Mami Vice: What I Found at Hispanicize

It's taken me well over a week to recap Hispanicize. Mainly because my brain is still overflowing with people, faces, names and places. I won't bore you with details of how my roommates and I had to switch suites or how exactly we made it work when we had 6 women in one room on one night AND ONLY ONE BATHROOM.  This only worked, as mami used to say, por obra y gracia del espiritu santo (by will and grace of the holy spirit).

My conferencing started off on the right foot when I met Rory from Mama Contemporanea on the first night there and she greeted me with "¡pero eres jovencita!" (you're young!).  I was loving her before I met her but, that pretty much solidified it for me!  I'm so glad I had a couple of minutes to spend with her.  She's one of those people that draws you in with her smile.  Definitely someone I was glad to meet in person.

I do have some bad news: after taking the "mami swagger" picture I lost my badge.  That's what I get for taking it off and trying to look cute.  This hurts me VERY MUCH only because behind my badge, I was keeping the business cards for those bloggers and brands that I wanted to keep in touch with.  I have a handful of them but the majority were lost with the badge. So, if I met you, took your card and you haven't heard from me, I apologize.

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Aside from the pictures, here's what you need to know:

1. Hispanicize rocked!  And not just because of the amazing parties and yummy food.  I so enjoyed meeting bloggers and brands alike that I had interacted with in this blogosphere.  I also very much enjoyed meeting new ones
2. My love of GM was reinforced and not just because they served me croquetas during the first session of Thursday morning!  Their session was extremely helpful in outlining for me how to reach out to brands and also what to expect.  And yes, I totally enjoyed being chauffeured around Miami and having some cafecito at Versailles as well
3. The one session that had me scribbling down more notes than I could handle was the one that McDonald's put together regarding how to pitch to a brand. I found it helpful for myself but also because I have clients that ask me about this and though I always had the generalities, this session gave me specific how-to's that I found invaluable
4. The Target Luxe Lounge was RIDIC! I mean, it had everything that one would need during a conference.  I will have to say that my 2 favorite things in the lounge were: the box wine that I fell in love with AND Bryant, the masseuse. I ain't gonna lie, I may have asked him to come home with me.  My only regret was not getting a second massage after lugging around my bags which brings me to
5. The swag!  Okay, I may need more than just one paragraph for this.  So, I'll move on down for the deets

Ya'll, Radio Shack hooked me up.  I mean, really, really, really.  I couldn't have made it through the conference without them.  Each person at the conference received an Enercell® 2400mAh Portable Power Bank in their conference bag. This was good for a full charge on your phone. Lifesaver.

But they went the extra mile for me and I received a true Radio Shack Survival Kit with the following:

• iRigâ„¢ Mic for iPhone, iPad and ANDROID devices
• Verbatim keyboard
• ZAGGsparqâ„¢ 2.0 Portable USB Charger
• AUVIO® Pearl Buds
• Targus Backpack

I am sad to say that I never made it to the 4th floor where all things beauty related lived.  I'm very, very, very sad about this because I was sooo looking forward to checking out the great products and great people that were there.  My roomies made sure I knew what I was missing too.  So, special thanks to Myrah, Pattie, Yadira and Yanira for letting me know what wonderful things I was missing.  But, needless to say, I'm still in 7th heaven over the techy survival kit.

Speaking of heaven, don't forget that through April 28, through this special promotion RadioShack guarantees customers at least $30 and as much as $300 in immediate store credit when they trade in a working mobile phone and activate a new one. Ah yes! Nothing like new phone heaven!

You may be asking yourself, mami, so what? You learned a lot and got great stuff, why should I care? Well, Radio Shack said "mami, your readers are so awesome that we want to give them a few things as well!".  Personally, I'd be keeping all of this stuff but, how many Enercell batteries can one have, I ask you?  I won't dwell on the response because then I won't be giving one away.

Be sure to leave a comment below and you will be entered to win this handy dandy little lifesaver that we all fell in love with.  You have until May 7th to enter. And don't forget to sign up for my RSS feed because in the coming weeks there will be additional giveaways for you thanks to Radio Shack. And let me tell you, they ain't small!

There is so much more that I want to share with you but, it would take a week of nothing but Hispanicize posts to catch you up.  So many great people that I feel bad not mentioning everyone here!  Eva and Piera from Latina Mom Bloggers, thank you for being such a beautiful blessing and for the beautiful necklaces.  Joscelyn, thanks for taking the time to provide me with some much needed advice.  Manny and crew, THANK YOU for making this such a successful event!

This conference was the beginning of a lot of new projects for me.  It solidified what I'd be doing with Mami Inc Media, I made what I hope will be long lasting connections and more than that, it reminded me that I'm a proud Latina Afro-Latina.  And to think that if it wasn't for The Clever Girls, I never would've made it here.  Thank you once again for providing me with the ticket.

I know I'll kick myself for having forgotten something after this goes live but, such is life. I'm basking in the fact that there are no such things as coincidences, that blessings are put before you and you must be ready to receive them and that techy stuff still make this mami very, very happy.

Did you attend Hispanicize? What did you think?

Must be a US Resident 18 and over to participate.  No purchase necessary to win. Giveaway closes at 9:00 p.m. EST 5/7/12. Random.org will be used to select the winner. 

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