murphy is as recognizable as Winnie-The-Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Curious George.
Speaking of Curious George Eva loves watching that show. Now we’ve discovered PBSKids.org and all the things that you can do there. I guess we never have to buy another coloring book again because you can print out pages to color for all the PBS children’s shows. She is also a huge fan of Sid The Science Kid too.
Today I worked on a project in gratitude. I’m very aware of how fortunate I am for people in my life who have helped me along the way. And I am also very aware of the great people online who have helped me with this blog, whether by supplying prizes or just keeping me motivated. So I worked on a little gratitude project.
When I think about Gratitude I immediately think about Ed Gerety. Ed wrote a book called Combinations and it has a ton of great ideas and stories and combinations for being a great leader. It is written and geared towards student leaders but it can be read by bloggers and applied to leaders in the blogging space. Ed is a great guy and I am happy to say that I’m now working for Ed. I’m working on his blog and each week I post up some awesome stuff that Ed writes. I also transcribe Ed’s inspirational videos. A new one is going up tomorrow. Ed is a fantastic inspirational speaker and I love that he’s doing more videos on his blog.
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
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 GardensHowl-O-Scream, Here We Come!
What’s that you say? You don’t have an IZEAFest 2009 ticket? Never Fear!
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.
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.
1 entry each – Tweet about the contest – include the hashtag #UltimateIZEAFest.
(You can send up to 6, 7, 9, 10, 1314 tweets. 1 separate one with each of the people above. I.E. Tweet: @MarDeck I’m gonna win that case of BluFrog in the #UltimateIZEAFest Contest – http://urlbrief.com/8e4d3a)No more than one a day, please.)
(Leave a comment with the direct url to each tweet.)
1 entry – Stumble this post
(Leave a comment with your stumble name)
1 entry – Subscribe to Benspark.com either by RSS or e-mail
(Leave a comment and let me know you subscribed.)
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 PackALSO includes:
And there might be more prizes added as we get closer to the contest end date!
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!
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.
