TOP TEN REASONS TO GO TO AN EPINIONS MEET AND GREETMar 26 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Go and have a good time!
The SoCal Meet and Greet was way more fun than I expected. Here’s why… 10. Great venue: The decision to choose Dave and Busters was inspired. OK, it was in Orange County, a good thirty miles from downtown LA, but parking was easy and the place was fun. Imagine TGI Fridays (one of my favorite chains) built into the coolest video game arcade in town. I had never heard of this place before the meet and greet, and I’ve been back twice already! After a doorman (!) welcomes guests indoors, we are told to follow the yellow brick road to the pool tables where the Eps party was gathering. 9. Cool party favors: After checking in with Christal, guests are handed a free game card for the video game machines. “Go nuts!” she told me, I think because I looked particularly nerdy and maybe had the pallor of CRT burn. But, the party and the food beckoned. I saved the card for later. 8. Wonderful buffet spread: I ate lunch before coming---BIG MISTAKE! Whatever gripes Epinionators may have about the site management: These guys do not skimp on the food. In fact, from what I could tell, they spent a lot of money on the party. There was shrimp by the Vegas full, ribs, fried chicken, chip things and dips, steamed things, cooked things, cold cut things, and for the diet wimps, greeny things. All of it was delicious and plentiful (especially the shrimp). 7. Free drinks: Unfortunately, I drove down to the OC, so I couldn’t imbibe properly. But this place has its share of great beers on draft and the full closet of cocktails available. All drinks were “on the house”---which is brave given the litigious nature of California drivers----but when I asked the waitress how much drinking was going on, she said that only a couple of Epinionators actually ordered the hard stuff. I had an Arnold Palmer (or two or three or four). (sigh). Are all SoCal Epinionators non-smoking, tee-tolling, PC do gooders? I plunged into the crowd to investigate. 6. Christal: Our hostess was a babe. If Eps had a calendar of the “Babes of Eps”, Christal would get my vote as the cover girl. She had only just come back to work for Shopping.com, and is an Epinions virgin! Despite being one of the people responsible for the care and maintenance of active reviewers, she had never posted a review herself. I encouraged her to at least post an express review about her favorite website! Dang if I wasn’t married… 5. Garrett and Paul represented “management” at this “do”. A crowd of Epinionators always surrounded Garrett at all times, while Paul sat on the big main dining table. But aside from fielding the Nirav queries, they were informative and very open about the site. I learned a lot about Eps just kind of hanging around the periphery, especially about the royalty payments. They both took all the questions in stride and with good humor. But Paul looked like he could have used a stiff drink. Besides the mingling, meeting management was my main purpose for showing up. After meeting Garrett, Paul and Christal, I feel good about posting reviews onto the site. I know there are at least a couple more greeters, but I did not have a chance to really talk to them. Please forgive me for not remembering your names. These are decent people trying to make things work. As an aside: a sign of dedication to the Corporation: Garrett’s wife and two boys had traveled with him to the party. The boys looked a little young for most of the video games, so she did a great job keeping them smiling through what must have been mind numbing boredom for the kids. Kudos to her! 4. Free gifts and books! I scored a free book and I left with four great Eps dolls. My two year old daughter calls them “beans”. 3. Epinionators: I finally ended up schlepping my huge plate of shrimp onto an empty space at the corner of the main table besides a couple of other Epinionators: the brainy and friendly adriennefoster, who works in the publishing business. She told me that she hesitated to write book reviews because she knew so many of the authors. And also the cool but shy Philipchu who is a video game designer in real life! I also met Suzer, Criteeker (thanks for the Makita tip), and a bunch of other delightful Epinionators---please forgive me for forgetting your names. Christal said that there were maybe 25-30 attendees, but I only had a chance to talk to maybe a dozen or so. Like on the site, “hats” like Adrienne got more attention from management at the party than hacks like me, but in their defense, the “hats” do a lot more of the heavy lifting, too. Adrienne had to bring the books for the giveaway. After reading the other reviews, though, I have just one question: Who was badkittyM, and why didn’t I get to meet her? 2. Drop in, drop out: Totally casual. You can stop by for 10 minutes or stay for the whole thing. I brought my wife and kids who were hanging out in the Borders next door to the restaurant, so I ended up arriving a little late and could only stay for an hour. But the party was so much fun I would have liked to stay to the end. And the Number One reason for going to a meet and greet… 1. More stuff to write about!  |
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