Hey all, hope you’re having a fantastic time at BlissDom Canada! Make sure you visit our sponsors to enter for the fabulous giveaways. Some of the prizes are already gone, but here’s everything that was and may still be up for grabs – go visit and see if you can still enter if you haven’t!

Chevrolet Canada – Chevy Orlando and Visit Orlando

• the use of a Chevy Orlando to drive to Orlando, Florida!
• 4 days, 3 nights Family vacation for up to 4 people including Accomodations and Theme Park ticketrs

Kellogg’s has a fabulous gift pack and an iPad up for grabs!

Church and Dwight has a lovely gift basket.

Step2 has awesome gift cards.

Maple Leaf Foods has a sponsorship to next year’s BlissDom Canada up for grabs.

Fisher Price has a toy tower!

Ricki’s has a $100 gift card.

Phillips is giving away 12 Sonicare toothbrushes and 4 Phillips Electric Shaver.

Kraft gave away their fab Haunted House Cake ingredients.

President’s Choice is offering a PC Mobile Samsung Galaxy 550 Android Phone and a pile of gift cards!

Used Everywhere is giving away all the fabulous items in their booth.

and Corel is giving away a 40″ Toshiba LCD TV as well as piles of software.

Go enter – and good luck!

You know Kellogg’s. You probably grew up on their brands, reading the back of the Corn Flakes box as your mom told you how important it was to eat a healthy breakfast. They’re still around, and still part of our daily lives. You dug in to their cereals the last few days after you received your yummy – and useful – Prep for Bliss packages. Kellogg’s will be at BlissDom Canada, and they want to talk to you.

As the official breakfast sponsor of BlissDom Canada 2011, Kellogg Canada will be helping you get a great start to their day with a nutritious and delicious Kellogg’s breakfast. Then, everyone’s invited to stop by the Kellogg’s Love Your Cereal booth for a bit of fun. You’ll have the opportunity to have your photo taken in their exclusive and interactive Love Your Cereal Photo Booth and enter for a chance to win a Kellogg’s prize pack complete with a brand new iPad 2. For those interested in getting the dish on cereal, a Registered Dietitian from the Kellogg’s Nutrition Team will also be on hand to provide answers to your Nutrition questions. And, if that weren’t enough, each visitor will depart with a Kellogg’s gift bag filled with all kinds of great goodies! Now, that’s a Bliss-full day!

Founded in 1914, Kellogg Canada is the leading manufacturer of ready-to-eat cereal in Canada with well-known brands such as Special K*, All-Bran*, Corn Flakes*, Raisin Bran*, Rice Krispies*, Mini-Wheats*, Eggo*, Nutri-Grain*, and Froot Loops*. For more information about Kellogg and cereal visit them at www.kelloggs.ca and www.loveyourcereal.ca.  You can also follow the Kellogg’s BlissDom Canada experience on Twitter using the hashtag #KelloggAtBlissDom.

We love our BlissDom Canada sponsors. (And we know you do too.) Everyone’s working exceptionally hard to bring you amazing experiences at our event. We have evening events, sponsored sessions, our fab expo hall, and lots of great opportunities to speak with our super-awesome lineup of BlissDom Canada sponsors.

Our sponsors have really rolled out the red carpet – and the names below are no exception. Make sure you get a chance to visit the special suites hosted by these companies. Say hello, enjoy some fabulous activities, and learn more about what these companies have to offer. Read more below…

Philips

Need a place to unwind, relax and enjoy a cup coffee with friends? On October 14th and 15th, join us at the Philips Sonicare Spa & Saeco Café, located in the Tom Thomson Room, for a little pampering from head to toe.  Catch up with old friends or meet new ones while getting your nails done or indulging in a mini massage at our onsite spa.  Need a mid-afternoon pick me up?  Stop in for a latte, espresso or cappuccino made specifically for you by the Philips Saeco baristas.  And of course, we wouldn’t let you head back into the blogosphere looking anything less than perfect.  After your coffee, freshen up and make your pearly whites sparkle by taking one of Philips Sonicare’s new electronic toothbrush for a spin in our powder room.   Manicure, massage, macchiato – all at the #PhilipsSpaCafé.

