Anne Marie's First Bath

The was obviously a couple of weeks ago, as we have given her many baths since, but I am just now getting around to posting this. I was able to shoot and edit all of these videos with an iOS device (iPhone4S and New iPad).

 

The Old Supporting the New

Last weekend, we setup a little photoshoot for our new little girl, Anne Marie. She was 11 days old at the time of these photos, and she did really well.

We found some old items around my parents' house that could help us with the shoot. I think it is a very neat contrast to have all of these old things, surrounding such a new little person.

Here are the photos...enjoy!

Our Little Helper

A few weeks ago, we were putting down some new pinestraw outside in the flower beds. Alan was helping us the while time. That event is so burned in his brain that every time we go near the flowerbed closest to the street, he bends down by one of the plants, picks up a handful of pinestraw, and moves it to another spot while saying, "Hep hep hep."

He really is a good helper.

Speaking Publicly in New Orleans

The first week in March, I traveled to New Orleans for the 19th Annual CUNA Marketing and Business Development Conference. Over 450 attendees converged on New Orleans to "Get Inspired" and promote ideas to take back to their credit unions.

The newly-remodled Hyatt Regency right by the arena and Super Dome was a good location for this conference. This hotel was beautiful, and very accommodating for as many of us as it housed. The elevators had something that I had not seen before. You would just wave your card under a RFID scanner and it would tell you which car out of the two banks of elevators to get on. There were not buttons once you got in the elevator...it just took you to your room. It was wild.

Once we got acclimated to the hotel and chatted about our session the next morning, my co-presenter, Matt, and I went to scope out the location of our tweetup. We had scheduled a tweetup in the one of the hotel bars for later in that week, once all of the conference attendees arrived.

So, it was time for our session. It was bright and early. We had been out way too late the night before....part of what makes these conferences fun. I think the session went well. We talked about social media for credit unions: No hype, just the tactics. We wanted to really get to the meat of the subject and actually show some people how to use some of the free tools out there. Monitoring your social media channels is always a must, as it allows you to devote less time to watching your channels. You can merely set up these monitoring services, and utilize your time elsewhere. The guy presenting with me, Matt Hodson, is a master at monitoring all sorts of social media outlets. He really took charge for this part, and we are all better off for it.

To say that it was nerve racking was an understatement. 28 people had paid extra and come to the conference a day early, just to attend our pre-conference workshop. That is humbling. I would like to say, especially based on the feedback that we have received, that the information was timely and well taken. I like to hear that. I like it when knowledge is shared and everyone leaves having learned something.

Below are some photos from throughout the week there in New Orleans, ending on the Saturday that we walked to the French Quarter and browsed a bit. It was a great time, and I cannot wait to see what next year's conference has in store.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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