An Intro, a Recap & Just the Beginning…

So. Cincinnati. Pampers. Mom Bloggers.

It was just too much. It will take me posts and posts to properly assimilate all the information. And honestly, it was so interesting and informative and inspiring (how’s that for alliteration?) that I WANT to give you every detail. Hope you’re ready!

I want to tell you about P&G, the archives, the execs, my heavenly hotel room, the bloggers, the diapers, the babies, UNICEF, the bloggers and well, the bloggers. The thing I’m the most excited about is (well, besides the bloggers) is the UNICEF stuff that Pampers is doing. But I’m going to hold off for a couple of days until I get an idea I have a little more squared away…

Once I arrived in Cincinnati I was greeted by two fantastic girls from the PR companies, Andrea and Jen. They are adorable and sharp as a tack (or a whip, whichever you prefer). Also, Kailani, Heather, Romi and Stacy were there. (More on their impressive selves later…)

We were whisked away to the Westin (heavenly!) with just enough time to gush at a sweet P&G giftbasket, change into MORE maternity clothes and head off to P&G for a tour of the archives and a little bloggy mixing.

We arrived at P&G and were greeted by a big sign, a security desk and my very own Pampers nametag! Then we had refreshments in the archives room. (Yes, I was first in line.) The archivist (who’s name I don’t remember because I wasn’t smart enough to get my pad of paper out!) was amazing. He didn’t start out as an archivist…he was just so into the history of P&G and the companies they had accumulated, they ended up making this job for him.

I love listening to old stories and hearing about the history of American culture, so this was extremely interesting to me. We had a little bloggy introduction (where I was again blown away by all the smart mamas in the room), then finally got to meet all the Pampers folks!

We met Jane Wildman, GLOBAL VP for Pampers Baby Care. Global Vice President. Yeah.

And Bryan McCleary, Director of External Relations. Oh yeah, and he was on The Apprentice as a spokesperson for P&G and a guest judge. So, he’s famous.

I was immediately impressed with their warmth. I mean, I know they are just normal people, too. But they didn’t seem to be doing just another work-related thing. They seemed truly excited to meet us, talk to us and spend the next 24 hours listening to us.

We hit up Brio Tuscan Grill for dinner. It was fun to eat dinner with some more fun bloggers, the P&G execs and some UNICEF folks. Plus, I ate about 30 appetizers, a salad, a steak (yes, a steak!) and then a DELISH dessert. Oh my. I can’t believe I didn’t get a pic of that!

But here’s the thing. I don’t know what I was expecting when we got there…maybe to be wined and dined? Maybe just be a focus group? Or maybe it was just a straight PR move so they could say, “Well, look at what we did! We brought these mom bloggers in behind the scenes!” But even in this totally informal environment, I did not get that impression.

I felt like they were honored we were there. I think they were excited to share their “baby” with us. Their passion for moms and babies was catching! (more on this passion in another post…)

At our first little meet-up in the Archives, they showed us an in-house video of several employees from around the world talking about how they’ve seen lives changed because of Pampers products. They are literally zealous about diapers! They believe that they are changing and saving lives with their products.

I say all that to say, that with just a little meet and greet, a brief presentation and a normal dinner they’d already won me over. Everyone was personable, genuine, welcoming and in my opinion, honored to have us there!

On the way to the hotel, we caught up with the “other” table and then I went straight to bed. I couldn’t get online and didn’t think my little brain (or my pirate) could stay up long enough to figure it out.

More to come!