Healthy Choice

If the cooler fall air has you yearning for a taste of the tropics, visit the Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers Steam & Win! suite for relaxing mini spa treatments performed with island flair. Complete your experience with a Healthy Choice spa snack and a stop at our mocktail bar. While you’re enjoying the tropics on the second day of BlissDom, complete your rejuvenation of body and mind with fitness exercises developed to specifically address the blogger lifestyle.  If you hate to leave paradise, enter the Steam & Win! contest after the conference for your chance to win a trip for two to a 5 star spa resort in St Lucia.  Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers looks forward to pampering you at BlissDom!  A spa treatment sign-up sheet will be available at the Steam & Win! Varley Suite. #SteamandWin!

Fisher Price

Fisher-Price is thrilled to be part of BlissDom to celebrate a great year working with a fantastic group of Canadian Mom Bloggers who make up our Fisher-Price Play Panel.  We are excited to announce the expansion of our Blogger program in 2012 and welcome all Canadian Bloggers to stop by our suite to learn more about our current initiatives and tell us how you foster learning through play in an open casting call for our next #PlayPanel members.  Don’t forget to pick up a special gift from Fisher-Price for your little ones left at home!

Kraft (Friday Only)

Witches, goblins and ghosts, Oh My!  Join @KraftCanada at Blissdom Canada on Friday, October 14 in the Johnston Room for a Halloween-tastic good time.  Come get your spooky on and experience what we’ve cooked up for #Kraftoween, featuring recipes, décor ideas and more from Kraft’s Halloween Centre, www.halloweencentre.ca.  Here’s a sneak peek on what we’ve got for trick-or-treating:

•Trick:  Decorating tips and ideas to spook your house out for Halloween•Treat: Sample frightfully delicious recipes like Oozing Eyeballs and Monster Toes from Kraft’s Halloween Centre•Trick:  Enter to win a Haunted House Cake •Treat:  Customize your cupcake and let your Halloween spirit shine •Trick:  You’ll have to stop by our suite to find out more…MOO HA HA!

Impressions PR (Saturday Only)

Impressions PR has joined forces with Better Styled Inc and Atomic Spark to host a one-day event on Saturday teaching how you can make your mark in the media (and how to look great doing it). The free media-training session and/or personal style consultation filled up fast. If you were one of the lucky ones, the Carmichael suite is your location for your session. For those on the wait list or wanting more info about future ops, feel free to drop by too!

Don’t forget to check out all of our fabulous sponsors at BlissDom Canada 2011 – all listed here.

Please join UrbanMoms in partnership with Generation 7 Wines for a special screening of the film MissRepresentation from 9-11 PM on Friday, October 14. Warning: this movie may knock you off your feet and make you question every interaction you have with mass media.  We spoke with Jen Maier, founder of UrbanMoms, about the screening of MissRepresentation at BlissDom. Here’s our conversation.

What inspired you to do a movie screening at BlissDom Canada? When I heard about MissRepresentation I knew I wanted to arrange a screening. It is such a powerful film and important topic, especially for women. I was involved in BlissDom Canada last year and was blown away by the number of amazing women gathered together in one place inspiring each other and thinking big. I knew that these women, the current and future producers of content in social media, needed to see this film.

Have you seen the movie MissRepresentation?  What was your reaction? Yes, I watched it just recently to prepare for Blissdom. My reaction was two-fold. First of all, I took a good, hard look at social media’s power. With that I was inspired to be more conscious of how we at UrbanMoms use our voices to affect change and to make editorial and business decisions based on this responsibility. I created UrbanMoms 6 years ago and one of my key drivers of building the community in this space was “empowering women to take the message into their own hands”. MissRepresentation
reminded me of this commitment and our responsibility on a larger level.

