Mom’s Meet WOW Summit 2019 in Arlington, TX

I had the good fortune of attending the Mom’s Meet WOW Summit 2019 last weekend in Arlington, TX.  I don’t often get to go out alone with no kids in tow to enjoy an extended outing, so this was a nice treat for me.  A colleague on the Homeschool Review Crew offered me a free ticket to the conference because she already had tickets and had won another one from someone’s blog giveaway, so of course, I jumped at the opportunity since it was taking place so close to home for me!  I am already a member of Mom’s Meet, both as a Mom Ambassador and as a Blog Ambassador. 

Friday was the blogger/influencer day of the conference.  I got to attend some wonderful workshops, two of which I got to choose for myself.  Since my husband and I were already working on starting up a podcast (Coupled with Chaos) as a family project, I went to a workshop on that very thing and also one on building your blog following naturally using Facebook.  Both were very interesting, and I learned some new things that should help me on both fronts going forward.  They were really informative!  There was also time allotted to networking with fellow bloggers.  I met some wonderful women at my table, and I even made a new friend…a first since I moved to TX in 2017.  Since I homeschool and don’t work outside of home, I don’t get much opportunity to meet people outside of church.  The isolation here has been tough at times, so making a new local friend was a real bonus of attending the event!

Saturday was the mom’s day of the conference.  The workshops were children and family related topics.  The two I got to choose were a cooking demonstration sponsored by Wild Planet that taught you different ways to prepare tuna that don’t involve mayonnaise and one on how to get your kids to eat more vegetables.

Both days included time spent in the vendor hall.  I had such a great time getting to know these wonderful vendors of natural and organic foods, natural cleaning products, homeopathic remedies, etc.  Not only did I get to sample lots of foods and products, but many of the vendors passed out samples as well as full-sized products to take home and try, as well.  I fell in love with many products that were totally new to me.  Many also passed out product coupons, either for free products or for substantial discounts.  All of the vendors really put forth a tremendous effort to educate the moms about environmental impacts, uses of their products, and how take a more natural approach to everyday things.

Two of the vendors asked for my information and offered to mail full-sized products to my home!  Both followed through, and I received the promised products this week.  I was duly impressed!  Many thanks to TRP (The Relief Products) for sending me the homeopathic tablets for arthritis and to Angelo Pietro for sending me the assortment of their awesome dressings!  They taste so good on vegetables, and I can’t wait to use it on stir fry!  I’d also like to thank the representative from Cocina Fresca who gave me a stack of free product coupons to pass out to friends at church.  That was the best store-bought salsa I’ve ever had!  It tasted so fresh and contains no preservatives, and I can’t wait to pick some up in the refrigerated section at Kroger, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, or HEB. 

My 11-year old son would like to thank the folks at Lindsay for sending me home with such a stack of their drip-free olive snack tubs!  He has enjoyed them immensely, and they will definitely be on my shopping list in the future.  I love how we can open the container and not have to be near a sink to drain off liquid.  It’s totally mess-free!  He also really loved the Chum Bites fruit snacks, which have an impressive full cup of fruit and no sugar!  The flavors were all so good, and they sent home lots of packs for him to try.  And I’m looking forward to buying some Brainiac yogurt tubes and yogurt smoothie drinks for him, because they have 40% less sugar than other brands and no artificial flavors.  They were delicious, too, and contain probiotics!  I had some of each while I walked around the event and kept thinking to myself how good they were and how much I knew he’d love them.  We both enjoyed the bite-sized samples of the Ocho Organic Candy chocolates we tried, too.  So good! 

At the end of the summit, all the attendees turned in their badges on the way out in exchange for a goodie bag.  Wow!  It was loaded with full-sized products to take home and enjoy!  My favorites from the goody bag were the fabulous gluten-free, dairy-free brownies from Flax4Life, the original and turkey pepperoni snack sticks from Vermont Smoke & Cure.  Yum!

I really enjoyed the informative presentation made by Wild Planet, too.  Not only were their albacore tuna, sardines, and salmon delicious, but I learned a lot about the need for sustainable fishing and the long-term impact of various commercial fishing methods. You can learn about it, too, by going here.  Not to mention that their recipe for Salmon Spread (which does NOT contain mayo) was absolutely delicious!

All in all, it was an amazing weekend that was fun, informative, educational, beneficial, and a nice break from my busy life at home.  Next year’s WOW Summit is set to take place in Orlando, FL, so I’m thinking a visit to my sister (who lives in FL) might give me just the excuse I need to do this conference again!  I just have to be sure to pack an empty suitcase to hold all of my free products!