Showing Off at Showcase!

Friday, 14 August 2009

Shelley and I were up early and of course, I was planted in front of the computer, trying to upload pix and do a little blogging.  You see how well that worked.  Even paying $50 for three days of internet is no guarantee that you can do what you want to – it took ALL NIGHT and most of the day to upload two days worth of photos to my phanfare account, and I never got my photos to load on the blog.  Sorry about that!  Now you can see how I got so behind!

We had a bite to eat in the apartment for breakfast, and I was still playing on the computer (in PJ's, of course!) when Shelley announced we needed to leave in five minutes!  YIKES!!  Good thing I warned her that I would need a keeper!  I threw myself in the shower and got dressed and off we flew to the Sydney Convention Center.  Turns out we all had the time a bit wrong, as we got there when we planned to but we were still a bit late!  The opening ceremony had just started, and we got to see an amazing dance and magic show where the woman changed clothes at least a dozen times, each in about ten seconds and on stage!!  It was crazy!  I'll see if I can find a YouTube link to these people or something close…

And so Showcase AU started!  A message from Brian O'Callaghan, President of CM Australasia, set the stage for the whole convention.  Executive Director Susan Wilmot was the first consultant speaker, and she introduced the concept of doing CM parties that are fundraisers for our corporate charity, Make a Wish Foundation.  Although that has been a now year-old partnership in the States, it is a new one for Australia and New Zealand. Susan had some fantastic ideas and I can't wait to implement them in my business!   A personal message from Mark Mizen (from the US home office) about the future of digital photography and scrapbooking, along with video messages from Asha and Rhonda, were highlights of the morning, and I loved the break for morning tea, especially the scones with Devon cream and jam!!  After tea, we had the most fantastic motivational speaker, Bruce Sullivan.  Be sure to visit his website, www.brucesullivan.com.au and see why we loved him so.  RIPPA!

Lunch was tons of fun – we each picked up clear plastic boxes full of food – a spinach and feta salad, shaved roast beef on rocket (arugula) and avocado, a soft roll filled with roasted vegetables, a lovely piece of King Island brie cheese and crackers, a chocolate cupcake, and a bottle of juice.  We had been freezing inside, so we took our lunches out to the harbour and enjoyed the warm sunshine and the scenery.   And the food!  The people-watching was not so bad, either!

After lunch, my facebook friend Chris Lothian was the first consultant speaker, and she did a great job talking about how to market all of our wonderful traditional products and showing unexpected ways that they can be used.  One of the first surprises for the Australian consultants was the news that Memory Manager 3.0 would be available to them next month, and I had the pleasure of sharing with them some of the fun things it will do.  Director (and facebook friend) Dianne Thomas spoke about offering PicFolio albums as good choices along with digital and traditional scrapbooking, and I will forever think of her as Pixie from now on!  Rippa, Pixie!  I loved meeting and hearing from the FDM's, Carol Finnie, Kathy Lindquist, and Robynne Mountford, and the show's MC's from the Home Office were bubbly Louise Taylor and big teddy bear Uncle John. 

When the afternoon session ended, Shelley and I raced back to the apartment to change into our Digital Divas t-shirts and grab our computers for the evening's presentation.  Exec Dir Susan Wilmot had invited us to speak to her team (which ended up being 250+ people and a waiting list!) and to have dinner with her and Amanda and their high achievers, so we met up with them at Ty Foon for a really delicious meal of Thai food.  It was fun to meet Directors Debbie Scales, Janelle McCaffrey, Ruth Burgess, and Janelle's new hotshot recruit, whose name I am blanking on right this minute, and hear what's working for them.  We got back to the convention center in time to set up our computers and hopefully keep the room entertained and informed.

Susan and Amanda presented Shelley and me with thank you gifts – mine is a huge beautiful coffee table book full of spectacular photographs of Australia along with a quote or scripture to go with each one.  I will never forget my time here!  It was so much fun to have all of our facebook Digital Divas in one room at the same time!  We got our pictures made and just had a blast talking about something we love – StoryBook Creator software!!  It's pretty amazing to think that my whole trip has come about because of facebook, CM, and StoryBook!  I love technology!

Totally stoked after an awesome day!

Jan