Getting lost and found at Dad 2.0

By the time you are reading this, hundreds of dads have reconvened at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington D.C. for the Annual Dad 2.0 summit. Every year this is a great way for Dad Bloggers from all over the country to get together and continue working to advance fatherhood. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say, but honesetly, after a weekend with these amazing dads, you feel ready to take on the world.

The tail end of last year was a little hectic for my family that the monies we had put aside to attend the conference went to those emergencies. This year I was planning to bring my wife with me, she came with me to the San Diego event, but we will have to wait for next year. So while I will not be attending, I realized I have never posted about my experience last year. So let me tell you about the amazing and unexpected experience I had in San Antonio.


Spotlight Reader

One of the hightlights of every Dad 2.0 is the Spotlight Readers. The Spotlight Readers are dads that have been selected to read their post to the attendees. These post range from hilarious to heartbreaking and I was selected to read my post last year. It was difficult to try to keep my composure when I read it aloud, but I am glad that I was given the opportunity to read it.

Hanging with Friends

One of the great things about going to Dad 2.0 is getting to hang out with other Dad Bloggers who have become your friends. It's always great to see these guys again and just hang out. Over the year we all hang out virtually on Facebook and this event just helps strengthen some of our friendships. 

Sporty Dad in San Antonio 

Running on Saturday has become a tradition for me when I go to Dad 2.0 and I took advantage of it that year. I woke up early with my friend Joseph from Chasing Everyday Adventures and we ran about a short 3 mile to the Alamo and then back to the hotel.

Armchair Expert Live

One of the cool things about the San Antonio Dad 2.0 was seeing an episode of Armchair Expert taped lived in front of us. If you have never listened to Armchair Expert I highly recommend you listen to a few episodes. Dax Shepard and Monica Padman do a great job of talking to their guests and taking the listener on a sonic journey. For this episode, the guest was Rhys Darby and we were all laughing hysterically throughout the show.

Exploring the City 

Due to the wind advisories in certain areas of the country that weekend, a lot of our flights home were canceled. We decided to take advantage of the time and ventured out to find someplace to eat. Following our friend Dave from Amateur Idiot/Professional Dad mapquest directions we walked around San Antonio looking for a place, he found online. Walking around with some amazing people we ended up at a quaint Mexican restaurant called Titos and we all had a great lunch while trying to see how we were all going to get back home. Shout out to Dave, Christopher, who started the Dads with Daughters Facebook group that you may have seen the Facebook commercial a few times on television, Brandon, Roo, Ariel, David and Patrick for making sure we all didn't get lost on this adventure. 

Feeling Like I Belonged

I have always had a case of "Imposter Syndrome" whenever I attended a Dad 2.0 summit. I would listen and watch to what these other dads were doing and I always felt like I did not belong there. While I was close with many of the dads at this event, I just did not feel like I was one of them. I think this fear has to do with the stuff we do on Fandads compared to what these other dads do on their site.

One night a good-sized group of us ended up at the haunted hotel the Menger and as we drank and caught up on the day's events. I saw Doug French in our group and I went up to him and thanked him again for selecting me as one of the spotlight readers. I told him that being selected made me feel like I really belonged to the group. I feel like I was finally accepted. I remember he looked at me and said something to the effect that I was always part of the group. I just had to believe that I belonged.

Dad 2.0 is always a great experience and although I am not there this year, I will be there in spirit and hope that I can make the next one.