The World Fabulous Drag Brunch takes place on the first Saturday of every month at the House of Blues in Anaheim. On November 4th, the show will be partnering with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center (LGBT) Center of Orange County. Members of the LGBT Center OC will be at House of Blues Atrium from 10-11am to share information about the Center and opportunities for donating and volunteering.
Live entertainment by world-famous drag queens and a delicious Southern-inspired brunch buffet? Yes, please! I recently attended the World Famous Drag Brunch at the House of Blues of Anaheim and had a rollickin’ good time. Gia Gunn, actress, cosmetologist and reality TV star on RuPaul’s Drag Race, took on hosting duties from regular host WILLAM (also from RuPaul’s Drag Race.) Drag queens Misty Violet and Mariah Balenciaga joined in on the fun.
The World Fabulous Drag Brunch happens on the first Saturday of every month. Visit houseofblues.com for tickets and information. Show starts at 11am and is for 18 and older.
15th Annual Women’s Wellness Day features renowned author and chef Alice Waters
By some stroke of luck, I won two tickets to the annual Women’s Wellness Day hosted by the UC Irvine Health Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine. (Thank you, Facebook.) The event was held at the Irvine Marriott hotel and I brought my friend Anne along to experience a thought-provoking day about health and wellness. Anne is into health and wellness and was the first person to talk to me about “leaky gut,” so I figured this would be right up her alley. For me, I was really excited to hear Chef Alice Waters speak, she of the famed Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley and the Edible Schoolyard movement.
I knew it was going to be a good day when I spotted holistic diva and makeup guru, Christy Funk’s familiar face in the crowd. As luck would have it, we were seated at the same table! We had a healthy breakfast of yogurt, oatmeal, and fruits and started the day with an enlightening talk on “The Emotional Gut: Nutrition and Lifestyle Solutions,” by Deanna Minich, PhD, FACN, CNS, IFMCP. This informative talk was followed by a fun interactive talk by Leila Astarbadi. It was about Ayurvedic Stress Reduction Practices for a Healthy Gut and before long, she had us dancing, breathing and chanting — just absorbing and generating positive energy!
The breakout sessions then began with topics ranging from Adrenal Health to Enhancing Memory in Aging. I chose to attend a session, entitled “Outsmart Your Genes with Diet,” by Rosane Oliviera, PhD, DVM and Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH. and “Precision Medicine – the Latest Tests for Detecting Wellness,” with doctors from the Samueli Center. The former topic had the speakers talk about nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics, which is the study of the relationship between our genes, our diet, and our health. For me, this took the notion of “You are What You Eat” to another level. I was especially struck by Dr. Oliviera’s stories about being an immigrant and having an identical twin sister and how what she chose to eat. impacted her life.
Two things that the sessions got me thinking about: food and genetics! In between sessions, we browsed around the marketplace that showcased everything from jewelry, medical services to fermented foods and vinegar shots!
Finally, at 12:45, we gathered back in the main hall for lunch and the presentation I was most looking forward to: “Real Nourishment: Teaching Slow Food Values in a Fast Food Culture” by Chef Alice. She walked us through her childhood (“I have distinct taste memories of our family’s victory garden.”) and how she came to adopt and adapt the “slow food movement,” after visiting France. According to her, “The question of health must include nature and culture.” With our dominant fast food culture, we are agreeing to conformity, speed, instant gratification. But she ended by saying there was hope for us yet, by reaching children in schools where we could combat this fast food culture. “Real nutrition begins in the ground. Our connection to nature is the key to well-being.”
What an amazing and enriching day it was! I cannot wait till next year’s Women’s Wellness Day.
If you’ve never done a painting with wine type of class, I suggest you try it. It’s such a fun experience. Invite friends and spend an afternoon or evening, learning to paint, chatting over wine and generally having a good time.
One Sunday afternoon, I attended such a class at Painting With a Twist in Huntington Beach. This class was extra special because, for the first time, we were painting on Onsia Sound Art canvases! Canvases with Bluetooth speakers in them. What’s more, we weren’t painting the typical sunset or vase of flowers, we were painting our pets!
