I was honored to be a recipient of the Oren Miller Dad 2.0 Scholarship and so was able to go to the Dad 2.0 Summit for the first time this year.
I was not quite sure what all to expect. I was a bit nervous that everyone would be more professional than me, more experienced, better writers, and so on. Essentially, I was expecting them to deserve to be there and me to not.
I did my due diligence, scanned the website of the summit to see what the various topics were. They seemed spot on. Things I'd be interested in hearing. I participated with the people I would expect to meet via the Dad Bloggers Facebook group. They seemed like good guys. Regular guys.
I was still a bit nervous.
Fast forward to day 1 of the conference. Everybody I met was a dad first. Just like me. Everyone was super nice and welcoming. Everyone was interested in the same topics as me...because we all have kids and obviously like talking about them, hence the blogging.
While I often feel I am still at "hobby" level with my own site, I had the benefit of also being a part of the FamiliesofMultiples.com team with Spike Zelenka. I felt this legitimized me a bit.
However, it wouldn't have mattered. There were guys there every bit as "hobby" level as me. There were guys that didn't blog at all and were just there to talk with other fathers.
Everyone fit in.
Bonus, I'd been working with Spike for a year and interacting with all these guys on Dad Bloggers for even longer, but I'd never met a single one in person.
This conference brought all these guys I'd talked to and worked with into the real world. IRL! It was such a pleasure to put real faces to names.
It truly is a community.
The conference is a bit like a bunch of dad superheroes getting together because everyone you meet, you have to ask for 2 names! What's your real name? Now, what's your OTHER name? "Hi, I'm Mickey" vs "Hi, I'm GriswoldDad."
It's fun that way. You get to know people, and you can connect with them online if you hadn't previously.
The conference goes so far beyond personal connections though.
There's networking. Sponsors are there. More on that later, but of course you get to network with them in hopes of writing with/for them. It's not all about writing for the sponsors though. For example, FamiliesofMultiples found new writers while there.
Personally, I spoke with so many other dads from across the country and have connected with them online now. I was invited to join new groups. National At-Home Dad Network allowed me in, even though I go to an 8-5 job. They took pity on me.
I've self-published a book and was able to interact with other dads that have done similar self-publishing. Thanks, J.O.!
All in all, I was able to get advice for things I'm doing and things I want to do!
Now, there's advice, and then there's education.
The conference provides that as well. With keynote and featured speakers, round table discussions, and breakout sessions, anyone at any level can learn something. Anyone can then use that knowledge to up their game!
Did I say keynote and featured speakers?
Yep, and what speakers they were! Dr. Wizdom Powell interviewed Shaun T on his experiences with failed surrogacies that eventually led to his ultimate success, producing two beautiful twins. This hit home with me since I have twins that were produced via in vitro fertilization.
I was lucky enough to get to speak with Shaun T after. We briefly exchanged stories as I told him the whys and hows of my own process of getting to our BOGO babies... buy one, get one. The dude hugged me. Sure celebrities take pictures with people as photo ops. But, this guy, who has physically hurt me so many times as I attempted his Insanity program, hugged me. We shared. We had similarities.
That's what happens when real dads meet real dads!
The closing day included Dax Shepard interviewing Rhys Darby for his Armchair Expert Podcast. Of course, the two knew their audience and so mostly talked about being parents, but the stories rang true with such a veracity because you could tell these two loved being fathers.
Once again, Dax's stories spoke to me. His dad wasn't the best and left him at an early age. Mine was an alcoholic. The moment that stands out to me is Dax said, for 32 years, he was mad at his dad. However, when he had his own kid, he merely felt sad for his dad for all that he'd missed out on by not being a parent.
This. This is what I felt for my dad. I haven't quite let go of the anger yet, but I do feel sorry for all he missed. All I'm ensuring I'm there to do with my own kids.
Back to those sponsors.
They're at the conference to network with social media influencers, sure. Also, though? They care. They care about kids. They care about parents. They care about making things better.
St. Jude's Children's Hospital was there. Fodada is a shirt company that is literally named from what a dad's kid said when giving him a gift, "fo dadda". Get it?
LEGOLAND! Who doesn't love that Legos turned into a theme park?!
Amazon, Best Buy, Google, Dolby...all the big names were there. All had fun booths and friendly faces. Best Buy even brought along a "man cave" with them for us all to hang out in.
Bark software hit it out of the park with an 80's themed booth, but if you're not familiar with them, you should be. They "help parents in a tech world" with an aim to keep kids safe online or elsewhere. Parents can follow their kids' social media posts and track the kids in the real world by their phone.
Hello Bello, the new company from Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell came to reveal themselves as a company that sells natural ingredient baby supplies...before they even went public nationally!
The main sponsor came with an agenda. Dove Men + Care has sponsored Dad 2.0 Summits since the beginning, being the main sponsor for summits 2-current. Their mission this year was to push for paternity time for all dads because, as they say, why should dads have to choose between their children and a paycheck?
So, at the end of the Summit?
What an experience. What fun!
The Summit creators have created a place to have fun. A place to learn. They've created a community of like-minded people. They've created a family.
No one is out of place.
I'm a dad. But, I'm now a fanboy of all these other dads!