Off to Bliss I go… BlissDom Canada, that is

When Maple Leaf Foods drew my name as the winner of a social media conference sponsorship about this time last year, I was awestruck. I had only been blogging a short time and had never been to an industry event before.

Not long after, I went to the ShesConnected conference. And although I used a lot of that sponsorship to attend BlogHer this past July, part of the sponsorship was a ticket to this year’s BlissDom Canada conference.

Third time’s a charm, right?

As always, I’m looking forward to learning new tricks from the pros, chatting with sponsors and meeting so many of the amazing women with whom I interact on Facebook and Twitter from day to day. And, of course, there are the parties.

I’m completely bummed that Leanne from Ironic Mom isn’t going to join me for some “Ovulation” drinks this time around (long story). And I was saddened to hear that one of my longtime mom blogger pals, Christine from Life on Manitoulin, is no longer joining Maya (from Mayahood) and me in our room at the Delta, where BlissDom is being held.

There’s nothing like being able to walk into a room full of virtual strangers arm-in-arm with your blogging besties.

There are lots of other awesome women I’m planning to hang out with at BlissDom, like Maija from Maija’s Mommy Moments and Renee from My So-Called Mommy Life.

Everything kicks off today at 2:30 p.m. when I get to test drive the new Camaro. As a GM fanatic, this is one sponsor I’m particularly excited to meet!

I’m also stoked to be able to bring the new Moto X smartphone along with me. Motorola is one of the clients we work with at my PR firm (the “day job”), and I thought it would be fun to see how it performs under the pressure of needing to tweet like the wind and keep up with my Facebook page and email while I’m at BlissDom.

So far, I really like the device. It feels good in my hand because it’s got a bit of a curve on the back of the casing. Apps have been plentiful and easy to download. Above all, the Moto X functionality is intuitive. I haven’t even cracked the manual – everything just makes sense.

The screen is huge – rivalling my iPhone 5 but without adding any extra bulk or being one of those phones that’s more like a tablet than a smartphone. The kind that doesn’t fit in your pocket. I’m happy to report the Moto X fits in both my front AND back pockets.

What I’m most looking forward to is that with just the flick of a wrist, the Moto X goes into camera mode, and can shoot an uninterrupted stream of photos with one continuous touch. Should be great to capture all of the new goodies that I hope to review a few months from now. And bloggers doing shots.

Let’s do this thing!

What’s the last conference you went to?