Chicago, Teen Driving and The Allstate Foundation #60Summit

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When you’re busy time flies. I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since I was in Chicago to attend part of the #60Summit put on by The Allstate Foundation.

It was a whirlwind day and a half, where I learned so much from all the presentations and had a great time meeting some other bloggers as well as leaders in the industry of teens, driving safety, and public relations.

I’ll have more specific informational posts relating to Teen Driving, but let me tell you a bit about the fun I had in Chicago and the people I got to meet.

Right at the O’Hare Airport, I got to grab the car service to the hotel with Jennifer Patrick who blogs over at Still Living the Dream, who was representing 5 Minutes for Mom at the summit. We immediately hit it off, I mean why wouldn’t we have? We’re both cool, chatty and under five feet .

The summit took place at the Westin River North. This was the fabulous view of the Chicago River I had from my window.

The Allstate Foundation also gave us a bag full of ‘sweet’ treats from the Chicago area. The caramel/cheese popcorn…absolutely addictive.

And this chocolate bar…so unique and tasty.

Good think Jennifer rescued me from eating all the popcorn, and we walked a few blocks and hit Theory up for lunch. I had a great Watermelon & Tomato Salad, that I’ll share with you in a future post.

After lunch we met up with Amy Roskelley from Super Healthy Kids. The three of us took a walking tour of downtown Chicago…well actually we just wandered around downtown Chicago since we really had no idea where we were going!

Seriously Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago….really?! Who planned that out?! MAYHEM is the only word for it.

Dinner was Chicago fare from Italian Beef to Hot Dogs and Curly Fries with Snickers Pie to round it out. But the company around the table was even better as we got to know and chat with some of The Allstate Foundation leaders as well as meet Sheila Dowd from Clever Girls Collective and our PR contact Leilani.

After dinner us girls headed out for some more fun and walked over to The Wit and their rooftop lounge. With the Olympics on the big screen it was only fitting that we had a Pimm’s Cup. It was a great evening just getting to know each other, sharing our ‘life lists’ and doing a lot of laughing. More fun yet was the British guy who took our picture, and then we had another picture taken with him in it. Really though we think those guys just wanted us to leave so they could have our table!

Left to Right: (Top) Leilani Sweeney, Amy Roskelley (Bottom) Me, Jennifer Patrick, Sheila Dowd

and with the Brit…

Tuesday I learned so much, and of course the majority focus was on Teen Driving Safety Initiatives which I’ll share in upcoming posts, but over our working lunch we had a presentation by Michael Wood from TRU, where they are in the business of researching trends in teens. Pretty much if something has been marketed to teens…that’s who covered it first. It was extremely engaging and very insightful, and I will be getting future information from them and am looking forward to working that into blog posts as well.

I was invited to participate in a summitt with The Allstate Foundation, for which they provided full travel expenses, meals, accommodations and/or other premiums, however my opinions are completely my own and I have not been compensated to publish positive or negative reviews of the event or products associated with my experience.