Field Trip: Taking Long Beach to a Whole New Level

This is part of a series of posts about the #WeAllGrow Summit by Latina Bloggers Connect which I attended in March 2016. See the rest of the posts 

Let me preface this by saying I almost skipped out on day 1, which in retrospect I can now say would have been a major mistake!

You see day 1 is alllllll about the field trips and new friends!

My field trip experience was a tour of Long Beach hosted by The Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau. Being an LA native, I thought well, it’s just Long Beach right? WRONG!

We started off with a skyline cruise (which in my opinion is the best way to start the morning), and then made our way to the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Queen Mary! And let me tell you, even being from California, my expectations for this field trip were surpassed 10-fold!

I loved all of the amazing art at MOLLA including Frida (catch my selfie)! But the highlight of the day was definitely the VIP behind-the-scenes tour of the Aquarium of the Pacific that started with a gorgeous tapas-style lunch!

During lunch, I had the chance to connect with multiple officials from the Visitor Bureau to discuss one of my favorite topics – marketing & branding! They wanted to know what I, as a content creator, might do to market Long Beach.

Being able to have this mastermind type experience in the middle of a conference was absolutely invaluable, and potential door opener for me!

It’s important to realize, when it comes to networking at an event like this, it can be tempting to just get swept up in all the fun and freebies (of which there are plenty), but it’s also important to build relationships and add value to the conversation. 

Anyways, after the amazing Long Beach tour, we headed back to the beautiful Hotel Maya for Happy Hour fun hosted by Hampton by Hilton and I had a blast!

And then I finished off the night with dinner at Fuego with some of the incredibly dope mujeres I had the pleasure of meeting!

Three lessons I learned from day 1?

• Don’t be shy about introducing yourself to new people! You never know who you’re going to meet and you might just make some amazing new friends!
• Always look to add value to the conversation! It is a professional conference after all and you might just get a business opportunity out of a seemingly simple conversation.
• Don’t downplay the experience. Like I said, I was tempted to skip out on Day 1, but if I had, I would have missed out and getting to ‘rediscover’ Long Beach and I might not have made so many awesome new amigas!