Even LA Traffic Couldn't Stop Me From Attending the So Cal Meet & Greet 08
Written: Mar 11 '08 (Updated Mar 11 '08)
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The Bottom Line: The cool kids have done it, I'm going to peer pressure you into attending a Meet & Greet too
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| BeastieGirl's Full Review: |
In the past 8 years that I have been a member of Epinions, I have had the pleasure of meeting a few members, but as a whole, the people who run the show, the folks behind the scenes have always been a mystery to me. I feel as though my Epinions life might possibly be complete now, having met a good percentage of the guys from that strange place called Brisbane.
Until I started reading the message boards a few years ago, I pretty much wrote reviews, eventually started reading and rating them too and slowly started to grow a web of trust, became an advisor and then a top reviewer. Then I started seeing some members names pop up occasionally and I realized that they were actually employees of Epinions! I was so excited to meet them and actually put some faces to the names that I had seen sweep across the boards so often!
In addition to meeting the Epinions guys, I was quite curious to which members would be at this M&G. I thought there might be a possibility of one of Epinions’ recently most prolific writers, Mark aka carstairs38, since he’s often referred to as West Coast Mark, but otherwise, I didn’t know what other members were located in the Southern California area who might attend- oh the anticipation!
I had booked a room at the Westin Costa Mesa where the shindig was happening so that we wouldn’t have to drive home late and could enjoy the next day lounging around, if we so chose. My sister was going to watch our 3 year old Little Girl and things were looking up to be a good time out! Of course, things are not always as easy as they would seem. Trying to get going on time was not to be had when I lost my keys and then once that was straightened out, we realized that we would not have a baby sitter for the evening and we got stuck in traffic. Argh!
So, in true fashion, I arrived late. Thinking that the information session that was being held before the actual reception would be almost over, I hung outside the meeting room for a moment before finally daring to peak my head in just in time to catch the final end of the presentation given by the wonderful and terribly personable Almar. Everyone welcomed me in the room and after a few minutes of having the red cheeks of embarrassment, things settled in. Casey, aka kcfoxy welcomed me in the room and whispered that she brought homemade lotion samples for later.
The Epinions staff gave an informational presentation and then opened it up for Q&A. I walked in just as a discussion of the ever popular search engine was being discussed (yep, I bet you all reading this wish you were there for that one!). Although I was a bit disappointed at missing the information session, I was looking forward to mingling with all of the members present.
I was delighted to meet Jessica (joyfulgirl91), who is one of the smartest, sweetest and well spoken girls (women?) I have ever met- no wonder her reviews are so awesome! As we discussed getting older, I told her the best way to deal with aging was to go to Disneyland- it keeps your mind from getting old! I was not alone in the travel department when I met Gail (gaelkm). It was wonderful discussing the site and concerns and great things that we all love about Epinions.
Mark aka carstairs38 surprised us all when he let us in on a secret- it was his birthday- he must really love us!! kcfoxy shared her wonderful lotions, as promised and even the guys got into it, making sure our hands were all perfectly moisturized before dinner! Adrienne (adriennefoster) was also there and although I didn’t recognize her at first, I was excited to meet her and realized why she looked so familiar, and yet unrecognizable- the caricature of her on her profile does resemble her, only she is much prettier.
I was very excited to be able to talk in length with Epinion’s product manager Andy, aka andyman. It was so nice to meet someone who cares as much about the site as the members do and really listened with a captivated ear. Such was the case with Almar (almarsezstuff) and Garrett/rohebluis who was quite the "man behind the curtain" and as good in person as so many other site members have seemed to believe, he's definitely one of the "cool kids".
Dinner came along and was amazing (Almar did a wonderful job choosing the menu- any menu with creme brule gets an A from me). The table we were seated at was long and unfortunately, I did not have as much of an opportunity to meet with some of the other staff/members as I would have liked. OpalMan and his wife, LLFigment were there, as well as Casey’s husband Richard (ramsfan) and Alan (yakkowarner), with whom I did get to talk to a little bit after dinner. Joel and Damon from Brisbane disappeared somewhere along the way, but the entire group seemed to have a great time. Could they have left with a glass of 18 year old Scotch and a cigar? Who knows!?
I think the whole premise of the Meet & Greet is so cool. It is a great chance to put a face to some of the names that I look forward to see commenting, rating and reviewing on Epinions, as well as make the behind the scenes goings-on a little more real. I was a little nervous about going and showing my face, making BeastieGirl more of a reality for other people (would they like me, would they hate me??), but I had a blast. So much so that I was quite tired and blah the next day. I was happy to go home with my Epi-Dolls that my Little Girl loves so much and glad to have met some really cool people.
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