The convention ends at noon on the last day, but since some people have to leave early to catch a flight home, they always do the draws first.  For a few of them, they wanted it to be really fair so they blindfolded and gloved Bob.

Craig won a $100 MasterCard gift card.  What an amazing convention.  I don’t think we have won as much in the past five conventions combined.  I guess this was our winning year.

Then it was my turn to speak.  I gave a brief overview of Helene Hadsell’s WINuvers for WISHcraft one day workshop.  (She told me during my visit in 2008 that I was welcome to resurrect her course as she had no intention of teaching it again.  I hope to turn it into a seminar or webinar in the near future.)  The main focus is her SPEC method: Select it, Project it, Expect it and Collect it.  Helene donated three copies of her book to be given away as prizes.

(If you want to learn more about SPEC from Helene herself, you can either purchase a copy of her book The Name It And Claim It Game on her website; Delta Sciences and/or you can listen to one or both of my online radio interviews with her: Interview 1, Interview 2.)

I then wore two other speaking hats as the next two presentations I did were for those not able to be present.  My first hat was for Carol McLaughlin, owner of This N That Sweepstakes Newsletter and ANN-tics by Carol.  She is also the host of the next (and last!!) Northeast Mini Sweepstakes Convention.  It will be held in Hershey PA from October 15–17, 2010.  It is already 75% sold out, so if you wish to attend, please get your registrations in ASAP as the balance of the tickets will not last very long.

My next hat was for SweepstakesHub (@SweepstakesHub).  They are a new sweepstakes website and wanted to introduce their services to the sweeping community at large.  (You can listen to my online interview with co-founder Rodrigo Benadon here.)  The Green Sweeps section is my favourite part of their site as it features sweepstakes that have an environmentally friendly, natural or organic slant.  (My alter-ego the Lucky Yogini loves the fact winning can be combined with making the world a better place.)  SweepstakesHub also donated prizes.  It was a lot of fun handing out a few cash filled envelopes.

I wasn’t finished yet.  A partner of SweepstakesHub, My Tek Life (@myteklife) donated ten 1-year subscriptions to their magazine.

After I got off the stage, the convention was almost officially over.  There was only one last thing to be done; the passing of the draw drum to the next volunteer convention committee leaders; John and Debra Dambra.

The 22^nd Annual National Sweepstakes Convention will be held from June 16–19, 2011 in Fort Wayne IN.  I’ll post further details as soon as I have them.  (As a side note, the 2012 convention will be held in Atlanta GA and will be hosted by the Birons –of Puzzle Postcards & More — who also hosted the 2009 sweepstakes convention that was held in Manchester, NH.  I have no further details at this time.)

Now a trip to Minneapolis MN wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the Mall of America (@mallofamerica).

After we packed up the vendor table we had to have lunch anyway, so off to the mall!  I had heard of Famous Dave’s BBQ, (Carolyn Factoid #57: I love pork.) so I wasn’t passing up an opportunity for great ribs or melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork.  It had been almost 7 hours since we last ate.  We ordered the Feast for Two. WOW!  There was so much food it’s served on a garbage can lid!!

After a quick wander around the mall.  (It’s so big they can fit an entire amusement park in the middle.)  We hit the road for the 15 hour drive home.

I can hardly wait until the next convention.  There is nothing like being around fellow contestors.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

The day began the way all sweepers like, with drawings!  Craig won a 6-month subscription to SweepsU.

Our first speaker was Steve d’Adolf.  His speech was entitled Luck + Skill = Winner.  He was emphasizing the importance of using all your advantages (skill) as a sweeper to increase your odds of winning (luck).  A few of his great tips were:

1. Subscribe to e-flyers as you don’t have to wait to get them in the newspaper or go to the store to find out about a specific retail sweepstakes.
2. Use your DVR/PVR to record shows that are airing code words so you don’t miss them.
3. Use MS Outlook to manage multiple email accounts including Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail so they all come to one location.

Our next speaker was Chrysa Duran, owner of Thrifty Jinxy (@ThriftyJinxy).  She spoke about blog giveaways, giving tips to those just branching out from standard online entries.  Chrysa is a fan of blog contests as she wins 20–30 prizes per month due to the odds vs a national or even regional sweepstakes.

The last speaker of the morning was Patti Osterheld (@posterheld), owner of SweepSheet (@sweepsheet).  Patti spoke on social networking sweepstakes.  Unfortunately, entering on Facebook and Twitter is such a huge topic it was impossible for her to cover them in just 20 minutes.

(NOTE: I plan to hold online webinars this fall covering blog, Facebook and Twitter contests.  Each one will be 1–2 hours long covering each topic in-depth to give you a better understanding of how to use each of these entry methods to your advantage. Stay tuned as details will be posted on this blog and in my newsletter; The Winning EDGE.)

After a break, we all returned mid-afternoon for the banquet.  Judy McCurdy, owner of Sweeping America spoke after the late luncheon.  She was HILARIOUS!  She has a very Steven Wright delivery method.  Judy is soft spoken, but her vocal variety and facial expressions were worthy of an International Award Winning Toastmaster.  Really?! (I can’t do it justice.  You’ll just have to see the convention video.)  She told stories almost turning the speech into a roast of some long time sweepers.  Judy then talked about errors found in the official rules.  Since it’s my #1 tip for entrants, you would think the promotional lawyers, contest management companies, judging agencies and/or the sponsors would review them themselves before a promotion is launched.  She really should give that segment of her talk at the next promotional law conference.

Then more prizes!!  What a great night our table had.

I won a coffee back pack.

Craig won the centerpiece.

During the raffle session, Janet and Patricia each won $500 in gift cards, Barbara won $500 in scratch lottery tickets and Jenn won a $50 Best Buy gift card plus both of us won $500 cash!!

We agreed to all sit together again next year.

Then there were the vendor raffle drawings.  Linda of New Berlin, WI won an autographed copy of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter in my free raffle and Dexter of Harpers Ferry, WV won my Lucky Basket.

We had originally planned to go to the Mall of America (@mallofamerica) Saturday evening, but we were so tired we just hung around the hotel with our friends.

The convention officially began at noon yesterday when the Vendor Room opened.

It is great having a vendor table as all my sweeping buddies eventually make it around the room to me. Thankfully Craig (my husband) was there to help as I spent half the time hugging and chatting with all my friends.  (If you are wondering what exactly is on my table, I sell all the fun and lucky items from my online store, except this year I forgot to bring the baseball hats?!)

A very touching tribute to Carolyn Sayward was also set up in the Vendor Room.  (You may remember I blogged about Carolyn’s passing earilier this year.)

The Meet & Greet Reception went from 7:00 to 9:00pm.  It was a chance for me to see those that checked in later or didn’t come into the Vendor Room in the afternoon.  Looking forward to Day 2 as that’s when the “real” winning begins!