Stampin' Up Convention 2012

WOW!  I just got home last night from my first Stampin' Up Convention and "they" were not kidding when they said it was exciting and wonderful!  I hardly know where to start!  Here's a photo of the Salt Palace Convention Center:

This is just a sample of the free goodies we were given in Salt Lake City, Utah:

Is that not the cutest bag with the yellow chevrons on the white with grey trim???  Stamp sets, fabric, paper and gobs of accessories!

This is what it looked like just before the first opening session:

And here is some of the decor:

I have to say that the highlight was my up line, Desiree Spenst, being awarded the Founder's Circle, and being invited on to the Advisory Board, one of only 6 demonstrators in the U.S. and Canada, a huge honour.

(Desiree is the third from the left!)
And here is a photo of Desiree's team "on the red carpet"!

I'm on the left.  Amanda, Desiree, Holly and I had a blast along with two friends of Desiree's, Sarah and Tara!   This is the whole group: (minus me, the photographer)

I'm usually sceptical of the hype of sales conventions and I don't like being "played" by a company with tactics that create sleep deprivation and emotional responses.  This time, however, I definitely got the sense that Stampin' Up sincerely cared about it's demonstrators and wanted to support, encourage and motivate them.  The seminars were excellent and I learned notebooks full of valuable information at every one of them:

In "I am Doing Business My Way" with lovely Bonnie Thurber, I heard examples of creative ways of doing the Stampin' Up business by Ronda Wade, and Tami White.

I learned to set my goals on earning bonuses in "I am Making Money" with Pam Morgan (who I happened to sit beside at Awards Night!), but also had the example of Deb Snyder who uses her business as a ministry of encouragement to others!

At "I am Having Fun" with Shannon West, I learned how to "set the scene" at any event I'm planning to maximize the FUN.

I learned how to make a fabulous Hostess Gift using our new Simply Scrappin' divided page protectors at "I am Savvy" by Donna Griffith, Meg Wheeler, Dawn Griffith and Laura Milligan.

There were some great practical tips from Emily Montoya on how to reach Generation Y friends in "I am Reaching Out". I'm creating a board for my business on Pinterest and...learning how to text! lol

Social networking can be a wonderful business tool, as I found out in "I am Open for Business"  with Carrie Cudney, and I decided to reach the goal of "Rising Star" this year after attending "I am Starting Out" with Emily Montoya.

Our new incentive trip is a 6-day, 7-night Western Caribbean cruise with ports of call in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Labadee, Haiti, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico.  I definitely am planning on achieving this goal after listening to Karen Hauley, Jill Hilliard, Meg Holland and Cynthia Miller in  "I am Earning an Incentive Trip".  And Karen, I LOVE your T-shirt.  Karen is a breast cancer survivor and her shirt says, "Of course they're fake.  The real ones tried to kill me!"

And finally, I learned how to provide friends with the opportunity to get involved with this great business and show them how they could also achieve their goals, whatever they may be, with Stampin' Up, in Jill Leigh's class, "I am a First Time Recruiter", with Jocelyn Rhodes and Colleen Vassos.

And that's a wrap for #convention 2012! Look for more consistent posts from me from now on!  Check in tomorrow!  Let me leave you with the Theme Song from the convention, a Lip Dub.