San Francisco Meet, Greet, and Eat
Nov 21 '03
The Bottom Line Well if you weren't there, you missed it. Otherwise check out a Meet and Greet coming to a city near you.
Eventually the moveable feast that is the Epinions Meet and Greet would have to eventually come to San Francisco – home base to Epinions.com. Actually, home base is the Hitachi building on Sierra Point Parkway down Highway 101 in Brisbane but anything within 30 miles of the City by The Bay is “San Francisco.” You folks in L.A. know what I’m talking about.
I don’t get a chance to be in the city much nor do I get a chance to meet up with normally on-line buddy Michael Risch who most of you know as Personal Finance CL mrisch at the mothersite. Also I don’t get a chance to attend social affairs mostly as a result of behavior at previous social affairs. So when the opportunity presented itself, I figured I could take care of many birds with one stone. Also the offer of “hosted bar” is one a guy such as myself doesn’t pass by.
I had never heard of the venue “Thirsty Bear” before but I also never heard of Jennifer Aniston before. Michael informed me of the first and the radio told me of the latter. Something about topless photos. Also I understand she’s a television actress. I really have to get in touch with pop culture having abandoned it when they cancelled “Alf”. I drove up to the city from San Jose having picked up Michael who lives on the peninsula. Oh sure, you Bay Area readers, I can almost hear your judgmental minds clicking away now figuring out the geographic demography and I haven’t even posted this note. I admit, Michael is the successful guy. I can hear you now: “Michael lives on the peninsula. But Dave, on the other hand, lives in San Jose.” Like that’s some kind of curse. The “Capital of Silicon Valley” ain’t the shabby set of tenements you might imagine. It’s the convergence point for most of the world’s Internet traffic and the lines that carry your questionable downloads run right beneath my front lawn. If I continue to hear that judgmental clicking, a few whacks with a pick-axe will cut you off from your perverted predilections for quite some time. I think I’ve made myself clear. Anyway, we got to city with no problems and Michael was a real class act being how he didn’t fuss like the others who insist I “obey” the speed limit or constantly point to those silly one-way signs that mean something to some people. I did most of the talking and Michael spent most of the trip cinching up his seat belt.
I had already met the Epinions staffers there but that was years ago and time must heal all wounds because, hey, I wasn’t on their persona non grata list. The Meet and Greet was a low-key affair and Michael advised me to “try to keep it that way.” As I mentioned the hosted bar had a fine selection of on-site brewed beverages and I had the amber. Epinions arranged a great spread – good job. I met a few members including Tiffany and finally met Tennis_Player, (real name: James) Kristina, and Horswispr who is an advisor and top reviewer in Electronics. Putting real faces with reviews was now more real in some cases than my usual practice of imagining faces with reviews. Hopefully, most of you look better than what I’m seeing in my mind’s eye. I sure do. Oddly, a familiar face I never before associated with Epinions was none other than member Adrienne Foster who works with me in Sunnyvale. I didn’t know she was THE Epinions’ expert on haunted places. I know that she’s the co-winner in the Epie Kids photo contest. Visit her deliciously spooky reviews at: http://www.epinions.com/user-adriennefoster.
I spoke briefly with Garrett and El Jefe Nirav whom I gave well-deserved thanks for the event. We only spoke briefly but they mention that more M&Gs are on the way. Garrett has the impossible job of keeping the hats corralled but we continue to let him believe we’re under control. He continues to let us believe we have him fooled. Among the other staff at the shindig, Alexis and Andy are the kind of folks I wish I could work with daily. Their enthusiasm, energy, motivation and obvious belief in the site give me hope for greater things at Epinions. Despite the bombs, Alexis was on her way to the Middle East for business the next day – part of this dealtime.com thing. She’s a gutsy woman. Good looking too. Andy has become more involved in the technical operations of the site but I hope Epinions recognizes his ability to connect with the membership. He’s immediately approachable and always smiling. It’s almost suspicious.
Whatever your thoughts on Epinions.com, you can’t help but like the folks who work there personally. In my limited number of times visiting their Brisbane office and talking with them on the phone, I’ve felt I was working with a successful dot-com even as copycats and other similar ventures have fallen to the wayside. I’ve said it before, Epinions’ success has not so much been the result of strategic business planning and a good idea (which, no doubt, plays a big part) but in the number of really good folks in Brisbane and within the membership.
Four P.M. snuck up on us real quick and I wasn’t even finished with my second beer. Michael had an appointment (successful guy that he is) and I had a commitment involving more beer at a birthday party for my wife’s, cousin’s, parent’s son. When you marry into a Mexican family you marry into everyone in town. I grabbed a couple sets of Epi Kids on the way out that would later become an endless source of entertainment for an 18-month-old nephew and a Doberman pincer. I found out Michael was quite religious after seeing him drop to his knees in a prayer of thanksgiving when I dropped him off.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sweeper
|
 in Electronics |
 in Electronics |
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: David Burckhard
Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 110
Trusted by: 289 members
About Me:
Let me be your video provider
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.