#TeamStylesmith 2014: From Left to Right: Kathleen, Gabby, Emily, Me, Theresa, Kirstie & Harlee.

Wow guys…. where is 2014 going? The beginning of the year for us is always this crazy flurry of activity as the craziness of the holidays passes and the team falls deep into a hole of preparedness as we enter “our busy period”. And our busy period is no joke. We go from MAGIC straight to Los Angeles Fashion Council Collections here in Los Angeles, and this season we have Market Week and a trip to Tokyo running concurrently then when return we have a Coachella event and what now looks like a jaunt to Texas.

And of course all this happens whilst we maintain the general day to day running of the business and manage all our clients needs. Yup. We’re totally nuts.

MAGIC is a twice yearly highlight for me and the Stylesmith team. We manage the social media and blogger program for all of the LVCC shows. This means WWDMAGIC, FN PLATFORM, SOURCING at MAGIC and WSA at MAGIC. We spread the team across the shows and gather live content so that we’re constantly reporting what’s happening on the show floor. Concurrently we’re managing bloggers and their on the floor programming, including The Social House, where I host 2-3 panels a day. It’s exhausting but it’s rewarding, and I probably walk a minimum of 10 miles a day (yay exercise!)

This season’s team was the smallest we’ve had yet, but for half of them it was their second or even third trip – so we’re really functioning as a unit, for other’s it was their first time. I won’t forget Kathleen’s face as we pulled up to the Convention Center for the first time “So it’s not just us that do social media right? There is another team..or two?”. Nope Kathleen, just us!

For dear Harlee, not only was it her first MAGIC (with our team at least, she joins us from Need Supply) but her first time working with us all together. We hired her on the Thursday ahead of Collections and when we lost an intern at the last minute, asked her to join us. Talk about training under fire.

We drove up convoy-style on the Sunday before the show, and made our bi-annual pilgrimage to Peggy Sues (the tuna melt is awesome) where we posed for our bi-annual staff pic (and this one above of Gabby and Kathleen), refueled and headed into Vegas. Once there we held orientation, got the room set up and then headed out for dinner. We were told (via Facebook poll) that Rio had the best buffet in town. Whilst the selection and food were pretty good, the service was pretty appalling (I mean it’s a buffet, you don’t go in with high expectations, but it was awful)

Anyway it was off to bed early-ish (after winning a cool $70 on Wheel Of Fortune and getting the remainder of our prep work done)

The first day of show is SOURCING – a fantastic resource for designers and brands – big and small, and home to suppliers and manufacturers from all over the world. Whilst some of the team are running social media for SOURCING the rest of us are busy behind the scenes. Airport runs, getting bloggers checked in to their hotels and preparing their mammoth gift bags. With almost 100 participating brands this season this was way more of a task than it’s ever been.

Just a sampling of the goodies we made our way through!

When the bloggers arrived that evening for orientation…. there were many squeals! Above: Mai from Mai Sassy Girl surveys her loot!

To celebrate our first night and break the ice, I hosted a Pajama + Pizza party in my room for my staff and the bloggers. The amazing PJ Salvage provided the PJ’s and a giant bottle of wine supplied the giggles. Check out this amazing Cycloramic video of the worlds greatest selfie (remember pre-Ellen/Oscars, when that was a statement you could make before Ellen broke selfies forever).

Pictured Above: Me photographing Sabrina in Mia Melon | Paneling in the Social House at WWDMAGIC | Andi, Sabrina and Samantha modeling some of their blogger goodies including Debut LA, Urban Expressions and Aryn K.

The next few days, when the rest of the shows open, are basically a blur of panels, photoshoots and running from show to show to make sure things are taken care of. Every season I have an elaborate plan of what I’m going to see and do, and inevitably I end up missing all of it.

My staff got to meet Snookie, Kristen Cavallari, Fergie and a Real Housewife, whilst I fixed problems, put out fires and played panel host, there was one treat I was not about to miss. The Commodores, live in concert, courtesy of FN PLATFORM. It was a real treat, and we had a blast dancing the evening the away. These guys are true entertainers.

By the last day I’d gone and gotten myself sick. I couldn’t even keep water down and basically wanted to hide in a corner. I feared it was the night before, our bi-annual blogger knees up (this time courtesy of Beachers Madhouse) but knowing the relatively teeny amount of alcohol I consumed the night before when the eighth hour of vomiting rolled around I knew this was beyond that. My irresponsible hangover fears were furthur alleviated as others got the two day tummy bug (later in the week)

As a result, we ended our last night in Vegas, not in our usual bi-annual Downtown LV jaunt, but in pajamas, watching Kardashians and eating junk food.

The next day we all rushed back to L.A for a super important meeting (you know, so we can get a bit busier than we already are) and then launched straight into Collections prep (both L.A and Tokyo editions!). And here we are. Collections launches tomorrow and MAGIC feels like it was a million years ago.

Till next time :)

Kelsi x