A few days before the class, we were asked to submit a photo of our pet so that the Painting with a Twist teacher could sketch it out for us. This was very helpful because the idea of painting something on a canvas speaker was a bit daunting. What if our painting didn’t turn out the way we’d hoped?
This is my dog Indy. The Painting with a Twist artist sketched out his face on a canvas and wrote down the colors we were to use.
At Painting with a Twist, they provide everything – brushes, paints, instructors and even a fully-stocked bar!
The day I was there, Painting with a Twist Co-Founder Renee Maloney and Onsia Sound Art™ president Steve Ventre graced us with their presence and showed us how easy it was to pair the bluetooth canvas speaker with your device.
A video posted by Onsia – Sound Art (@soundartofficial) on
Listening to Renee talk about the beginnings of Painting With a Twist, post-Katrina in Louisiana, was very inspiring! To learn more about the company’s origins, read here.
Back to the process, we had about three hours to complete our painting. Lively music was playing. And Painting with a Twist – Huntington Beach owner Sherri Kavoosi guided us through the process. She and two other instructors visited with each painter and helped us complete our pet paintings. This painting session was conducted workshop-style.
Painting with a Twist, franchise owner of the Huntington Beach studio, Sherri Kavoosi, kept all the painters on track and having fun.Look ma, I’m painting.
The canvases we used were Sound Art™ canvases with a bluetooth speaker built-in. The canvas is available as a $99 upgrade to Painting with a Twist classes – and it is so worth it! I love that the speaker is super customized and made by me!
Last May, I had the privilege of attending and working on “The Quail Motorcycle Gathering” in Carmel, CA. As social media manager of Acorn Woods Communications, we worked with The Quail Events group of the Quail Lodge a few months before the event. The event is a celebration of the Evolution of the Motorcycle, honoring both pre- and post-war eras of the world’s finest sports and racing bikes. Not being a rider myself, what I did appreciate was the history and physical beauty of the motorcycles. Not to mention, the camaraderie of riders. Plus, there was the location! The Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel Valley! Besides, any chance I get to travel up the coast to Monterey County, CA is a welcome one.
The Quail Lodge and Golf Club is a Peninsula hotel nestled in Carmel Valley. The resort features an 18-hole championship golf course, tennis courts, an outdoor pool, meeting/event spaces, plus 2 on-site restaurants and a bar.
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Since this was a work trip and not a vacation, I didn’t really get to explore the Quail’s amenities but I did interact with their very warm and hospitable staff. We dined at the onsite restaurant Edgar’s and it was delicious.
We got a good view of the greens where the Motorcycle Gathering was held.
The food at Edgar’s is made from local farm fresh ingredients and our dining experiences there over the weekend were truly enjoyable.
The impeccable service of the hotel plus the awesomeness of the Quail Motorcycle Gathering event organizers made my stay at the Quail Lodge and the event itself a truly exceptional experience.
But perhaps, what took this event to the stratosphere for me was meeting, the one, the only Keanu Reeves, who was in attendance with business partner Gard Hollinger and their Arch Motorcycle Company.
An estimated 3000 people were in attendance at the Annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering, now in its 8th year. It was such a beautiful day and I felt that the event had something for everyone. Motorcycles for all enthusiasts naturally but there was also something for history buffs and the families who just wanted to spend a nice afternoon on the greens. There were so many things to look at and the barbecue lunch was exquisite, and did I mention an afternoon ice cream social too?
It seems like only yesterday when I wrote about How A Charity Event Leveraged Social Media to Increase Ticket Sales. Okay so it wasn’t yesterday but it was just last year and I was talking about the Taste of Huntington Beach. Well, the annual Taste of Huntington Beach #TasteHB took place again this year on April 24th and guess what – this year we increased sales by 20%! That would be a 40% total increase from two years ago. Attendance numbers were up and there was a buzz about the event unlike previous years. There were more restaurants, newer restaurants and wineries, and also a celebrity chef from the Food Network, Simon Majumdar, who lent the event some foodie cred.
