Engage!08 in Celebration, Florida

I’ll be out of the office and have only limited access to the phone and email for the next 48 hours or so. I’m in Celebration, Florida for the Engage!08 Wedding Business Symposium. Such an awesome concept, I’m really excited to be a part of it! As Rebecca Grinnals pointed out in an email to me a few months ago when I contacted her about it, wedding photographers are great about networking … with other wedding photographers. The same goes for many of the other vendors in the wedding industry. The goal of Engage!08 is to bring vendors from all different areas together so that we can work together, helping one another grow, exchanging ideas, and making weddings as a whole fabulous! Personally, I’m especially excited about having the chance to meet Liene of Blue Orchid Designs, a luxury wedding and event planning firm based in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona, in person at last! I’ve been reading her blog for some time now, and it is always full of great tips and information!

As industry leader Preston Bailey pointed out, “I believe it is the first of its kind, a business to business consulting for the wedding industry on a global scale. They say it best so I am going to steal their quote: “Quite simply – no one understands the “ins and outs” of this lucrative but constantly changing and super competitive market better than we do.” Which is absolutely the truth; just take a look at who the founder is! Rebecca Grinnals! That woman is a genius!”

From their own email a few weeks ago (I was already signed up by then!):

This is the final opportunity to sign up for engage!08: the wedding industry’s most exclusive and intimate networking, educational and inspirational event. Join some of the most respected names in the luxury wedding business for a jam-packed day on June 3rd, 2008 at the Celebration Hotel in Celebration Florida!

Speakers include Preston Bailey, Marcy Blum, Susan Moynihan, Simon T. Bailey, Harmony Walton, Christine Boulton, Liene Stevens and host Rebecca Grinnals of Engaging Concepts!

Connect with over 60 attendees coming from 8 countries and 13 states including:

Five-star Resorts and Hotels in Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Antigua and throughout Florida.

High-end wedding planners and designers from New York, LA, Chicago, Grand Cayman, St Kitts, Seattle, Arizona, Savannah, Tennessee, Virginia, the Bahamas and throughout Florida.

Award-winning Video and Photojournalists from Texas, Maine, Savannah and throughout Florida.
(That is me! I’m the one from Texas! *grin*)

Expert wedding PR, Marketing, Advertising and Travel executives and more! See all the information on the website and the blog!

It all kicks off with a mix & mingle happy hour in the lobby in about 2 hours, and then a jam-packed full day tomorrow. On Wednesday, I’ll be getting together with some of my local photographer friends, including Robyn of Buttons and Bows Photography, and Jen of Soltren Photography. It is going to be an action packed week – and I’m so excited about it all!