Back from Convention!

Wow! What an amazing weekend I've just had! I attended the 3rd Annual Stampin' Up Australian Convention in Canberra. Myself and 9 of my team flew up to Canberra on Thursday and came back on Sunday. I just love Convention, it is so inspiring and it's wonderful meeting up with other demonstrators. I must say that this year there were so many new faces it was hard finding the old ones! We had classes on business building techniques and demonstrations of new stamping techniques, make and takes, swaps, shopping in Memento Mall, drinking, eating, laughing, not a lot of sleeping got done!

We started off on Day 1(Friday)arriving at the Convention Centre, registered to get our bags including our 2 stamp sets, convention pin, pen, SU lip gloss, catalogue, neck purse with our track details on and I received a pin for my sales award. Some swapping was done but I was itching to get upstairs to Memento Mall where I purchased my beautiful brown SU cardigan! I also bought an umbrella, water bottle, a silver convention charm and a poster. I was more restrained this year than last. I went back the next day to get a few more things but most of it had sold out!

The morning session was opened by Shelli Gardner and was followed by demonstrations from some of the US presenters. Then we broke for lunch and did a bit more swapping.
After lunch we did our make and takes. We had 4 projects to make up in limited time and I always feel pressured at these and never get them finished. I always plan to finish them at home but never seem to do so! This year I am determined!!! Actually they can be my project for tomorrow night when I go to my friend's house for our monthly stamping get together. I left the make and take session early to attend a leadership class. We had a few other classes too and in one of them we were invited to come down to the front and speak to everyone. So, as I thought there might be a free stamp set in it, and cheered on loudly by the rest of the Gail Force Stampers, I bravely made my way down to the front. Talk about scary! I just babbled away and can't really remember what I said but know I probably broke some kind of speed record lol! AND I didn't get a stamp set hrmph!

On the Friday night I was priviledged to attend the Manager's Reception which was just lovely! We were served fruit mocktails and delicious finger food and mingled with Shelli, Aaron and Emma and other demonstrators. We also got a free stamp set! After the reception, my friend Naomi and myself headed off to meet her team and then the rest of my team for dinner. I have got absolutely no sense of direction at all and we took the scenic route from Naomi's hotel back to where we were supposed to be having dinner. The restaurants and my hotel was on London Circuit which is bascially a big circle with the freeway in the middle. We took the wrong way around the circuit and ended up having to walk ACROSS the freeway! Eventually we arrived but I have to admit I was starting to panic a bit. I am also embarrassed to say that we had a brunch in the same area on Sunday morning and in the daylight I realised that on the Friday night we had actually only been about 150m away from where we were meant to be had we set off in the right direction!!!

We went back to the bar for a few drinks in our hotel afterwards and all I will say is what happens on convention stays on convention lol!

We started the next day off with a hearty breakfast in the hotel and then wandered (some of us staggered lol!) to the convention centre. Today was an earlier start and pretty full on with classes non stop all day. The afternoon session was so much fun! Derek, who is a great motivational speaker, had us all up dancing and the session ended with amazing stamping demonstrations by Shelli and Pam - I always learn something new from her, she's amazing and so nice. I gave her one of my swaps as it featured the stamp set she had just demonstrated and she told me she had yet to try the bleach technique! I also won a stamp set in the final prize patrol!! And it was That's Funny - a stamp set I had been wanting to buy! 3 others in my team also won prize patrol sets - a definate record. This year it was done differently by the colour wrist band you had depicting who won instead of names being put up on the screen. They didn't do as many this year - only 3 I think - but more people won.

After the session we then left to get ready for the Awards Dinner. We had a beautiful meal of asian pork and noodle salad, chicken and a citrus tart for dessert. Coffee and tea were served with Terry's "Twilight" chocolates - will keep an eye out for these for a future project I have in mind! After the dinner we moved into the theatre again for the awards ceremony. I won an award for $20,000 in sales and I wasn't as nervous to go up this year!

The next morning we had a brunch for a yahoo group I'm on for Australian demos which was a lot of fun and nice to put faces to names. I was the official photographer and happy to say I didn't manage to chop anyone's heads off! I had a new digital SLR camera I had ordered and only arrived a few days before I left. I hadn't had time to read the manual but one of the offical convention photographers gave me some tips.

So that's it for another year :-( It's always sad leaving but I always come away really inspired with lots of great ideas for classes and workshops buzzing in my head. If you would like to experience a convention why not consider joining? During May you can join with a scrapbooking kit for only $150! Contact me if you would like further details. Now I am off to bed to try and catch up on some of that sleep!!!!