Flickr was down last night for maintenance, so no pictures were loaded – here’s a couple from yesterday’s parties.  The first one was Toy Book, a two-level madhouse of both small and large toy companies.  I ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there and it wasn’t until Rachel got a text asking where I was that I realized I was supposed to be SocialLuxe with Jill!   The little robots were like an updated Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots – this time you use electronic controllers and each time you hit the head the light changes color – turns red and game over.  The MegaBlocks people made us build our own Hot Wheels racers and then race them – mine kept flipping over and crashing…must have been a defective one…

SocielLuxe is, for want of a better term, a pampering party.  The main sponsor was Cottonelle (remember my Fed-ex delivery?), who provided not only manicures, massages and henna tattoos, but also large swag bags containing the items shown here – we lugged the case of toilet paper back to my car and then walked to Pioneer Court for a snacky meal of mini-hamburgers, chicken wings, drinks and probably other stuff but we got there so late that that part was pretty much over.  It was hosted by Womensforum and Escalate Network and we spent about an hour+ snacking and talking with Escalate people.  It’s great to be able to finally meet the people with whom you interact on an almost-daily basis.

Carmex is regularly-priced at $1.69 at all the Walgreens around me – in downtown Chicago it’s not! Yes, the sale price of 5/$5 remains the same, but for someone picking up one or two items, yikes!  And the high tax is 9.25%.  Seriously!  Tax would be the deal killer!

Resolution for next year’s convention is to make sure I schedule about 18 hours for each party – otherwise you just can’t do all, see all and meet all – and that’s the purpose of this whole convention, to meet and develop relationships with companies.  but we never turn down free stuff…