BarkWorld was so much fun!

We had a ton of fun at BarkWorld Expo! We got to meet lots of pet lovers, pet business folks, and pets!

Friday morning we got up early, and drove to Atlanta where the event was held. It was in this really big green, eco-friendly complex area near midtown called Atlantic Station, the former site of the Atlantic Steel Mill, which we got to read about in the park where we did our business near the hotel. Pretty interesting stuff! There were shops and lots of restaurants and hotels and apartments and homes all within 130+ acres.

We thought we would check into the hotel first but it was getting late so we went straight to the expo which was about two blocks from the hotel. We found Shari, Mom to Dusty and Hurley from Just Another Trend looking around for where to go, so she hopped in our car and we all went looking for the facility together. We finally found it and went underground to park, unloaded the car and off we went to the event with crates, boxes and bags in tow. Shari helped us with our gear, for which we were very grateful!

To get up to the event room we had to go up an elevator that had a glass back so you could see everything as we went up. It was kinda weird, but Mum was there, so we were OK.

We unloaded all our gear in the green room where we spent some time between our work and fun times. There were windows all around, so we got to see folks coming and going all day when we weren't doing our stuff.

Mum went and gave her presentation to a packed room of people. She talked about social media and how it can help folks market their pet businesses. (If you'd like to go and see Mum's presentation, she uploaded it to her YouTube channel.) Good thing I helped her with the presentation, 'cause she said the part she thought they loved the best were the photos of me, Gracie, Wolfie and Wiggy. Good call on my part, BOL!

After that we got to meet lots of the folks and anipals. We saw the Informed Ferrets, Preston of PrestonSpeaks, Lucy (a fellow herding breed) from DOGingham, and we got to finally meet Cosmo the Havanese in pawson, who we've been Twitter buds with for a long time. And we got to meet the scribes behind a couple of long time Twitter buds - FrugalDougal and RomeoTheCat, who do great work raising monies for the less fortunate four- leggers.

The next day, Saturday, we got to showcase all the cool products from both Cranimals and The Company of Animals. That was so much fun to share some products with all the pawrents and pups. They loved them!

All throughout the conference we were Twittering and Facebooking everything that was going on, as were all the attendees. They even had a Twitter stream going on a big flat screen in the lobby area where all the yummy break food was, so folks could keep up on what was going on in the rooms where the speakers were doing their thing.

We got to meet some of the great folks at the Atlanta Pet Rescue too and gave them some of the Cranimals Supplements and Haltis from The Company of Animals to help get their foster pups healthy and ready for their furever homes. They are a no-kill foster shelter that rescues and finds home for over 1,000 pups a year. Good work they do!

Later in the day on Saturday they had an outdoor expo, with lots of booths with free stuff! Everyone wanted to take pics of me, and luckily Mum had brought a few treats, BOL! I obliged of course :) I even did a quick little trick demo in the grass area. Mum thought I needed to work my brain a little.

Along with the incredible swag bag, we got some other great stuff like treats, shampoo bars, gear and I even got to try out some Bowser Beer! What a nice treat on a hot day!

Between breaks Mum and Gracie (since she's the quiet one of the family, BOL!) attended some of the sessions to hear some fun folks talk about pets, blogging, social media, tweeting, facebooking, social media etiquette and much more. Mum found it all very interesting, Gracie just wanted to play with the other pups in the room, silly girl!

We stayed at the Twelve Hotel. Super nice hotel with super nice people. We got to ride the elevator a lot up and down. Gracie loved getting in. Mum tried to teach me to push the button, BOL!

They gave us a cable line so we could hook up our netbooks with a firewall for safety. They brought pawsome food for Mum and were really nice to me and Gracie. Gracie was the biggest dog in the place since she just reached their limit of 25 lbs. We thought the room was fun! It had hallways to play some chase, a full kitchen, a nice comfy couch, and the best part was the king size bed! We loved lounging on it (with a sheet we brought on top of course :).

Sunday morning we had to head back. We loaded up the car and drove the couple of hours home. And later in the afternoon we took a nice nap all together with the kitties, and had a nice rest.

It was a great trip...tiring, but super great! We can't wait to do it again next year and really want to thank the great folks at BarkWorld Expo for having us and asking Mum to speak at the event. They were pawsome hosts!