Julie Ann Shahin's Inspiration For Generation C

Tips for attending Memory Trends, especially for first-timers (new photos below)

1. Exercise before you go to build up your stamina, especially prepare your legs with squats! Both my hotel roommate, Leslie Flynn and I noticed that our upper thighs were sore after the first day from squatting down to our rolling totes all day to put catalogs and what-not into them. (Provocraft/Cricut gave away free rolling backpacks to the first 500 people to their booth.)

2. Don't forget that you have your camera with you when you meet all the wonderful women that you only knew from online. So many people that I did not get my picture taken with that I am now kicking myself over.

3. Your feet will get tired and a bit sore even if you wear crocs. However, my feet didn't really bother me much at the end of the day and I did not have any blisters thanks to my crocs. The Mary Jane crocs are really cute too....you might have to allow yourself time to order them if you can't find them locally.

4. If you are staying at a hotel on the strip, you can save money by taking the bus (the Deuce). It only costs $5 for a 24-hour pass, whereas the monorail is about $5.50 each way. I took a taxi one evening from the Sands Expo to the Tropicana and that cost $7.40 plus tip.

5. Make appointments with people that you really want to meet before you go. Trying to call people and meet up on the floor was frustrating for me. The floor is really loud and most of us could not hear our cell phones ringing. Or my call got dropped. I did not set up specific meeting times because I didn't think I was important enough and I was a fool. :) *smiles*

6. I brought an extra suitcase for all the catalogs and miscellania I wanted to bring home. Instead of bringing an empty suitcase, I put food (such as bagels and granola bars) and water in the suitcase and checked the bag when I got to the airport. Water and sodas will cost you between $2-3 each in Vegas whereas I bought a 12-pack of bottled water at Walmart for less than $3 before I left.

7. People will recognize your name from your active posts on message boards. I was amazed at how many people I met and who knew my name. The scrapbooking community really is a great community despite all the recent negativity people have talked about.

8. If flying, and having connections - sometimes longer layovers work in your favor. Coming and going, we experienced delays and I would have missed my connections if I had shorter layovers.

9. Consider having your husband meet you after the last day of the show for some sight-seeing. This did not occur to me but it would have been really fun to explore Las Vegas more with my husband. I was too exhausted each day after the show to really do much sight-seeing. Fortunately I had about 5 hours to explore before I had to catch my return flight.

Photos from K & Co.