Cloth Diaper Choices

Hanging in Vegas with Fellow Cloth Advocates

By admin ⋅ September 17, 2009 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

If you didn’t catch my last post, it has been just over 24 hours since I returned from an extended weekend at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. Jeff and I joined Matt and Bryana Guckin of Soft Cloth Bunz and Diaper Junction for the 2nd Annual Cloth Diaper Convention and Annual Meeting of the Real Diaper Industry Association.

As was stated on their website, the purpose of the RDIA meetings was “…for advancing, networking and promoting the cloth diaper industry.” I believe, for the most part, they achieved their agenda. As is the case with any large organization, membership needs and desires are varied so we did not attend all the break-out sessions made available to us. Of the sessions I attended, the speakers demonstrated preparation, knowledge, and managed to gain audience participation (which is a task in and of itself).

A FEW SHOUT-OUTS…

The first memorable session I attended was Tapping into Your Local Community, led by Board Member, Shayla Boyd-Gill of Alyah’s Alternatives. Special thanks to Allen’s Naturally for providing the refreshments.

Shayla makes you feel like the only person in the room. My husband Jeff, sitting to my right, whispered “She’s one of those warm people you’re instantly comfortable around.” Exactly. Committed to face-to-face community interaction, education and awareness she was the PERFECT person to lead this particular session. She reminded everyone of the market they are exposed to at the grocery store, post office, in their neighborhoods, in the local medical community, local news anchors, etc…and encouraged us not to depend so heavily on our online market that we forget about our niche markets “physically” around us. Her goal to give out 5 business cards/day was a quick and easy take-home idea.

The next session I attended was SEO / Social Media led by Lori Taylor of Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers. Again I would like to give thanks for the refreshments sposored by Mountain Green and Kicky Pants. When you’ve been paying out the nose for everything in Vegas it is soooo nice to have a delicious, FREE snack!

Lori provided very specific directions for use of social media, including the strong suggestion NOT TO USE IT if it stresses you or proves ineffective/inefficient/unnecessary for your success or psyche (both being related, of course). She passed out a helpful brochure with a bulleted checklist for the use of two of the most popular Social Media platforms, Twitter and Facebook. Lori’s hand-out also gave an On-site SEO Checklist to get everyone started, as well as a fill-in-the-blank approach for establishing a plan of action on their individual sites. Lots to take away from this presentation.

Lori’s SEO and Social Media Presentation is part of the services she provides through 3Stream.

THE FINAL ROUND…a.k.a. “The Main Meeting”

The Main Meeting of the RDIA was on our last evening in Vegas. Drinks and a light salad dinner were sponsored by Country Save.

If you happened to follow the live blog and tweets from that evening you already know it covered their 2009 achievements, and we brainstormed as a group for the 2010 goals. A Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Jack Shiffert, founder of NADS, for 59 years of work furthering cloth diapers. Judy Agaard of Tiny Tots Diaper Service & Boutique received the award, and gave a tremendous speech, on Mr. Shiffert’s behalf.

Other awards were given for their outstanding achievement with RDIA, including:

• Leah Carter of Better for Babies for her intensive work – reading, researching, clarifying and designing a tracking system that meets the requirements Section 103 of the CPSIA. Leah provided RDIA Members a series of webinars on this tracking label system. In a word? WOW! Seriously diggin’ deep.
• Jakki Liberman of Bumkins received recognition for her work chairing the Marketing/PR Committee – most specifically the continued work of assembling/shipping RDIA Cloth Diaper Kits to doulas and childbirth professionals interested in promoting cloth diapers.
• Jenn Labit of Cotton Babies for her service to RDIA as Co-Founder and Chair. Humble, as always, Jenn took the podium for an amazing, informative, outgoing address.

THERE’s MORE…

There is more to be said, but in this post I just wanted to feature a few of the RDIA meeting details. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was in myself for not taking my camera…

SO.NOT.SMART.

Since I can’t show you all the fabulous cloth diapering booths, you’ll have to settle for the new and exciting products we will talk about here and add to our online cloth diaper store.

But for now? I’m over and out!

Tags: abc kids expo, Alyahs Alternatives, better for babies, bryana guckin, bumGenius!, childbirth professionals, cloth advocates, cloth diaper convention, cloth diapers, cloth diapers in vegas, cottonbabies, COUNTRY SAVE, firefly diapers, fuzbaby, heather l. sanders, jack shiffert, jakki liberman, jenn labit, judy agard, las vegas, leah carter, lifetime achievement award, lori taylor, RDA, RDIA, RDIA, real diaper association, shayla boyd-gill, The National Association of Diaper Services, Tiny Tots

Cloth Diaper Blog is published by www.diaperjunction.com.