BarkWorld 2013 Recap


   We recently attended the BarkWorld Expo in Atlanta Ga. What is BarkWorld you ask? It's a social media conference for pet bloggers, business owners and those who use social media to learn about networking, technology and how to information. 
  This was my third year of attending but BarkWorld was originally founded in 2009. I attend to learn new ways to enhance my blog, meet sponsors and other bloggers , to see my blogging friends who I follow and dearly love and for the SWAG. 

  We left Ky on Wednesday morning, a day before the conference started so that we could get settled in and ma could rest before the action began. It took us 7.5 hrs to get there because we ran in to fog and pouring rain. This year we took Scooby Doo with us. This was his first trip, conference and hotel stay. On the way there , we tried to napped but ma and sissy Sarah was singing songs on the radio. 


This is a mountain we are approaching.

When we got to the hotel , The Westin Buckhead  sissy unpacked the car and ran to the check in desk to request our room we had last year while ma parked the car. It was available. Talk about a happy dance from your sister, she did it. She loves that room because it was right by the pool and gym.


 

We dropped everything in our room and we went out to potty and walk around. We ran into other blogging friends who had decided to come in early too. Later that night we decided to go to grab something to eat with them at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Ma got a hamburger that wasn't on the menu. Seems all the ladies who were with us kept wanting this waiter to repeat everything he said. He had a strange accent. Ms. Emmy said it was Aussie (Australian) I kept hearing these ladies say he wasn't bad to look at either. Which reminds me, I must tell dad to talk in that accent! 

I got to hang out with my friends and that is what mattered to me. I got to meet Oz the terrier and his pawents for the first time and I got to see my fur friends Pepper , Rocco and Kona and their moms. Emmy was there too and I so happy to be there. 
Pepperpom 

Rocco and me, He is always so happy. 

Hard to get photo when tails are wagging so fast
After the delicious meal according to ma, we headed up to our room for a bit. She fed Scooby and me and unpacked. Scooby started getting worried because he didn't understand where he was supposed to lay down. Ma trained us not to get on other people's furniture unless we are told it was okay. Poor Scooby just sat on the floor and cried. 
Ma finally gave him the okay to get on the bed. He kept a watchful eye on her because he was afraid she would leave like sissy Sarah did. Sarah went to work out in the gym and take a quick dip in the pool. 

After a good night sleep, we went out in the morning to potty and started seeing people who I knew arrive. To me this was exciting because these were my friends, the bloggers I follow, the rock stars of the web! The conference was to begin at 4 pm and it was almost time! I seen a white standard poodle who had polka dots! I seen Little Dog Linus , GlorGirly, and so many more.  Then I seen the Garth-Mobile, Garth was the grand prize winner of the Pruven gets you to Barkworld contest. 
I bet you think I am smart knowing what Garth's pawents drove , don't you. 
Shortly after I seen Oliver from All Things Dog Blog get out of the cab and he had on a service vest! My heart filled with pride. You can find out why I was so proud of him here->From Puppy Mill to Medical Alert. Now I had 3 friends who were service dogs here at the conference and I hoped we could take our photos together.

We went in and mingled with some friends. This was going to be a great conference, I could just feel it. We had a opening party where we got to get our photos taken on the red carpet and mingle with our friends and meet new ones. 

Then ma seen McGrady, she had been looking forward to seeing him and giving him a kiss. We are huge fans of his foundation and his mom and him. 
Put her in a room full of dogs and she is all smiles
McGrady acted like he knew her his whole life. 

I kept going to Christina from Peace Love and Whiskers

While resting ,Flea from Jones Natural Chews sat next to me. I love her chickyums

Linus looked dashing in his trousers. 
I met Wendi. She came with Linus. 
Then I finally got to meet NINJA! 

We had some fun at the OMGBooth


Sissy and Scooby joined me later. 


I stopped by  Plexdor. I have one of these.

Scooby was trying to look like Yoda

He was excited to see a treat table
Sunset view from our room

It was a long day but comfortable night in our Heavenly bed. 


 The next day was full of sessions. We watched cat grooming 101 and I met Truman the polka dotted poodle. 


His feet were a lot bigger than mine. 

He liked my cologne 

 We also attended a few more sessions and one of them was about contracts. We watched a dog treat cook off and talked to sponsors. 
Ma asked me to stay with Scooby in daycare for a few hours. I did but I was sorta embarrassed that I was wearing the same shirt as I was 2 yrs ago. 




Hey ma, just catching up with Stitch

Ninja was having a great time

Raspberry queen

Ninja and Oliver was playing with me but then I left. They missed me. 


Purse that K9CarryAll carries 

Contest that Sissy went tweet crazy for 

Sponsors 

Hung out with Lulu


I introduce Scooby to clawless cats on a stick (Waffles and Katie) 

Sarah couldn't go to the block party because she was underage

But we still got to have some fun together 

Her next hair style 

Its Pudgie! Bell of the ball. 

