Teachers Pay Teachers Conference, 2016

For the last two years, I’ve been enviously reading about the Teachers Pay Teachers conference on other blogs and I’ve been dying to go.  For the past ten years, I’ve been promising my kids that I would take them to Disney World…someday.

When TPT changed the location of the conference from Vegas to Orlando, I knew that I absolutely had to go and make it a family trip. I registered for the July 13-14 conference and started saving money for the trip. I read all the descriptions (several time) to the different sessions and talked about them with other TpT friends to make sure I picked the right ones for me. One of my besties, who wasn’t able to sign up for the conference this year, kept asking me if I was excited, and even though I was, it didn’t feel real until we left for Orlando.  Tuesday night, when I went to bed, the nerves hit and I barely slept because I was so excited!

My lanyard!  Business cards ready to swap!

I didn’t sign up for any of the meetups before and after the conference because I brought my kids and husband to Orlando with me.  This was our first time at Disney World and Universal Studios and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them.  Come Wednesday morning though, they were ready for a quiet day at the hotel pool, so I was in luck and I didn’t miss much.

Wednesday morning, I met up with Erin, Christina, Patti, Monica, Tammy, Nicole, Sandra, Margie and Holly, all other Canadian TPTers that I know through our Facebook group.  Some I had already met before, and it was so much fun to see them again.  It was amazing to meet everyone else for the first time in real life and get to know them a little bit better. I had so much fun with everyone of them!  I have so many pictures that it was hard to pick just a few.  I'm a little sad that some of them are so blurry that I couldn't post them.  We might have to plan a meetup just so I can take more pictures!

Some highlights of my two days were meeting Adam and Amy.  I am blown away by how humble they are and by how much they want to hear from us, Canadian sellers.  They both spoke at the Keynote Wednesday morning and at the Breakfast Question and Answer Panel at breakfast on Thursday.  I “saw” Paul a couple of times, but I was way too shy to go up to him. He even walked between two friends and I while we were waiting in line for lunch and none of us said anything! We just watched him, totally star struck! 

Adam, giving his keynote speech

Amy, giving her keynote speech

Several members of Team TPT answering some of our questions during breakfast by the pool.

I am super happy with the sessions I picked to attend and am so grateful to the presenters for doing this.  I’ve learned so much from Hope King, Michelle Oakes, Rachelle Smith, Erin Cobb, Meg Anderson, Amie Bentley, Rachel Lynette, Angela Watson, Jen Bengel, Shelly Rees and Kristin Oldham!  I had the chance to take pictures with some of them and it was like meeting celebrities.  I know they don’t necessarily think of themselves that way, but to me, a small fish in the TPT pool, they are rock stars!

Another highlight of the conference was creating our TpTribe at the Rachel Lynette session. Check us out!  We’re 5/6 In The mix (we’re still trying to come up with a better name)!  I look forward to getting to know these ladies and learning from each one of them. I hope I can contribute something worthwhile because some of them are rock stars like I mentioned before!  I’m totally intimidated!

5/6 In The Mix- TpTribe at the Rachel Lynette session

I’ve come back completely exhausted but inspired, motivated and ready to get to work!  I hope I can make it to next year’s conference, and that my bestie can come with me this time!  

Were you at the conference this year?  What was your favourite Wow Moment?