Author and Food Network Personality Simon Majumdar with an LA Raider who happened to be attending #TasteHB.
Bottomline: Taste of HB Chairman Dan Page was able to report a record high donation of $42,000 to the 501 (c)(3) charity “Friends of the Children’s LIbrary of Huntington Beach” which solely benefits the Children’s Department of the Huntington Beach Public Library. According to an official press release,”This amount is a new benchmark and bests last year’s total by 20%. New records were also set for attendance, as well as VIP ticket sales and general admission ticket sales.”
“The Taste is a wonderful example of the power of local volunteerism,” Page said, “We owe our success to Huntington Beach businesses and all our volunteer staff.”
I am proud to be a Taste of Huntington Beach and Friends of the Children’s Library volunteer of 6 years and counting. Like last year, I was in charge of PR and Social Media. Here are just some of the strategies we implemented to attain our main objective, which was to increase ticket sales.
Created video content.
What I actually did was create video content on the fly. In some of these videos, I was just having a regular meal at a participating restaurant and created a short interesting montage that was meant as a tease for the Taste of Huntington Beach. It was also meant to be a piece of shareable content that the participating restaurant could share on their own social channels.
Here’s a video featuring Deli-licious.
Here’s a video featuring Slapfish.
This video featuring BLK was posted on their Facebook page.
Activated bloggers and community influencers to help spread the word before and after the event.
Monitored all hashtags not just the official one – The official hashtag is #TasteHB but I also followed the hashtags that people would naturally write including #tasteofhb and #tasteofhuntingtonbeach
The Festival of Arts is held from July 5- August 31, 2015 in Laguna Beach. The festival is open daily for visitors to enjoy work of exhibited artists, demonstrations and art workshops. This year, the Festival unveiled a new façade and entryway, designed by Bauer Architects.
Looking at art by Lynn Welker. Courtesy of Festival of Arts.
You will experience daily on-site exhibitions and demonstrations on the grounds. Special events include art talks and the popular “Art, Jazz, Wine and Chocolate,” on Thursdays and “Concerts on the Green” on Saturdays. In the past, I’ve taken the free Laguna Beach trolley to the Festival and signed my kids up for the art workshops.
Photo courtesy of Festival of ArtsPhoto courtesy of Festival of Arts
A big part of the festival is the “Pageant of the Masters” a unique production in which famous art work actually comes to life. It is a ninety minute of tableau vivants (living pictures), which recreate classical and contemporary works of art using real people, who are all volunteers, to pose and look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces. Add to that a professional orchestra, original score, live narration, sets and lighting, all held in a beautiful outdoor ampitheater and you have the elements of a production to remember! This year’s theme is “The Pursuit of Happiness.”
I had the opportunity to catch some behind the scenes action before the show opened. And let me tell you, it was amazing to watch how one painting came together – the actors as young as 5 years old, sat patiently, as talented makeup artists transformed them into characters in paintings!
The Festival of Arts is located at 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. For more information, visit lagunafestivalofarts.org
The Social Media Crew was in full force at the Knott’s Scary Farm Media Preview. Thanks to them I was able to create this rad storify that gives you a great overview of what to expect at this year’s Halloween Haunt.
Christmas came early for this chocoholic as I attended two chocolate store launches in the span of a week! What was interesting about the two openings was that they couldn’t be more different in that the first event was a small independent artisanal shop and the second was the latest opening by a 92 year old candy manufacturing company with more than 200 retails stores across the country. And yet, they were the same because they both focused on the importance of quality and customer service. Now, what could be sweeter than that.