On the other hand, it forced me to look at this issue from a mother’s perspective. I owe it to my daughter and my son to do what I can to bring this issue to light and make changes where I can. By bringing it to BlissDom Canada where there will be some of the most influential women in Canada in attendance I can pass along the message to others.

How do you feel media portrayal of women and girls has changed in the last 20 years? There have been so many changes from access to availability to consumption to the introduction of new media but, in my opinion, the biggest thing we need to work on is the over-sexualization of women, especially to young people. As a mother I worry about our children thinking this is “real”. As a woman, and a woman recently in her 40s, I wonder where the amazingly brilliant, beautiful, entrepreneurial, inspiring women role models I see all around me are represented in
traditional media? That is the beauty of social media!

How does UrbanMoms approach working with media outlets when it comes to portrayals of women and girls? It is important to our community that mothers are represented as the diverse and multi-faceted people that we are. It is also important that the powerful experiences of motherhood are respected but, at the same time, that we are not represented as being defined by them. I think it is important to rise above a lot of these issues and be role models for our daughters.

What are you looking forward to most at BlissDom Canada (aside from the movie screening, of course?) There are so many fabulous speakers that I am really looking forward to. The topics look amazing! But mostly it is being surrounded by inspiring women working in the same field. It is a very powerful experience.

We are beyond beyond excited to introduce you to the epic talent joining BlissDom Canada 2011 from our exclusive broadcast sponsor CBC.  Read on to find out more about the amazing women joining our panels…

Julie Bristow is the recently named Executive Director of Studio and Unscripted Programming for CBC Television, responsible for Factual Entertainment, Sports, Unscripted Comedy and Specials.

Julie launched the Factual Entertainment division for Canada’s public broadcaster in May 2006, and over the course of five years oversaw the development, production and commissioning of talk shows, game shows, lifestyle and reality programming, variety arts and music as well as the acquisition and adaptation of international formats for CBC. Under her stewardship the network saw significant audience growth with prime time hits such as Dragons’ Den, The Week The Women Went , the live event sports reality program Battle of the Blades, as well as daytime shows Steven and Chris, Best Recipes Ever,  late night talk-show, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.  Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister and Make the Politician Work were both home grown successes and hot-selling international formats.

Julie’s work in television has garnered her numerous awards, including three Geminis and the CBC President’s Award for Leadership.  Julie combines a passion for public broadcasting with an entrepreneurial spirit and understanding of entertainment programming across genres.

Jamey Ordolis is the host and senior producer of CBC’s interactive entertainment property, CBC Live. She’s also the tech correspondent on CBC’s Steven and Chris and the co-creator and editor of Empirella.com, a site dedicated to modern working women. Whether she’s chatting up celebs in front of the camera or blogging all night long in her jogging pants, Jamey’s a natural communicator who’s all about connecting with people, sharing big ideas and amazing stories, and creating opportunities for other amazing women.

Connect with Jamey on Twitter @JameyOrdolis and @CBCLive.
Visit CBC.ca/live and her personal blog at Empirella.com.

For 17 years, Patty Sullivan has been invited into people’s homes on a daily basis – unfortunately, she never gets to stay for dinner! As the Gemini-Award winning television host and co-producer of Kids’ Canada on Kids’ CBC (CBC Television), she has helped to educate and entertain generations of children across the country. She can be seen on air, on line and at community events and tours across the country. If you’re a parent, a young adult, or just someone who likes children’s television, you might feel like you already know Patty. But what you may not know is that she is a wife and mother of 2 beautiful daughters.  And after babe #2 was born earlier this year, Patty and some other Twitter Moms started #zombiemoms — a social-media support group for sleep deprived Moms to children of all ages….though newborns are the most popular topic….and coffee!  Patty can also boast an International Emmy Award and was a UNICEF ambassador for several years.  Oh, and in her “spare” time (HA!) she performs in community theatre (with the occasional professional gig) around the GTA.

