WOW! Phoenix Boot Camp was AWESOME!

Incredibly smart, funny, kind and engaging women all in one place.

If you attended or wrote a post about your experience, please link up below!

April 2, 2010 update: The Phoenix conference is now sold out.  To be added to the waiting list, please email: sitsgirls@gmail.com

We are thrilled to announce that the SITS Girls Bloggy Boot Camp Tour will be in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 1st!

The all day event will be held at the gorgeous Xona Resort.

Join us for a day {or weekend!} of networking, education, new friends and fun.

Boot Camps are designed to be a co-operative experience, where everyone shares and learns from one another.  After all, The Secret to Success is Support!

Discussion topics will include:

• PR: What do you do when you are approached by a brand?  How do you start receiving products to review or networking with brands?  How do you solicit sponsorships?  What are your responsibilities to the FTC?
• Branding: Who are YOU in the world of social media?  Some of the best in the business will share their experiences.
• Writing: From best practices, hints, tips and techniques to crafting authentic and poignant posts & pictures, we’ll be discussing something for everyone!
• Vlogging: What is it?  How do you do it?  And WHY should you put yourself IN FRONT of the camera?

Another fab feature of the Phoenix Boot Camp is our “Chic Chick Market”.  Sponsored by Chic Chick Media, mompreneurs will be on-site selling their handmade wares!  We will also have an education track just for Mom-Preneurs.  Learn from the ladies who have used social media to launch their products and brands in the blogosphere!

Speakers/Panelists include:

Jyl Johnson Pattee is the founder of Mom It Forward and the popular Girls’ Night Out (#gno), otherwise known as Twitter parties, where women and brands connect weekly 140 characters at a time. She was also a co-partner in the successful BowlHer party at BlogHer 2009.  Companies including Ann Taylor, Crayola, Famous Footwear, OfficeMax, and Yehu Microfinance have engaged Jyl for her social media expertise and her ability to bring a brand into the online conversation in a fun, meaningful, and influential manner.  Offline, Jyl is a mom to two boys; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Laurie Turk is the owner of Tip Junkie and Executive Homemaker.  This mother to three boys knows how to stay busy!  Laurie is also a partner in Chic Chick Media, as well as a contributor to Blissfully Domestic-Creative Bliss Channel.  She is a strong believer in embellishing life with fun activities for her kiddos, home decor projects, and unique gift ideas.  Laurie loves to promote Mom-preneurs and women in business.

As the Chief Marketing Officer for e.l.f. Cosmetics, Ted Rubin was known for his active use of Twitter (where he has in excess of 20,000 followers and grew over 50,000 followers for e.l.f. Twitter handles), his responsiveness to all, and the growth of an incredible blogger network through his hands on development, attention and nurturing.

At e.l.f., Ted’s responsibilities included communicating with and building e.l.f.’s client base (membership doubled from 1MM to in excess of 2MM during his tenure), leveraging brand equity through strategic marketing programs (with many major brands and publishers), creating/developing/managing a major thrust into social media initiatives and partnerships and building the most highly respected social media presence in the cosmetics industry.  Ted recently became a member of the OpenSky Board of Advisors, and will be taking an active day-to-day role assisting them in building their social media presence, engaging and interacting with the blogging community, and working with other worthwhile potential partners.

Sugar Jones fancies herself as a pragmatic dreamer…and a bit of a drama queen.  She is mom to four kids, from kindergarten to college, who are always teaching her more about herself.  On SugarJones.tv, she blogs and vlogs about everything from recipes to baggage fees.  You can also find her new endeavor, The Sugar Buzz, on Mingle Media TV.  Follow Sugar’s thoughts @SugarJones on Twitter.

Kadi Prescott is a digital mom who uses her web presence to be a connector, change maker and an engagement specialist.  When she’s not chasing her 7 kids, she does freelance social media marketing, runs a website for the empowerment of women and works on her ultimate goal of hosting the very first nationally televised talk show for moms, by moms.  Kadi believes that building an online community based on diversity, acceptance and transparency is the key to being able to help other women find greater self esteem.  You can find her on Twitter @DigitalKadi and at her online community, Girly Gazette.

Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts.  This background led to a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education.  With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills onto her three children.  Cindy’s family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects.  Cindy’s personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties.  Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.

You may know Kim Demmon from Today’s Creative Blog (TCB) for promoting the talents of creative women across the blogosphere.  TCB is your hub for inspiration on everything from decorating to sewing to planning the perfect party.  Featuring a new creative blog almost daily has helped women feel special and empowered for talents they view as simple.  That’s what TCB is all about.  Today’s Creative Blog was thought up and started all within 5 min.  Craving a site that would direct her to her latest whim, she figured she would just do it herself. Kim lives in the Pacific NW with her husband, tween son and their labradoodle, Maybelline.  A chubby fitness professional by trade, a bargain hunting decorator by hobby, she’ll take forever to finish decorating a room, avoiding the “I’ll have what she’s having” style Mary Engelbreit quote.  You’ll enjoy Kim’s witty and relaxed nature as she shares how to land in her FFF, Future Feature File, for Today’s Creative Blog.

Kelly is a mom, a designer, and a writer.  As a mom… Rachel and Allison are the lights of her life… 16 months apart and the best of friends.  Rachel is 5 and started Kindergarten this past Fall.  Allison has just recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  As a designer… She realized her dream and opened a brick and mortar boutique in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Eventually, that dream came to an end and she took her talents online.  Her blog, Childhood, is now a creative outlet to share ideas and new designs.  Kelly also hosts a live MomTV show about design, called Sew Krazy, on Thursday nights 8pm EST.  As a writer… In addition to keeping up her blog... she occasionally contributes to MomActive and Type A Mom.  Kelly represents and writes professionally for Scottsdale Orthodontist, Dr. Gary Brigham and Invisalign.  She also represents a number of other brands looking for exposure in the world of social media.  You can find Kelly on Mom It Forward as the Arizona Chapter President (kelly@childhoodclothing.com) and on Twitter @Childhood.

Loralee is a wife, mother, and blogger living in the wilds of Utah.  She is mother to 4 handsome gentlemen, aged 13, 10 and 6-months, and a sweet little 4-month-old that passed away in 2003 of SIDS.  She has been blogging since 2005 at LoraleesLooneyTunes.com and through it has formed a fabulous community, been a speaker at several national blogging conferences, lectured and given workshops on social media and blogging, been featured on local and national media like KSL, UPR, National Talk Radio and Parents Magazine, and visited The White House by personal invitation of Valerie Jarrett.  This is a totally stuffy resume for someone who is founding a movement to bring the term “rad” back into the common vernacular.  Loralee is also a classically trained opera singer that is well versed in tromping around on stage in corsets and playing men, alcoholics, witches, nuns, evil stepmothers and woman of ill repute.  You can follow Loralee on Twitter at @looneytunes.

Marlynn Jayme Schotland runs both of her businesses – Urban Bliss and The Power MOB – with a focus on helping empower fellow women & mom entrepreneurs.  A serial blogger since 2004, she blogs about design & branding, food , motherhood, Oregon family-friendly events and also offers tips for mom-owned businesses.  She’s an insomniac coffee lover who lives loudly with two young kidlets and a strange adoration of things that start with the letter B (like bacon, bourbon, Beastie Boys, and blogging).

Amy Bradley-Hole lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she stays entirely too busy trying to deal with the inordinately large number of demanding men in her life.  As a Communications Director in the hospitality industry, Amy is responsible for branding, promoting and creating communities for hotels and restaurants.  As a technical and freelance writer and as a former columnist for Consumer Traveler and MSNBC, Amy mastered the art of creating formulaic, sterile content.  Now she flexes her creative muscles and writes for herself at The Bee Dot, where she mostly just complains about stuff.  You can follow Amy’s fascinating tweets @AmyBhole.