Ma got to paint a dog bowl for us

Pudgie and me get our photo taken together every year

My friend McGrady 
We walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant called Fresh To Go with some friends and talk about a great time. This group had a blast. They laughed so hard. The waiter kept giving ma her change back and she kept handing it back to him. Everypawdy had to explain that she was trying to give him a tip. Bless his heart, he had only been a waiter a couple of months. Adam from Singing Dogs also joined us but the waiter who got our photo of everypawdy sorta cut him out. Sorry Adam. But we had a blast with you.  

Ma's meal. She still talks about the tuna
Our friend Edna could not attend BarkWorld but Emmy had printed out a FlatEdna so we could include her in all the fun. 
Elileoplurodaun was going to eat Edna but she was stopped! 

It is right next to the "How Stuff Works.com on Discovery Channel

Tucker is Wendi's Fur mom. She was so nice

Sugar, me Scooby and Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren in her dazzling sun glasses.
Her twitter name is @cutesophialoren
Sophia Loren in her pretty Barkworld dress

Here we are the 4 service dogs. Left to Right
Oliver, Pepper, Me and Kona. 


The last day we attended more sessions and ma won a $25 ITune card because she finished her Bingo card and actually turned it in. :)
Kona is so cute. 



Petco mascots and me. Last year I was scared of them

I am doing a review on this shampoo. Its pawtastic! 

Glenn, Kristin and Pudgie and us. Its our yearly photo.
Princess Bun Poodale
Yoda Pooh
Then Petco unleashed unveiled their StarWars Pets collection that is now available. They gave all the pawents a set of Yoda ears. Oh yes they had fun with us. But to see pawents laugh and smile was all worth it. You can see the rest of the bloggers and their pets on OMGBooth in Atlanta



 One the last day we went around and got extra swag. It was the last chance for our photos with everypawdy. 
Garth is sure cute. 

Garth 

I sure am sad this is coming to a end. 

Pepper pom in her ride

Natural Balance

PetChat Pals! 
Almost everypawdy there was wearing PURPLE! 

Sunday morning came and it was time to check out and come home. Sure do miss everypawdy. Can't wait to see them again. 
Sugar waiting for her car to be brought around. She was sad that it was ending too. 

Sugar's mom sure gives a great back scratching. 
It took us 6.5 hours to get home. We had beautiful blue skies all the way home. 


After we rested a little , we went through our swag. We sorted everything out. 
LOOK WHAT I BROUGHT HOME! 



The swag was taken to the Owensboro Humane Society. It will be separated and put in adoption bags for when my fur pals get adopted, their new pawents have a starter kit. 
Thank you BarkWorld for the fabulous time and thank you to all the sponsors who attended. 
Photo from BarkWorld website 
I will see everypawdy again in Oct 2014! 


8 comments:

  1. Great recap Carma!!! Love all the photos!! OMD!! Look at all your swag! YOU ARE THE SWAG QUEEN!!! I am so happy Oliver is now an official service dog too! Finally, a boy in the working dog group. BOL!!
    Hugs,
    Pepper

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    Replies
    1. I know I am happy we have a boy in our group now. Can't wait to see you again!

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  2. Did not realized that this was your 3rd year. It was our first and definitely had fun meeting blog friends. Carma was definitely checking out Garth. WOW! You got lots of goodies. Golden Happy to finally meet you, Sarah and especially Carma oh n Scooby :-) Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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  3. Wonderful post, Carma! (and not just because I'm in it!) Reading this post and looking at the photos made me and momma smile remembering all the fun! It was so awesome to see everyone. We think it was really smart of you to come a day early, because you had extra time to visit people and you didn't start the conference really tired like we did. Hopefully we can come early next year.

    Garth

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  4. So glad you guys had such a great time! And Sarah hit the swag jackpot! Wow

    Christie from lifewithbeagle.com

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  5. OMD Carma...now THAT is a BarkWorld recap if I ever read one!!! You met everybody I think. I sure thought it was great to meet you, Scooby-doo, your (fantastic) mom and your sissy (who we just adore and she is so smart)!!!! Thank you for being my new friend. You are my favorite poodale!
    *Cairn cuddles*
    Oz

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  6. Carma I think that is so pawsome that you donated your swag to the shelter! what a wonderful thing to do!

    -Olivia's Human
    http://oliviashuman.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. I love social media conferences. I go to learn, network, see my friends and meet new friends. I love that companies are so generous with me. I always ask for the left over swag for my shelter. Some who have known me for that last 3 yrs will actually ask me to take it. This is a huge help to my non profit shelter. We are only ran on donations so its truly appreciated.
      Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I really do appreciate it. Hope you come back and read some more.

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