Anna Maria Tremonti joined The Current on CBC Radio One after two years as a correspondent and host on CBC Television’s flagship investigative program the fifth estate. She has spent much of her career roaming the country and the world for the CBC. Between 1991 and 2000, Tremonti filed regular news and documentary reports for CBC Television from a rotating cast of international home bases: Berlin, London, Jerusalem and Washington. She has covered conflict and crisis in more than 30 countries, providing the CBC with eyewitness accounts of the war in Bosnia, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the break-up of the Soviet Union.
For her work as a journalist, Tremonti has won two Gemini awards, and an outstanding achievement award from Toronto Women in Film and Television. She has also received an honourary doctorate from the University of Windsor, where she completed her undergrad degree.

Nora Young pursues her fascination with technology, culture, and armchair sociology, in radio, in print, on television, and online. She is the host and the creator of Spark, a show about technology and culture, which  airs nationally on CBC Radio One, and lives online at cbc.ca/spark.  As a journalist and speaker, Young is interested in how new technology shapes the way we relate to ourselves, each other, and to the world around us. Her book about the culture and future of self-monitoring, will be published by McClelland and Stewart this spring. When away from the computer, Young loves teaching yoga, cycling and being in nature. She lives in Toronto.

TORONTO, Sep 27, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — BlissDom Canada today announced that CBC (The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has signed on to participate as it’s exclusive broadcast sponsor for the BlissDom Canada conference to be held at the Hilton Toronto on October 13-15, 2011.

BlissDom Canada is a three-day conference that brings together Canada’s foremost social-media mavens, bloggers, PR professionals and top-level brands to learn, connect and network over the course of a truly fabulous weekend.

As part of their sponsorship, CBC will host BlissDom’s kick-off reception on October 13th at the CBC’s headquarters. The event will be hosted by CBC Live (cbc.ca/live), an informative, newly launched channel that lets viewers engage with Canada’s entertainment scene. True to the CBC Live brand, they will be on-site at the Opening Night ‘red carpet’ to dish on the stars, tweet their favourite pics (twitter.com/cbclive) and share online conversations with BlissDom participants.

“CBC is home to the biggest stars in Canada and it seemed only fitting that we come together with some of the top ‘stars’ of the blogosphere for this very important conference,” says Kirstine Stewart, Executive Vice-President, CBC.

“CBC’s support for BlissDom Canada has been tremendous and we are thrilled to have them as our broadcast partner. We cannot imagine a more suitable partner with superior talent to help us kick off our annual BlissDom Canada event,” said Paula Bruno, president BlissDom Events.

Their partnership as the exclusive broadcast sponsor also expresses the CBC’s commitment to communicate with consumers in a more significant way through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social-media channels. “As Canada’s modern public broadcasting company, we have the ability to connect Canadians from across our country in a way that no one else can. By participating at BlissDom, we will also be able to authentically connect high-profile CBC personalities, entertainment and events happenings with the online world,” adds Stewart.

About BlissDom Events:

BlissDom Events holds two of the leading women’s blogging and social media conferences in the United States and Canada. Founded in 2008 by Barbara Jones and Alli Worthington and later joined by Paula Bruno, BlissDom’s mission is to help create opportunities for women bloggers by holding events where women can learn and network in a relaxed, fun and open environment. BlissDom provides its attendees with the most timely, relevant and quality content on a range of topics such as: writing, optimizing and monetizing blogs. BlissDom Events is affiliated with Blissful Media Group, an integrated brand promotion network which also includes One2One Network and Blissfully Domestic, targeting women and moms both online and offline.

About CBC/Radio-Canada:

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, Internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages, plus seven languages for international audiences. In 2011, CBC/Radio-Canada is celebrating 75 years of serving Canadians and being at the centre of the democratic, social and cultural life of Canada.

