Every other year, the convention is held in Reno, so this year, we packed up and flew to Reno! The hotel is much nicer than the one in San Diego, because it's a Casino, so it has it's own shops, restaurants, club, Starbucks, etc.. They are in the process of remodeling it, so half of it looks like a classy, dark, chic hotel, and the other half looks like El Torito. Nicole hooked us up with a great suite! No sharing of beds this time.
The theme of this year's CADA was "Field of Dreams". In a loong compromise, we ended up with a combination theme of baseball and dreams. Thinking outside the box, we made our booth into a baseball locker room, complete with a shower!
Here are the lockers, and benches with baseball equipment, there is even a jock strap dangling from the bench!
Here's the bathroom part, with Johnny in the shower and robes hanging from the rack.
And here's the "Coach's Office"
We ended up winning Runner Up in the Multi-booth award competition, which we were OK with. We didn't go over the top as we had in years before. And the booth that won, was our competition, who wore "A League of Their Own" outfits (old women's uniforms). We wanted to do that at one point. Anyway, our biggest competitor was actually pretty friendly to us this year, and I got to meet some of them.
Here's Nicole, who desgined the booth and coordinated CADA:
On the first night, we dressed up in robes to complete our "locker room" theme. Too many people had to ask, so either our booth wasn't obvious enough, or it was hidden in the corner... Then we cleaned up and went to the Area Suites and mingled with clients. On the second night, it was more mingling, and dancing in the Casino's club. I left early and watched some people play blackjack, even sitting in for them, while they went to the bathroom! I'm not much of a gambler, so that was the only betting I did...
All of us, in our robes (Jasmine, Nicole, me, Tiffany, and Johnny in the Shower)
On the last night, we host a reception and Josten's hosts a formal dinner dance. Wow has a tradition of wearing black cocktail dresses and color boas, each year being a different color. Last year was white, this year we wore purple!
Here is Brittany (with our DJ company, SOS Entertainment), and Nicole, Hani Yousseff (Burbank High School), and Jasmine.
Here we are at the dinner table. Nicole, Brittany, me, and Todd Arrowsmith from West Ranch High School, who snuck into the picture!
Next year, the theme is CADAfari, like Safari, jungle... Nicole is practicing her Monkey face:
