T-Mobile Takes On Orlando

I'm back at home sweet home! I just returned home this afternoon after a week long trip to Orlando, FL for WES 2010. WES is the largest BlackBerry conference and is held yearly in Orlando at the Marriott World Center - BlackBerry customers, carriers, and partners from around the country and the world come together for a giant BlackBerry love fest.

T-Mobile holds two customer appreciation events each year, staffs a booth to showcase our products and services, and hosts a breakout session for customers and prospects to come hear more about us. In addition, our leadership team is able to meet with our top customers who attend WES. Lots of fun, right? Well it is, but it's also a lot of work! I was the project manager on the project overall during the last seven months of planning, and it was my responsibility to help keep everyone on track and keep the project plans moving forward.

Four of us flew in last Saturday to start setting up our meeting rooms, getting collateral print-outs made, picking up supplies, etc. We had long days of walking all over the hotel (which is the largest Marriott in the world!) to help keep everything and everyone on task and after packing up and shipping everything back home yesterday, the four of us were completely exhausted. If only I'd thought to bring a pedometer!

Overall, it was a successful week. Everyone seemed to enjoy the events that took place, said the customer meetings went really well and overall that it was a great WES. Even though it was a great deal of work, it wasn't ALL work and no play - we found a few hours to relax by the pool yesterday and were able to hit up the Orlando Premium Outlets...twice.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the week. The rest are on my Flickr site.

Our column wrap at the entrance to the showcase area. We used this look & feel on all our collateral and it really stood out compared to what some of the other carriers did.

View of the huge pool from one of our rooms.

The main project team - Siiri, Hilary, myself, Connie and Vicki - passing out passes to our Tuesday event.

Siiri and I at our Tuesday cocktail reception event.

Every year, RIM (the BlackBerry manufacturer and company that puts WES on) hosts a big party during WES. This year, they had Joss Stone and will.i.am. Siiri and I made it just in time to see will.i.am DJ.

Entrance to our Wednesday event - this is the larger of our two events and is held out by the pool.

The area for folks to get massages.

It's hard to tell, but these are real people! They'd reach out and touch people walking by, scaring or confusing them. So funny to watch!

The girls again - Siiri, Connie and Vick - before the Wednesday event wrapped up. We're sporting the T-Mobile branded hats we gave out to customers.

Jenna (from our marketing team) and cooling off in front of the T-Mobile globe.

Project Runway: Ballard

A bunch of us girls (Kels, Sara, Tara and a couple of her friends) headed out for the evening last night.

We kicked the evening off with cocktails as Moshi Moshi Sushi and then headed over to the New York Fashion Academy for the 2010 ReStore Trash Fashion Show. We had a blast and the show was fabulous. About 30 local designers stepped up to the challenge of creating a new ensembles out of someone else's trash, similar to an episode of Product Runway. The designs that were on display were pretty amazing and extremely creative. Materials included construction fencing, grocery bags, food packaging, dryer sheets, newspaper, and so on. Some of the designs were a bit over the top, though very unique and cool to see, but there were others that were more down to earth. Regardless, all of these designers have some serious imagination and talent and I look forward to attending next year to see what new outfits these designers have whipped up.

Being the bag blogger I am, I forgot my camera; however, I was able to snap a few shots with my phone.

A popped air mattress once owned by Rain Wilson's mom (and was slept on by Rain himself!) became the centerpiece for the blue dress you see here.

This outfit, named Sofaliscious, is made entirely of leather sofa samples.

Tons of pieces of tin made up this dress.

A little mattress packaging, a little caution tape and you have yourself a dress!

Kels and Sara enjoying yummy cocktails at Moshi.

Fetch!

Roxy takes the game of Fetch very seriously. For proof, check out this photo Corey snapped of our flying Frenchie yesterday.

I LOVE how crazy and possessed she looks!

Fab Friday with Fab Friends

The crew - Kels, Mark, Gina, Nick, Sara, Corey, and I - hadn't all been together in one place, at one time in quite some time, so Kels and Mark had us all over for dinner at their new place last night. After a busy week back at work, Corey and I were both looking forward to a relaxing Friday evening with great friends.

We had a blast. The evening included many laughs, lots of yummy food, good drinks and tons of quality time together.

Here are a few photos from the evening.

The Plaid Mafia. Surprisingly enough, this wasn't planned or coordinated ahead of time.

How YOU doin'?

Love quality time with my girls!

Pizza and salad might just be the best Friday night meal ever.

Happy Easter!

With Spence and Renata in town, we decided to celebrate Easter together with a lovely brunch at The Georgian at the Fairmont.

