Don’t Miss our Chicago Holiday Bloggers Brunch, Nov. 20!
No matter how many blogger events we host, we can’t help but get excited each time! Child’s Play Communications’ fifth major Bloggers Brunch event is taking place this Saturday, Nov. 20, in Chicago, as part of the Chicago Toy & Game Fair (ChiTAG.). We hope to see you there!
It’s going to be one BUSY event:
On Friday morning at 10 a.m., I’ll be answering questions about marketing to moms for a panel discussion hosted by ChiTAG.
On Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., I’ll be making a presentation about moms and social media to the Chicago Midwest chapter of Women In Toys.
Then — at 10 a.m. on Saturday– I’ll be moderating a panel of mom bloggers that we at Child’s Play are presenting, as part of our Bloggers Brunch. The presentation is titled Marketing to Moms in Social Media: How to Most Effectively Promote Your Brand. We have a great group of panelists planned:
- MJ Tam, Editor, Chicagonista.com
- Kris Cain, LittleTechGirl
- Maria Ramos, MyChicagoMommy
- Amy Mueller, ParentSphere
We’re still signing up guests to attend the panel presentation, so any companies that are interested, please register here. Moms who are attending our Bloggers Brunch may also attend the panel presentation, at no charge, but must let us know beforehand.
Most exciting is that, at noon on Saturday, I and my Child’s Play team — Julie Livingston, who manages our event programs; Marie Baker, who heads our award-winning Team Mom review-blogger network; Erika Sanchez, an old hand at our blogger events, and Fiona MacLeod, who just joined Child’s Play to help with special projects – will host the Holiday Bloggers Brunch, where we’ll have the opportunity to connect 50 mom bloggers with event sponsors including: Cold Stone Creamery, now sponsoring one of our Bloggers Brunch events for the third consecutive time, Backyard Safari Outfitters, also back for the third time, Playtex Baby, In Zone Brands, Road Rippers, MEGA Brands, Zillions, and Restaurant.com. Mary Kay Cosmetics has signed on to provide pampering to our mom blogger guests.
The best part for us: connecting in person with all the moms we’ve been working with over the years through Team Mom and meeting other mom bloggers for the first time.
So, to all our sponsors and all our mom-blogger guests: Can’t wait to see you there!
Dinner’s On Us/Bloganthropy Awards Thank You
As many of you know, Child’s Play Communications had the pleasure of hosting Dinner’s On Us and the first Bloganthropy Awards as a lead-in to this year’s BlogHer, held in our hometown, NYC. I’d like to take the opportunity here to thank all who participated:
First, a thank you to all the nominees and finalists for the Bloganthropy Awards. The Awards are designed to recognize bloggers who use social media to make a difference in the world by supporting a worthy cause. Some perceive women’s blogs as all about diets and diapers, or in the case of moms, all about getting free products for review. At Dinner’s On Us on August 5, I think we helped show that there is a whole community of women, including moms, who are actively using social media to benefit others. At Child’s Play, we were amazed at what many of these women have accomplished and were thrilled to have the opportunity to recognize and support their efforts, via visibility at Dinner’s On Us and through a monetary award, provided by P&G’s Give Health. Congratulations to all the nominees, to the finalists, and especially to the winner, Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress, for all your good work.
Next, a thank you to our sponsors — we could not have done it without you! In alphabetical order:
- Baby Boom, which chose Dinner’s On Us for the national debut of its Baby Brezza One-Step Baby Food Maker and Clic-It Smart Diaper Bag System
- The California Strawberry Commission, which sampled mouthwatering chocolate-covered strawberries to guests
- Cold Stone Creamery, which offered everyone a taste of its latest flavor, the very popular Kate’s Creation
- Cusinart, which demonstrated fabulous blenders, teakettles, coffeemakers and juice extractors
- Giddy Up, which debuted its Fuzzoodles toy line to social media at Dinner’s On Us and demonstrated its latest Scientific Explorer products
- Hershey’s, which in partnership with Kraft treated guests to everyone’s campfire favorite, classic s’mores
- K’NEX, which displayed a broad assortment of its hit construction toys, including its famous Ferris wheels
- Nickelodeon, which highlighted the wonderful Dora the Explorer collection of toys and DVDs
- Summit Toy, which showed its Backyard Safari Outfitters toys and chose Dinner’s On Us to launch its Zillionz kids’ money management line
- Toyota, which provided bloggers with product information and a very useful vehicle emergency kit
- e.l.f., which offered moms makeovers and cosmetic gift bags
These sponsors also contributed to an end-of-evening raffle, with prizes ranging in value from $40 to more than $500. Thank you all!
Also, thanks to celebrated violinist David Garrett, for his performance and for providing autographed CDs for guests.
Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to all our guests. As I said in my presentation, we know that there were many other BlogHer-related events going on that evening. We want you to know how much we appreciate your spending time at ours. We are truly grateful. It was, as always, wonderful to see those of you with whom we’ve worked over time, and great to meet the rest of you. I sincerely hope that you had a wonderful evening with us and that we will see you again next year!
Finalizing Guest List for Dinner’s On Us!
On August 5th, Child’s Play Communications is hosting Dinner’s On Us. Like our past social media events, the dinner, scheduled to take place in NYC the evening before BlogHer, is designed to be an intimate gathering of leading bloggers and a select list of top sponsors, which this year include Nickelodeon, Cuisinart, Baby Boom, Cold Stone Creamery, K’NEX, Hershey’s/Kraft, Giddy Up, Backyard Safari Outfitters/Zillionz, California Strawberry Commission and Toyota.
Most importantly, at Dinner’s On Us we are presenting the first annual Bloganthropy Awards, to recognize those who have used social media to help a worthy cause. The event will also feature drinks on the rooftop at a location convenient to BlogHer as well as a lovely meal.
SPACE IS LIMITED. If you have received an invitation and have not yet RSVPd, please do so now. If you have not received an invitation and would like to be on our waiting list, please send your name, the name of your blog and your contact information to childsplay@childsplaypr.com.
Dinner’s On Us will be a very special event, and we look forward to seeing you there!

