Hooray! New people aren’t scary! The Emma’s Diary Bloggers Meet

So today was the day i’d been dreading and looking forward to for a few weeks.. the first ‘Emma’s Diary Bloggers Meet’, a chance for us Bloggers to meet and also for us to meet Emma’s ‘Partners’ (not sexual ones – although that would have been fun!).

We left Chelmsford around 8.45, the drive was about an hour and a quarter according to Google Maps Navigation, and to be fair that was pretty spot on.. The start time was 11am, so we had plenty of time, we arrived just after 10 and as we were uber early we sat at and had a coffee at the Starbucks in the hotel. We went to find the conference room around 10.45 and found proceedings well under way. I was a little confused, I soon realised that I’d got in a mucking fuddle and it all started around 10am. Shit.

We had some hurried introductions to (i’ll try and remember everyone..)

@Melaina25
@ellatamsen
@jumblyMummy
@AnotherGoldfish
@liveotherwise
@TheRareBitBlog

And the event was off, all the bloggers had to introduce themselves to the group and the ‘Partners’. There were obviously a lot of nerves, as standing up infront of a room full of strangers is tough. I was pleased how my intro went, everyone laughed when I hoped they would. Thankfully my opening of –

“Hello, the last time I was in a Holiday Inn with a load of women it was a *very* different occasion. 


I’m joking of course.


It was a Travel Lodge, I’m cheap.”


was a good ice breaker, I’m a natural clown and like it when people laugh at my jokes. I did remove the line.

“The most difficult thing men have to endure is weeing with an erection”


As it possibly wasn’t appropriate and mildly patronising to men, that’s not the most difficult thing we have to endure, women are.. 😉

After a spot of lunch we had some ‘one on one’ time with the ‘Partners’, everyone was very nice and friendly, and I’ve got a few blogging ideas from our discussions. Some of the ‘Partners’ had to shoot off early so we didn’t get a chance to speak to them all, which was a shame. Just trying to think who I met… (I’m buggered if I can remember all the names!)

Philips Advent – I’ve never spoken so much about breast pads! A trio of great ladies!
Avon – Lovely, lovely ladies, had a nice natter with them!
BambinoMio – Again, lovely ladies who MIGHT have changed my mind about reusable nappies – we’ve got some to try for little man.
Aldi – What top ladies they were! Good honest Northerners, we’re going to give Aldi a try.
Tena – Obviously a hard sell to a young chap like me, but Loz had a good natter, and I *love* their new app. Will cover that soon no doubt! 🙂
Neurofen for Children / Bonjela / Karvol – Lovely lady, big fan of all three of those products already!

Palmers – We didn’t get to speak to them – although they left an AWESOME goody bag 🙂
Sanatogen – Again, didn’t speak to them – but we got some free samples 🙂

It was nice everyone seemed keen to work with the Emma’s Diary Blogging Team, although I did wince when they referred to ‘Mummy Bloggers’ in their presentations – what about us Dads eh? I really think that us ‘Daddy Bloggers’ need more recognition, but on a positive note all the brand partners seemed keen to listen to my thoughts, so, baby-steps!

We left the meet around 16.15 and got stuck on the M25.. it took two and a half hours to get back (that’ll be the road karma for giving us a good drive there this morning!) . Still judging by the tweets everyone had a cracking time and I’m looking forward to future meets! 🙂