Bunch was absolutely delicious - lobster, shrimp, cheeses, fruits, fish, crab cakes to name a few of the many items available - and was followed by an enormous dessert bar, including both chocolate and white chocolate fondue fountains.

Between the awesome company and great food, our Easter was perfect.

Pattersons and Morans just outside The Georgian. We are looking forward to spending more time with them again next month during a trip we've planned to visit them in D.C.!

Hawaiian Adventure 2010

Corey and I returned late last night from a fabulous week in Maui and the Big Island. I still can't believe our vacation is already over and that we go back to work tomorrow; however, we had a blast and have tons of fun memories as a result of our trip.

The first part of our journey began in Maui to celebrate with the other T-Mobile Peak award winners. We stayed at the Sheraton in Kaanapali and had an amazing room - right in the center of the hotel, facing the pool and the ocean just beyond that. We saw many beautiful sunsets and could always scope out our lounge chairs from our room prior to hitting the pool.

We were treated like VIP's throughout our trip - yummy meals, fun evening activities (awards dinner, beach party and a luau), tons of swag (t-shirts, hats, all kinds of fun stuff waiting in our rooms when we returned each night), cool activities (ours was a trip to Hana, see more details below) and last by not least, all winners and their guests received a new pair of Maui Jim sunglasses and each winner received the newest T-Mobile device (which launched just three days before we received it) - the HTC HD2.

I think our biggest highlight in Maui was the Road to Hana trip. Even though we've been to Maui multiple times, we've never driven to Hana. We had a great time and were able to see so many cool things in this lush, jungle part of Maui. The best part is that we were able to do a complete loop, vs. a there and back trip, since a portion of the road, which was closed after a 2006 earthquake, re-opened last year. We stopped at multiple water falls, a black sand beach, a flower farm, Charles Lindbergh's grave site, the Seven Sacred Pools (large natural pools made out of a grouping of rocks on the coastline), and the Tedeschi Vineyards. It was a long day but we were happy to see so many cool sights all in one trip and to have a tour guide who filled us in all sorts of interesting tidbits along the way.

The T-Mobile portion of our trip came to a close on Wednesday and from there, we hopped on a small plane to meet my parents, brother and their friends Patti and Dave on the Big Island. By small plane, I mean a 9-seater...I had never been in such a small plane! It was a cool experience though and it was nice to not have to wait for tons of people to board and exit.

We spent the day exploring the town of Kona, watching dolphins jump around in the water off the coast, checking out a painted church, and then heading to the condo they were renting in Waikoloa. The condo had a huge lanai that wrapped around almost the entire condo - with its great views, we spent lots of time relaxing out there with everyone.

The highlight of our Big Island time was our trip to the Volcanic National Park. While there isn't any lava to see on the island right now, we were able to check out the Mauna Loa and Kilauea craters, as well as walk through the Thurston Lava Tube. On our way back, we were able to stop at a black sand beach as well as swing by Ka Lae, the southern most point of the U.S. And what road trip wouldn't be complete without stops at Killer Tacos and Donkey Balls for snacks?

On Friday, everyone headed back to the mainland and Corey and I headed back to Maui for one last day, which we spent shopping at the Shops at Wailea and stuffing ourselves at Mama's Fish House.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip and can't wait for our next Hawaiian adventure. In sticking with our yearly Hawaiian getaway tradition, we better start planning a trip for next spring or summer!

Here are some photo highlights. A bunch of other great photos can be found on Corey's Flickr site (the full set or just the highlights) and a few others on my Flickr site.

View from our deck at the Sheraton. I could get used to this!

Our new favorite treat - Yogurt Land at Whaler's Village. I think we enjoyed this yummy yogurt three times in our 5-day stay.

Members of the T-Mobile leadership team handed out the HD2's during our awards dinner. That's CEO Robert Dotson running the phones out to each winner.

Throughout the Sheraton property, you'd see signs that T-Mobile folks were there...like this light projected on the side of the hotel.

One of our first stops during our Hana tour.

One of the beautiful waterfalls along the Road to Hana.

Corey and I at a black sand beach during our Hana trip.

Hanging out at the Seven Sacred Pools.

Look what we found on our walk back from the Seven Sacred Pools - I think this is all one tree!

Our teeny, tiny plane to Hawaii.

Persson family shot on the lanai. That's not a fake backdrop behind us - it's the real deal. Now you understand why we spent so much time out there!

View of Mauna Loa from the Visitors Center.

View from inside the Lava Tube.

Everywhere you turn in Hawaii, you see lava.

Corey and I at Ka Lae (the southern most point in the U.S.). As you can see, it was a tad windy...