The project had been nominated for 'Best Service Site' award and I filled in the forms and sent them off, just in the nick of time mind you, because I live on the edge baby.... and because I was procrastinating!
I realise that I've been telling everyone who asks, that the conference was 'amazing, inspiring and so completely awesome!' Which doesn't really tell anyone much about what happened. The problem is, that even though we were only there for a couple of days, the whole thing felt like much longer, in a really good way.
I got to meet people in real life who until now had just been logos or icons on various networking sites. My best friends Tracy and Amanda were able to meet these people that I'd been talking about for the last year and understand why I'd been ranting about how wonderful they were.
These women, (yes, mostly women and about 3 guys were in attendance), had all started their own businesses from scratch. Some of these ladies had been through the most traumatic and soul crushing experiences, near death experiences and life changing moments that I was stunned and relieved to know that not only was it possible to move forward in your life after these events, it was imperative.
I won't relay the stories here, that is something for their personal blogs and sites, but lets just say that if you needed to find some motivation to get your life moving in an upwards direction again, the conference was the place for you to be.
Initially I was a little skeptical about going to an event like this, but I'd been invited to do a presentation and getting the word out about the backpacks is very important to me. So I went. I listened. I participated. I cried. I laughed (a lot!) and I learned.
So very many of the people we met offered words of support and encouragement and told me that I was an inspiration . . . me? I don't think so, not after hearing other life stories and seeing triumph over adversity in many different ways. But still, I thank those people, without those kind words I wouldn't be here typing this, I'd still be in bed with the cat wishing the day away.
Below are just a few of the people we met in Brisbane!
I received the 'Connect2giving' award for my work with the Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids Project along with Dr. Lucy Burns who gives all profits from her online store Better Than Flowers to the muscular dystrophy foundation, (she has MS herself).
Connect2Mums was pretty much my first point of contact for social networking and I'm so happy to be involved and have the opportunity to know these kind and generous group of women, (and a few fellas as well).
des
Image by eszter via Flickr
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