Media passes are available by contacting info@impressionspr.ca.

For interviews or more information contact: Alison Burke Impressions PR 647.402.4122 Alison@Impressionspr.ca

Bryan Feheley Veritas Communications 416.955.4588 Feheley@veritascanada.com

Heather Lochner Impressions PR 647.269.7180 Heather@impressionspr.ca

It’s time to step out from behind your computer screen and give your tired fingers a break. “More bloggers than ever before are taking their voice and incredible influence offline and appearing in magazines, newspapers, as well as on radio and TV. Plus, powerful, media-savvy bloggers are being courted by major corporations to fill spokesperson and/or brand ambassador positions. But if you don’t know how to stay on message or make your mark in the industry, you’ll be overlooked,” says Alison Burke, president of Impressions Public Relations (www.impressionspr.ca) in Toronto.

For those who aren’t used to the spotlight, it’s imperative to learn how to best present ourselves and make the most out of an interview (also known as our four minutes of fame).

“Make Your Mark @ BlissDom Canada” (http://makeyourmark2011.eventbrite.com/) is a special interactive (and free!) by-appointment-only session (on Saturday, October 15) about how to speak to media to monetize your reach and influence.

Participants can sign up for a 15-minute crash-course in media training and leave with a short introductory video of themselves, shot by Adam Hislop of Atomic Spark (www.atomicspark.ca). “We’ll teach you how to talk the talk when you’re marketing yourself,” Burke says. Also available are 15-minute personal style consultations because “it’s important to know how to dress for your specific body shape as well as what will look best on camera,” says Erin Nadler, fashion expert and owner of Better Styled Inc.  (www.betterstyled.com)

Tickets for the Make Your Mark sessions will be available starting September 22 at 12:00 p.m. (and will be released on a first come, first served basis). You can sign up for one or both sessions.  Watch for #MakeYourMark on Twitter for more information. BlissDom Canada attendees will also get great discounts and offers from all participating companies for future services.

Big news here at BlissDom! We’re elated to announce that Chevrolet Canada has signed on (for the second consecutive year) to participate at BlissDom Canada. This is a company that takes the business of social media seriously; they’re a driving force online. (Pun intended.) Not only can you always find them chatting away with customers on Twitter (@GMCanada @ChevroletCanada) and Facebook but they also work with Canadian bloggers on test-drive opportunities, launch parties, sponsorship events and content.  They’re always interested in new and innovative ideas to fill their social-media space.

“Bloggers and social media present us with an opportunity to build brand awareness with new audiences,” says Adria MacKenzie, GM’s Corporate Communications Manager. “The direct interaction between consumers, bloggers and brands is changing the business landscape and by embracing this change and reaching out through social-media channels, we are striving to put the customer first in everything we do.”

That’s why Chevrolet is back at BlissDom this year. “BlissDom Canada offered us a unique opportunity to bring our online conversations with these influential women into the real world. We’re connecting in an authentic way and creating relationships that will help us gain insight into the true voice of the marketplace,” MacKenzie says. “Seeing the event sell out almost immediately reinforced that this is a group with a passion for learning and networking – and it represents a perfect opportunity for us to listen, learn and connect.”

ChevroletCanada will be showcasing the all new 7-passenger Orlando at BlissDom Canada, hosting their popular Recharge Lounge and they’ll be providing attendees shuttle service at select times during the conference so the Orlando can be experienced first-hand.  We’re so honored to have them back this year!

Photographs by CL Buchanan Photography.

Have you recovered yet? October 27 – 29, 2010 were magical days. Linger in the post-conference bliss just a little longer by sharing your Blissdom Canada conference wrap-ups right here.

What was your favorite part?

What inspired you?

What makes you chuckle every time you think back? Perhaps it was the Catherine Connors entourage?

Join and reminisce the bliss.