The Roarbots blog is relatively new. It’s really less than four months old, so it came as a bit of a surprise when I was invited to attend the DisneySMMoms mini-conference for mommy bloggers last week. It was even more of a surprise since I’m a dad!

Disney Social Media Moms is run by the Disney Parks PR and Marketing teams as a sort of “brand awareness” outreach for the Disney resorts, as if they needed any help. They have a big, multiday conference in the spring, and during the summer they have a series of small, half-day conferences spread out around the country. They call these their “On-the-Road” events. This year, the events were held in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. I spent the day in lovely suburban Plymouth Meeting, PA, for the Philly event.

The event was roughly 50% PR for Walt Disney World and 50% motivational for “Disney moms” who are trying to run their own businesses, manage a blog, or otherwise be entrepreneurial. As one of the two card-carrying Y-chromosomes in attendance, I found the day to be enjoyable and rewarding, but I quickly became an agitator for DisneySMDads.

I get that mommy bloggers are a huge online presence and can wield considerable influence. But GeekDads deserve some love, too! As one of the only men in the room, I was certainly made to feel welcome, but I think I’ll continue to be a thorn in Disney’s side about this. Just because it’s fun.

The morning began with a lot of networking among the attendees, pin-trading time as an ice-breaker (We were each given a pin and encouraged to trade; I ultimately got Statler and Waldorf quipping about being old — awesome), and a presentation about all the new happenings at Walt Disney World by the incomparable Gary Buchanan, Social Media Managing Editor and Public Relations Manager for WDW Resort (who, by the way, had a meet-and-greet queue as long as Mickey’s).

Just a couple of Star Wars nerds

The WDW news we got included the latest on the Disney Side campaign, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which looks awesome) and New Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom, the Be the 8th Miner challenge/contest, and the 24-hour party held at WDW and Disneyland last May, among other things. Alas, there were no exclusives or surprise reveals. *sniff*

The second portion of the day was really the “heart” of the morning. The attendees were treated to a variety of speakers who focused not on Disney but on more…shall we say, practical…matters for the women in the room.

Three Huggies MomInspired grant winners spoke about their experiences as moms and entrepreneurs. They discussed a bit about the product creation and development processes they went through. And they talked about the need to balance work and life in whatever you do, failure as a necessary prerequisite to success, and fearing regret more than failure. I might not have a physical product to pitch or sell–and I might not be a mom–but I still found this discussion fascinating and vital.

DisneySide gifts from HP

Victoria Lim, multimedia guru, shared a ton of great tips about being a better blogger. She talked about specific apps, software, and hardware she uses (i.e., and you should too) and how we could use them to positive effect for our blogs. For me, this was the most practical and informative part of the day. Great stuff here.

The day ended with a motivational speech by Debi Silber (“The Mojo Coach“), who focused on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, and attitude. Mind you, she said all this to an audience already sugared up to 11 on Mickey sweets. Her message seemed to resonate with a lot of the moms in attendance. To me, though, this was the weakest part of the morning. Maybe it’s the Y-chromosome (maybe not), but it didn’t really feel like she was talking to me. Oh well.

The best part of the day, hands down, wasn’t the swag bag or the speakers, it was the opportunity to mingle with, meet, and get to know (even if only a little) plenty of other like-minded bloggers. I’m not a “pixie-duster” (which is apparently a very real term) by any stretch of the imagination, but I had a great time, came away with a lot of great ideas, and made some great contacts. I’m definitely looking forward to other, similar events.

Now, Disney, let’s talk about DisneySMDads….