Labels:
event,
Life,
Orlando Teen Mom Event,
planning
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Finding Guest Speakers
On January 7th, at the BETA Center in Orlando, Florida, Teen Mom
NYC had it's first Annual Orlando Teen Mom Event.
My main goals for the event was for Teen Moms of ALL AGES to meet,
talk and get to know one another.
As a Teen Mom it's hard to find other mothers whom became mothers
in their teenage years to look up to.
I know I have a head full of dreams, goals and ambition and even
though I feel I have done a pretty good job at keeping my head on straight I
still feel discouraged or extremely worried( I am a worrier) about "making
it."
Initially the event started as a way for me to see all my teen mom
friends in Florida at once. That way I wouldn't be driving all over the place
and we could all meet up, meet some other Orlando Teen Moms and just catch up.
However, as I thought about the meeting I began to think that I needed to do
something more, something BIG and above else something AMAZING! That is exactly
what the event turned out to be!
The first thing I did was start researching online to find
resources that are available to Teen Moms in the Orlando area. Not only did I
want the event to be a place where Teen Moms from all over Central Florida
could meet one another I also wanted it to offer the attendees useful resources
that are right in their neighborhood.
I found The BETA Center and was blown away. After
some emailing and phone calls I met with Xiamora Matos. Mrs. Matos took me
through a tour of the location and after talking a bit more she informed me
that the BETA Center could help me with the event by providing a venue to have
the event!! I was ecstatic and over the moon! I couldn't believe
it.
Next I started looking for guest speakers. I wanted two and I
wanted the two guest speakers to be women who became mothers in their teen
years. After some searching online and reading Ylla's hilarious blog post
about: her, a towel and a RAT, I knew I had to get her for the event.
After landing in Florida we met at, as cliché would have it, a
Starbucks and talked for a little bit. We talked about our experiences as Teen
Moms, she gave me a lot of hints and tips for the event and it was agreed that
she would be a speaker at the event!
While looking for another speaker I emailed an Orlando based mom
blogger, Modern Mami, and she helped connect me with Joscelyn, the creator of Mami Innovative Media.com and Mami of Multiples.com
Again, after some emailing and phone calls, we met at Cafe Murano and, much like Ylla, hit it
off right away. We eat, laughed, talked about the event, she gave me tips and
just like that I had my second guest speaker for the event!
One very important thing I wanted for the event was a make up artist and hair stylist to give a demo on how to do quick, budget conscious, PROFESSIONAL make-up and hair styles.
I asked Ylla if she knew of anyone that could do this and she told me she had a great friend named Tania that could and the best part was Tania became a mother in her teenage years too!
After talking to Tania over the phone we agreed that the demo would include a model for hair and make up and we would just talk through out the process and the girls could ask any questions they wanted.
Here I had THREE amazing, happy and successful women who had a child
in their teen years to speak at the event!! So far I had a venue, two guest
speakers and a make up artist, whom is also a hair stylist! From here I knew the rest would be a piece of cake!
