Friday, September 9, 2016

Cigna Blogger Meet-Up Recap

A couple months back I was contacted by the super sweet folks at Cigna to see if I would be interested in attending a Blogger & Social Media Meet-Up over the runDisney Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. I had attended a similar event last year (check out the recap HERE if you're interested) and had a BLAST so didn't hesitate to RSVP right away.


Last year's event was held at Napa Rose Restaurant in the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. This year, however, we were in one of the banquet halls. Even though the crowd appeared to be smaller than previous meet-ups (and not necessarily all runners), I knew the good people at Cigna would still put on a great event.

I'm beyond blessed to have met some amazing people through my running and blogging adventures, and was pumped to see a few of them in the same room! Put all of us Chatty-Cathy's together and the fun just doesn't stop!

There was a nice spread for lunch (build your own sandwiches, salads, etc) that we were able to munch on once we were reminded that we were there for more than just socializing.



When arriving at the event, we were each given a sticker with a different Disney character on it. Each table had a corresponding character, which is how everyone was broken up into teams. I was given a Goofy sticker and made my way over to eat lunch with the best team in the room ;)


After having a few minutes to introduce ourselves to our table-mates and take a few bites of food, two of the lovely ladies from Cigna got up on stage to let us know the game plan for the afternoon. This event was not going to be a two-hour lecture on eating right and being healthy, we were going to get up and MOVE! (And I LOVED IT!)

There were a ton of games on the docket. Some took mental strength (for example Bananagrams using health-related words or naming food from super up-close photos), some took physical strength (okay, maybe it wasn't "strength" per say, but we had to act out activities that we thought burned the most calories or do specific dance moves while having the rest of the group guess what we were doing), some took coordination (like having to keep balloons from hitting the floor by using the specific body part called out or playing flip-cup onto water bottles to remind us the importance of hydration) and some were just there to get us moving and look like a fool (for example "Junk in the Trunk" where you had to shake ping-pong balls out of a tissue box that was attached to your backside or sing songs with health-related words in them only using "La's").

Photo Credit: Cigna's Twitter Feed


Singing "Under Pressure" by Queen only using la's
Photo Credit: @allenwhittaker's Twitter Feed

Practicing our flip-cup skills

AJ was the representative from Team Goofy... and, of course, KILLED IT!

Photo Credit: Cigna

WARNING: You cannot unsee this, so please be sure you want to watch the shenanigans before pressing play.


Let's just say we all burned quite a few calories (both because of the activities AND because of the belly laughs that were had). And when it was time to count up the coins, it was no surprise that Team Goofy came out on top!


Not only did we get the respect from our fellow bloggers and social media friends, but Team Goofy was also gifted a one-day park pass (which will be PERFECT because the hubby and I are letting our annual passes expire this fall)! 


And just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, guess who showed up... YUP, Mickey and Minnie made an appearance and we were event able to take some photos with them! AWESOMESAUCE!

Photo Credit: Cigna

Never pass up an opportunity to selfie with the power couple!

THE WINNING TEAM!
Photo Credit: @justin_stone24's Instagram Feed

Even though the event was smaller than it had been in the past (not sure if that's because blogging isn't really a 'thing' anymore or because some of the crew is cutting back on their runDisney events due to the crazy high registration fees), it was still an awesome way to spend the afternoon! Cigna truly treated us like champions and we're super grateful for it!

Photo Credit: Cigna

Photo Credit: @justin_stone24's Instagram Feed

PS As many of you may know, I am all about making a fool of myself in person, but put me in front of a video camera and I shut down (but I promise I'm trying to work on that). With that said, I decided to opt out of the video interview at the event, but many of my friends did not - so give it a watch!


Have you ever been to a social media meet-up?

2 comments:

Jenna said...

They had some nice gifts for y'all.

Emily said...

Oh my goodness! That Junk in the Trunk video was hysterical!

This meetup looked like a blast! I used to go to blogger meetups in the Boston area when I had a personal style blog (years ago!), and always loved getting together with like-minded people. So fun to be able to meet bloggers in person and put a face to the name!