MommyCon 2018

Last weekend I attended MommyCon 2018 in San Diego, CA. I live in Arizona so driving six hours to check out this highly anticipated convention in SoCal seemed worth it. After a couple of months as a follower of MommyCon on Facebook I was totally stoked! I booked my hotel room at the same location as MommyCon. Invited my sister-in-law along and dragged my 12 year old daughter with me for a “girls only weekend.”

Did I mention that this was my first time in 12 years leaving my husband to parent solo!? He usually travels for work setting up conventions, so it was a nice role reversal. I will share how he did in a later post…

Where Was It?…

This year MommyCon SoCal took place at The Marriott Mission Valley. One of the perks to my husband’s job is that he accrues hotel points while he is away. Marriott is one of his regular hotels, so I was able to redeem points and stay for free for the weekend.

When We Arrived…

Upon arrival Friday afternoon, we felt very welcomed by the Expo. There were signs everywhere and it was all very clearly laid out. After we checked into our room we mingled with tons of other friendly attendees. I had bought a VIP ticket, so I was able to check-in at registration on Friday instead of Saturday and claim my VIP swag bag and attendee badge. After grabbing my VIP badge and swag, we headed to the Marriott Lounge for a drink and snack. I couldn’t contain my excitement over this bag (it was a fully packed Ju-Ju-Be Be Classy) I dug around in it while drinking my much needed mom’s weekend margarita.

The Events

There were several events that you could get tickets for. These events did “sell out”, so paying attention to the MommyCon SoCal discussion board on Facebook was essential. I was able to make the most of my trip to San Diego and participate/attend several events.

The Friday VIP Sessions

I didn’t actually attend any of these, as we did drive from Arizona this same day and were in need of showers and freshening up.

We also attended the Tula Party at 5:00

This was an event that you could “purchase” tickets for through EventBright. The tickets were actually free. We attended this event and had fantastic time. There was a braid bar where my daughter had her hair braided. We also were able to put together a lovely bouquet at a table covered in beautiful flowers. The event provided various beverages and snacks as well as activities for smaller children. While we didn’t win any fabulous prizes, there were opportunities to do so. By the end of the evening we had made some new friends, had full tummies and left with some pretty flowers.

The Saturday Schedule

Okay, so this schedule was jam-packed. There were so many great speakers and seminars in the different rooms. Unfortunately though I really only made it to three of these and this includes The Baby Games sponsored by Ergobaby (this was another event that you needed to “purchase” tickets ahead of time on EventBright). I had a hard time deciding which seminars to attend and some of the seminars that I wanted to attend were at the same time. I am not sure if this option exists, if it does it would be absolutely amazing… but if all of the seminars were recorded then attendees could go back and watch what they missed?. Personally would even pay more for this option.

The Baby Games Luncheon: Presented by Ergobaby

It was such a great event to attend, I am so glad that I signed up early. We were able to not only “purchase” tickets (once again, they were FREE) but we were able to sign-up for competitions. I chose to sign-up for the stroller folding competition. Even though I failed at this miserably, I still walked away with a FREE Ergobaby 180 stroller. Everybody that competed left with the item used in that category whether it was a baby carrier, diaper bag or even sleep sack. It was amazing and a lot of fun, plus free taco bar and churros… you can’t beat that!

Special Areas and Rooms

You would think the organizers of MommyCon thought of everything! Breastfeeding mamas, yeah they had a very nice spot for you in the Evenflo Feeding Lounge. It came stocked with milk storage bags and breast pads. Feeling a little peckish? Yup, they had that covered too with a Snack and Wellness Station. This area was packed with various easy-to-carry snacks and even energy drinks and a Water Wipes water station to keep you going. Feeling exhausted? You could stop by the Rest and Relaxation Lounge for some downtime. Did you run out of diapers or didn’t even remember them with all of the MommyCon excitement? YES, that had you covered there too with several Huggies Changing Stations that were stocked with different sized diapers and other diapering needs. And WOW, The Cybex Family Lounge was awesome, you could get your hair done, check out some amazing products and just take a load off. Also found at the expo were areas for your littles to play. Since we didn’t have our littles with us, we didn’t fully check them out.

The Exhibitors…

Seriously, so many great brands were there! I could have spent the ENTIRE duration of the expo in the exhibitor hall… not to mention their free giveaways! We were so lucky to have my daughter with us, she was like our own personal assistant, running bags of swag and our purchases up to our room. She was amazing, and definitely earned “helper” rewards from me. Although there wasn’t actually a Ju-Ju-Be booth (my personal favorite), there were a lot of my other favorite brands. I even discovered some new brands that have now earned my business as well as my sister-in-law’s. We spent way more money than expected, so I encourage you to set aside a shopping budget for this event. Trust me, you will be glad you did when you see an exclusive print in a blanket or carrier that would be a perfect gift for your little one. Below is a list of the MommyCon SoCal Exhibitors

The GIVEAWAYS…

Yup, that’s right, I saved the best for last! You guys seriously, there were so many giveaways I couldn’t even keep track of them! There were of course the MommyCon giveaways, if you had a winner sticker on the backside of your attendee badge you won something special. They also had a selfie hashtag contest going on. In order to qualify you needed to take a selfie at designated spots and then share them on social media with the corresponding hashtag, it then would print out at their hashtag printer. It was super fun! At the two sponsored events that I had attended of course those brands had giveaways. Also so many of the exhibitor booths did giveaways throughout the day and at the end of the expo. There was definitely a good chance of leaving with some kind of prize! But, even if you didn’t get lucky on the giveaway front, there was a ton of great products and samples being handed out by exhibitors.

Closing Out MommyCon SoCal 2018…

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at MommyCon SoCal, and are already planning our next trip to a MommyCon in 2019. I walked away not only winning an amazing Ergobaby stroller, but, I too was one of the lucky attendees with a “winner” sticker on the back of my badge. We left with new parenting knowledge from some amazing speakers and bought some awesome products.

A Few Tips

If you are going to buy tickets (which you TOTALLY should) get the VIP tickets, it is so worth it. The premium ticket that my sister-in-law used came with some pretty fabulous swag bags too, so go with your budget. There are usually discounts on the tickets available, so search the web.
Join follow MommyCon on social media and join the Facebook group for the event you plan on attending. There is a TON of information from them leading up to the event.
Sign-up for as many gatherings and activities as possible and participate.
Divide and conquer if you have a companion, spouse of friend, split for a couple of seminars then compare notes later.

Special Thanks to the Hosts

Xza and Niki were wonderful hosts. They were not only extremely friendly but they also made me feel at home (they had no knowledge of me writing about this event). I know there were a lot of other wonderful people involved in this event and definitely thank them as well. We look forward to seeing all of them again soon!

As always, thanks for reading! If you have any questions about MommyCon or maybe even attended, I would love to hear about it below in the comments section…