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’ll get.” – Forrest Gump
First – there was the opening of Michelle Haut Chocolat at The OC Mix in Costa Mesa. Their chocolates are handmade daily using all natural ingredients in Laguna Beach. I’m a fan of dark chocolate so I really enjoyed Michelle’s custom concoctions especially the truffles (yes all of them) and the petit domes with sea salt, and another one with rose petals. According to Michelle, “Our chocolate is a custom blended 73% bittersweet chocolate from Belgium. We use only the freshest and purest ingredients from around the world. There are no artificial ingredients, additives, or preservatives.”
Michelle Pontius, Master Chocolatier
A few days later I was invited to the opening of the largest See’s Candies retail shop! Located at the Tustin Marketplace in Orange County, it is also See’s first concept store. From the retro uniforms of the people behind the counter to the black and white tiled floor, stepping into the See’s Candy store is like stepping back in time – a time when quality and tradition meant something. And of course, there was the delicious candy – and so much of it!
See’s Candies CEO Brad Kinstler and his wifeSee’s Candies was founded by Charles See, his wife Florence, and his mother Mary in Los Angeles, California, in 1921.
Enjoy this little Ptch video I created from that night.
November is Diabetes Awareness Month. The American Diabetes Association envisions a life free of this dreaded disease. The goal of this month is to raise awareness and come together as a community to Stop Diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 26 million children and adults in the United States alone. According to ada.org: “Another 79 million Americans have prediabetes and are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.The American Diabetes Association estimates that the total national cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States is $245 billion.”
My own grandmother had diabetes so I am very familiar with the disease. When the opportunity to be part of the marketing and communications committee of the Orange County ADA came along, I was happy to help.
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On November 2nd, 2013, The American Diabetes Association (ADA) held the Tour De Cure, which challenged riders to be part of the Stop Diabetes® movement by participating in the nationwide cycling event. In Orange County, CA, hundreds of participants took part in the Tour De Cure and raised funds to change the future of diabetes and help stop the disease. The Orange County Tour de Cure had routes designed for occasional to experienced
cyclists. Participants chose from two road routes, a metric century or 25-mile; and two mountain bike routes, one 10-mile and one 20-mile. Additionally, there was a 6-mile family friendly route that went through O’Neil Park in Trabuco Canyon.
You don’t have to be a social media guru, ninja, or expert to use a hashtag. But if you’ve read that first line and are still scratching your head, perhaps a simple definition is in order.
A hashtag is simply a label for content. It is used mostly on Twitter but you can also use them on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.
Hashtags are useful for searching a topic.
Perhaps our friends Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake can explain it better.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been part of big events in Orange County that required the use of a hashtag.
For the Knott’s Scary Farm event, for example, I was an attendee and thus, used a hashtag to relate my experiences at the event with my online audience. Later, the organizers and public relations people behind Scary Farm were able to use their event hashtag to not only generate online buzz for the event, but also to later collect and analyze data.
My friend Alison Stripling of Cornerstone Creative Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs says that for her, using an event hashtag in her social media posts has been beneficial. “Using the hashtag at an event helps me get found in social as well as connect with influencers. Most keynote speakers that I tweet and follow at a conference will follow me back.”
For event organizers, it is imperative that you create an event hashtag.
Recently, I helped out with the Surf City Surf Dog competition in Huntington Beach, CA. We used the hashtag #surfcitysurfdog. Not only were media and the blogosphere engaged with us using the hashtag, even regular people who were at the event or wanting to be used the hashtag on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
My friend Public Relations expert, Kristen Hinman of Groff-Hinman, Inc. says: “Before an event, plan what your hashtag will be ahead of time. Keep it short and unique to your event and use the same one across all media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). Let attendees know what it will be ahead of time to get the buzz going early.”
In a nutshell, here are my social media hashtag tips:
Create a HASHTAG specifically for the event.
Start building buzz online even before the event by using the hashtag in social media promotions.
Share the hashtag with people associated with the event including vendors, sponsors and guests so they can engage in online conversations about the event.
Finally, during the event, having a hashtag will help organize conversations surrounding the event – it can help hype it up, entice people to join in, or simply record information.
