#daretocompare

I may have mentioned, maybe once or twice, how much I love being part of the Her Campus Blogger Network. It's such an amazing way to connect with bloggers across the globe... and those in Boston! A little less than a month ago (school has been hectic, otherwise this would have been up the second I got back from the event!), Her Campus and Microsoft teamed up to host Boston HCBN ladies at the Microsoft store in the Prudential Center! They wanted to promote Windows 8 and their new Surface 2 devices. What better way than to connect with a group of driven, excited internet writers?

It was all very official, I reserved my spot ahead of time and even had a name tag identifying me and my blog! It was so cool to recognize blogs from the HCBN, including Erin from Styles I Like and Semirah from Sound of Charm!

After chatting and friends-making while nomming on chocolate covered strawberries, Windsor (one of the founders of Her Campus) introduced Lily (our representative from Microsoft). She also delivered a challenge- while everyone would be given a Surface for a month to love and review, whoever had the best social media coverage of the event would receive a device to keep... forever.

And we were off! 

Lily shown here demonstrating the split screen capability of the surface AND the OneNote App which allows you to take pictures and videos to embed in your class notes. You can also draw within the app and grab information from the web to supplement your class discussion! Also in this picture, the lovely two bloggers I linked above- Erin and Semirah, the backs of yo heads are ridiculous!

The loaners were waiting more patiently than their recipients! When Lily finished her demonstration, we were all itching to play around with the pretty toys! One of the first things I did with mine was take a selfie, before we all headed out to take a group picture...

... on the way to our group pic, I simply had to take a second with my fellow BC belles! Katie writes for HCBC and even did fashion features on Erin and I! Here's mine!

This picture belongs to Semirah, as I unfortunately didn't think to give my camera to the employee laden down with everyone else's. Now that I'm thinking about it, though, I'm not sure he could have juggled even one more... Oh, well! This lovely pic is now the background to my Surface!

 After taking our group pictures, we headed back to our designated area for a little Just Dance! It was hilarious to see all of the bloggers AND the Her Campus professionals trying to match the figures on the screen! It's also a LOT of fun to play and we all ended up breathlessly laughing by the end of the Katy Perry song!

Then came the incredible part... Windsor announced that I won the social media competition! Practically vibrating with happiness, I hugged the Surface box and purple keyboard as I spewed thanks to everyone who had a part in the event. I'm still so very thankful and a little unbelieving that this beautiful device is mine to keep! I'll have to do a full post on the Surface 2 itself, because it has completely revolutionized my productivity in class and out! I absolutely adore it and fear I haven't enough space to properly gush at present.

Her Campus is holding another super cool event soon- their National Pre-Collegiette Conference at Northeastern on April 26th! I'm covering it as a blogger and my cousin Emma is attending as a pre-collegiette! I'm so excited- stay tuned for posts regarding the event!