It was a fun afternoon talking tech, touring the fabulous InterContinental Chicago, and eating some delicious meals with fellow bloggers. Now let's go over some of the fun things we learned that afternoon.
One of the cool things about this event was that there were a few fellow dadbloggers in attendance, Diary Dad and Just a Dad247. It was great to see these guys there, play catch up with them, and geek out at some of the tech that was presented to us.
Let's talk car tech for a minute and the one item that I must have for my car.
Two years ago my family bought a new car because we were running out of room. We just had our second child and the backseat was a bit crowded with the car seats, so we decided it was time to buy a nice sized family SUV.
The SUV we bought was great because not only did it have the LATCH system installed in it, but it also had a rear vision camera, a hands free radio and a navigation system. Now why that might not seem like much, it was a huge upgrade from our former vehicle. It made traveling around the city a bit more manageable and my two kids were not squished in the backseat like before.
The amenities that my new car had will soon become standard on all vehicles, but if you have an older vehicle you can still have these items installed in your car. At the #TNTChicago event, we were shown all the latest high tech equipment that can be seamlessly installed in older cars.
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| Photo courtesy of Consumer Electronics Association |
All the newest features can be added to your car from Safety & Driver Distraction Elimination, Smartphone Integration &Entertainment, Preventative Maintenance and Driver Visual Event Capture. So what does that all mean?
It means that you can call your kids hands free from the car to tell them to come out and help you bring in the groceries, while looking in your rear view mirror to see how close you are to the car behind you and at the same time can text (hands free again) your wife to let her know that the OBD-II port adapter just ran a diagnostic test on the car and everything is fine. Sounds like something from the future, right?
If you would like more information on updating your older vehicle or just see the new tech that is out there for your car, visit the Connect My Car section on the Consumer Electronics Association website.
Now to the one item that I fell in love with and think should be a staple in every car: The JumPack by Cobra Electronics.
The JumPack will eliminate looking for jumper cables when your battery dies or the hassle of flagging someone down to help you to start your car. This device charges itself in your car lighter and can be used up to three times before it needs to be recharged. When you are not using it it can be used to charge your electronic devices through its multiple ports. I am putting this down on my Christmas list this year.
The second part of the day was held inside one of the ball rooms where we were treated to lunch and a few special presentations. The first presentation was from the Traveling Mom herself Kim Orlando. Kim talked to us about the website TravelingMom.com and some of their favorite items to use when traveling.
She talked to me and the other dadbloggers for a minute about the TravelingDad.com website and how it's moving toward more video reviews of places to go to. We were all very intrigued about this idea and this site and hopefully it will be something we can all contribute to one day.
Next up was Josh Kirschner from Techlicious and he talked about SEO. The SEO portion of the event was great because there were a lot of good tips on how to increase the online presence of our blogs. If you are a blogger there are a lot of strong tools that can help you build your online presence and show you how to get more page views. Tools like Adwords or Panguin from Barracuda can give you a snapshot of what words you can use to help your posts get more views and also how your posts are viewed by others.
I will be doing more research with SEO and hopefully it will help grow the Fandad brand and put us out there for more eyes to see.
Lastly, I want to say a few things about the InterContinental Chicago. This place had a fantastic swimming pool, that we were told has been recognized as one of the top indoor pools in the county. The rooms alone are amazing and I would like to spend a weekend there with my wife and just enjoy the city.
The InterContinental Chicago also provides a family fun packages which includes a WiiU console in the room, tickets to the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel and other fun animates for the entire family. Maybe after my wife and I have a weekend to ourselves, we can return again with the kids and enjoy a weekend downtown.
As the day ended we were treated to some Hasbro goodies from our friends at Litzky PR. I was so excited to see the Kylo Ren mask from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the Jurassic World Raptor Claws, but someone was even more excited about these when I got home...my little girl.
Thank you TravelingMoms, Techlicious and InterContinental Chicago for hosting this great event and we can not wait for the next one.
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