TOMS in DC

In 2007, TOMS Shoes was the proud winner of the Cooper-Hewitt People’s Choice Design Award. I cannot tell you how moving it was to be recognized in such an amazing way. A couple weeks ago, I received an invitation to attend brunch at the White House with the First Lady, along with other honorees from the National Design Awards. After the Hotel Café event last week, I hopped on a red-eye to the east coast and met up with my Mom in DC Monday morning. After being shuffled from one room to the next, taking photographs and chatting with some incredible people, we sat for brunch in the State Dining Room at 11am. Check out my pics below…

The first lady and I at the White House

Me, the First Lady, and my Mom, Pam

The East Room, where the presentation was held

Although the White House brunch popped up in the schedule rather quickly, we had another event previously planned out that I was really looking forward to. The City Tavern Club is a landmark in DC that John Adams stayed at while the White House was being constructed in 1800. We gathered a crowd for a screening of our documentary For Tomorrow at this amazing venue and got a lot of people really excited about TOMS. Leading Authorities (my speaking agency) co-hosted the event, which was sponsored by Surreal Vodka, Casa Noble Tequila. We couldn’t have pulled it off with out the extraordinary help from our friends Elliott Bisnow (check out this website) and Katherine Kennedy. The evening was such a success that Leading Authorities is going to be sponsoring another event in DC and also a large gathering in NYC!
And just to add even more excitement to the trip, Katherine and Elliot took me to a Kastles Tennis match and introduced me to Ted Leonsis, one of the founders of AOL. He has started a new really cool company that you should all go check out: snagfilms.com.

Me with Katherine Kennedy and friends

Elliott Bisnow and his mother Margot with my mom Pam and I