Every Story Needs a Hero – Recap of the ENMN Conference

A week ago I was able to fly to LA for a blogging  conference in Hollywood, CA.  It has been about 14 years since my last flight so it was fun to fly there, spend some time away from home and learn a lot of new things.  Getting to know new people was amazing and I just loved getting to know my roomates better!  Not much sleep was had so I am making up for that, now that I am back at home.  2015 Entertainment New Media Network Conference was  different than most conferences I have been to as it was more travel and entertainment based.  Let me tell you more about it!

Even though Entertainment New Media Network (ENMN for short) conference is focused on travel and entertainment there were bloggers of all kinds at the conference.  I wanted to go to this conference because even though my main focus on my blog is crafts and recipes I often share family activities and entertainment ideas.  So I felt this conference would be a good fit for me.  I learned from several sessions plus had some great experiences like tours, TV show tapings and my favorite was the day at the KOA campground.

For the conference we stayed at the host hotel, Holiday Inn Express that is located in North Hollywood.  I roomed with some fun women with amazing blogs!  My roomates were Ashlee from Ashlee Marie, Jill from Being Spiffy, Jana from Merlot Mommy and Francia. We were only at the hotel to sleep as all of our activities were done offsite, so I felt like we were always on the run.  It was exhausing but so much fun.  I appreciated that the hotel served a breakfast that was better than a normal continental breakfast.  Instead of just juice, muffins and fruit we were able to enjoy eggs, bacon and waffles and much more.

I love this picture Jana took of us on our way to the KOA camp.

Here is a little instagram video I made for this trip

A day of learning, making connections and building friendships. #KOAKampgrounds #enmncon15 #travel

A video posted by Summer (@summerscraps) on Sep 10, 2015 at 2:45pm PDT

We headed somewhere new each day for different class sessions and activities. The sessions for the conference were held at Hard Rock Cafe.  We went to a different one each day so I was able to visit both Hard Rock Cafe in Universal City, and Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood. After the sessions Hardrock Cafe provided us with lunches that were so delicious!  The Mac & Cheese was fabulous!

The first day while at the KOA Campsite we were served a wonderful meal that we were able to enjoy while listening to a panel.  I learned the most from this panel by Annie and Cheryl on ways to work with the travel industry, visitors bureau and what they are looking for.

That night we had a Pajama party (I wore Minion Pj’s) and a fun session with Genevieve Goings  on how she gets glammed up in to time!  She was so cute and fun to listen to!

The next day we heard from several speakers.  Some were motivational and others  were there to teach and provide info.  I did enjoy the motivational speakers but really loved hearing from Rob Stevenson from Find Your Influence with great Monetization Tips.

Steve Rohr provided us with a unique presentation focusing on finding our unique story. What hit home to me in his presentations was on how some doors are open to us and some are not at different times in our life.  We need to not get down and discouraged but just understand that the doors that are closed to us right now are not meant for us right now.  If we push our way through that closed door it may make our path that we are taking longer.  This also helped me see that when a door does open up for me I need to embrace it and be happy and travel through that door until another opens up for me.

The next day we enjoyed more panels and speakers.  I have two favorites from this session.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Jeff Barnes and after listening to his session ran and purchased his new book (affiliate link)”The Wisdom of Walt.” I just loved his message and he shared about his life and struggles and his love of Disney.  In fact he created a taught a History of Disneyland college course.  He talked about Walt’s dreams and his dreams and our dreams and how we should never give up on them.  He said , “Every story needs a hero.  If not you, who?  If not now, When?”  This really resonated with me.  I have just started reading his book and am really enjoying it.  I am so glad I got to hear Jeff speak.

I just love the panel we had about loving ourselves on camera no matter our shapes and size.  I loved this panel so much becuase I am so nervous about being on camera but I know it is a fear I need to get over.  The panel consisted of Leah Cevoli, Helenna Santos, Asha Dahya, Sherry Lee Meredith .  Oh how I loved their message and it was something I really need to hear!  I always worry about how I look or what people will think.  They shared that we all have a message that someone needs to here.  We each have our own unique story and others will benefit from hearing it.  These ladies were so sweet and engaging and I loved how approachable they were.  Such a fun bunch of ladies!

There were many other speakers and panels that I loved but I just wanted to highlight my favorites – If I wrote about all of them this would be the longest blog post ever!

I love this picture that Mindy took  of us – this was the first time we were able to meet in person!

One thing I love about conferences is that I am able to listen to speakers I would have never had the chance to hear and participate in activities that I would otherwise never have the chance to enjoy otherwise.  We were able to enjoy a Starline Tour, TV Show Tapings and My favorite was the day at the KOA Camp.

We spent our first day at the Ventura Ranch KOA.  We all piled into a bus for an hour long ride to the KOA camp.  This gave us a good time to get to know one another.  I have stayed at KOA camps in the past and know that each one is a bit different so I was excited to see what this KOA camp had in store for us.  I loved this camp so much and have tons to share that I decided I will have to give KOA their very own blog post sharing all of the things I loved.  The views were amazing, the amenities were over the top.  If you want to try Glamping this is the place to go!

That night at our pajama party we were able to screen two TV Shows.  The first was called Grandfathered and the second was called The Grinder.  They both had me laughing and I am really looking forward to watching them this year.

The Starline Tour was interesting as there was a Screen in the tour bus showing movie clips that were filmed at the various places we were driving by.  This tour was on our last day at the conference and by this time I was exhausted.  So it was nice to be off of my feet for several hours.

I want to give a big thank you to the sponsors of ENMNCon15 – Hard Rock Cafe, KOA Kampgrounds,Ventura County West,  StarLine Tours and Find Your Influence.  As well as a thanks to Holiday Inn Express , Walt Disney Records, Dave & Buster’s and Legoland California.