I was lucky enough to attend Rise Weekend 2019 in Minneapolis with four of my best friends. We had the absolute time of our lives and all came home a little better for it. Because we weren’t entirely sure what to expect before we went, I thought it might be helpful to share some tips and logistics of the weekend. If you are headed to Rise Weekend (or just curious to know what went on), this post is for you! And if you’ve never heard of it, start here.

Buying Tickets: We knew tickets would sell out fast, so we devised a little plan to ensure we got our hands on them. An individual could buy up to 5 tickets, so we decided that we would have one of our friends go online and buy all 5 tickets at once. This way, we would either all get tickets or none of us would. She got on her computer about 15-20 minutes before tickets were to be released and was able to snag them a few minutexs before the scheduled release time.

What to Bring: (1) Pen; (2) Water Bottle; (3) Kleenex and (4) Jacket. The swag bags contained a workbook, which we went through during the conference. There were plenty of extra “notes” pages, so I did not feel like I needed extra paper or a journal. You will need a pen, however. You’ll be more motivated than ever to drink half your body weight in water, so I would recommend bringing your own water bottle. You’ll also be doing some serious soul work, so you better grab some kleenex. Lastly, I would bring some kind of a jacket to use to save your seat while you shop, go to lunch, go to the bathroom, etc.

What to wear: I would say everyone was dressed “cute but casual.” I saw women in everything from maxi dresses to workout leggings. You will have to get up, dance and jump around quite a bit, so keep that in mind.

Seating: Seating was first come first serve in the general admission section. I would definitely recommend being there when the doors open to get your seat (although we didn’t do this). You can then leave your bag or a jacket at the seat and go do what you need to do before the conference actually starts.

Lunch: Even though they offered box lunches at the conference, we were ready to get out of there and get some fresh air. We took an Uber about 10 minutes away from the convention center, which was perfect for avoiding the lunch rush. I would highly recommend doing this! We ended up leaving our jackets at our seats while we went to lunch, so our seats would be there for us when we got back. It worked out great.

Shopping: One of the mistakes we made was not shopping the conference pop-up shop first thing. By the end of the first day, a lot of the merchandise was sold out. They may fix this before the Dallas conference, but why risk it? I would get checked in, throw a jacket on your seat and head straight to the store to grab your Hollis Co. swag before it sells out.

Thinking about going? If you are on the fence about attending Rise Weekend, I can’t encourage you enough to go. It’s the ultimate investment in yourself. We all came home better wives, mothers and friends. Rachel is a phenomenal speaker, so even though the days were long, they went by really fast. It was also just amazing to be among this community of women!

I hope this post was helpful! Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram at @overanalyzedthat if you have any other questions about Rise Weekend.