Good morning!
A few weeks ago I received the following e-mail:
Michelle,
I wanted to invite you to Swagapalooza (www.swagapalooza.com), the first invitation-only event for the most-followed bloggers and twitter users from around the country. 100 of the most-followed bloggers and tweeters are coming to learn about new and interesting products. I’d love to have you attend the event, which takes place the evening of April 12th. We have an excellent lineup of presentations, including talks by the creators of:
TwoDegrees – For every nutrition bar you buy, they give a nutrition pack to a hungry child.
Saboteur Man – The world’s first tailored waterproof blazer.
Transcendent Man – A documentary film about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil
Boom Boom! Revolution – A card game you play by performing ‘underground acts of guerilla goodness’.
Grubwith.us – Eat with awesome people!
If you’re able to come then please fill out the RSVP form below.
Feel free to call if you have any questions, and I hope to see you there!
******
How exciting! I knew my blog was popular, but I had no idea that it was in the top 100 most followed! – How cool is that? So…of course not being able to resist the invitation to mingle with a bunch of fellow bloggers, (and why would I?) and judge some of the latest and greatest new products…I RSVP’d “Yes – I would love to come!” The event was from 6-9 PM Tuesday night at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.
Doug and I had plans already that night in the later part of the evening (One of Doug’s Facebook friends is a singer in a rap band, and was playing at 1015, San Francisco, and he so kindly sent us a few tickets inviting us to see him do his thing), so attending Swagapalooza in the early evening worked out perfect.
We arrived at the DNA Lounge a little after 6:00 PM, fashionably late, not on purpose. It was a windy evening but the small line to get in went very quickly.
While chatting away this young man came up and handed everyone a loaf of bread. On the side of the bag was written “Sour Flour”. For those of you who don’t live in San Francisco or the Bay Area, Sourdough bread is a fave to the San Francisco locals, not to mention a nice departure gift for tourists to take with them on their way back home.
Okay so you’re probably thinking, “Big deal. A loaf of bread.” Ah…but this wasn’t an ordinary loaf. This bread was just removed from the oven steaming hot. I don’t know about you, but whole wheat sourdough, fresh out of the oven, steaming hot in my little fingers, was just what I needed to satisfy my hunger. Next…an icy cold beer.
And that’s exactly what we got. After signing in and proudly displaying my blog name on my chest, Doug and I took our drink tickets, got an ice cold beer, some finger food, and mingled with the bloggers and tweeters.
Around 7:00 PM we all took our seats ready to hear all about these exciting new products. Let me preface that yes, the point of the evening was to get bloggers and tweeters to learn about the products…to judge the products, and HOPEfully be excited enough to blog and tweet about them.
So…Let me be completely transparent. I need to disclose that although we were not paid to brag about the swag on our blogs, each of us were given swag bags of all of the products for free. So yes, I will be talking about these products, not all but some, and not because I received them for free but because some of these products were damn cool. And I have to admit, I was quite excited to receive them then, and I am excited to brag by blogging about them now. Note: If I didn’t take a liking to the product, I won’t be blogging and bragging about it, regardless that I got it for free.
But first…before I get into the swing of telling you about the swag, I have to say that during these product presentations, something cool, and something not so cool was happening. Each presenter presented his product on stage. And on the stage was a monitor that was the size of a large screen television. The cool thing was that during the presentations, the tweeters tweeted about the products so that not only did their followers get to hear first hand about these products, but we got to visually see what was being tweeted in live time, which I thought was a very fun idea.
Now I think it’s perfectly fine for tweeters to tweet their thoughts about any particular product – whether they thought it was a viable product or not. But what was not cool was when some tweeters started tweeting remarking on the looks of a particular presenter, or making fun of the product in a mean spirited way. One tweeter even tweeted referring to a man’s “size”. It was so distracting and rude.
I felt embarrassed and bad that these tweeters subjected these presenters to acts of such a rude and inconsiderate nature. When one of these tasteless tweets rolled across the screen some people would laugh and the laughter would steal the scene. And the presenter, although he could not see the tweets, was left feeling as if he was on the outside of an inside joke. One presenter used those exact words, and sadly, he was exactly right.
Thankfully, the rude tweets only happened a few times, but happening even once was one too many, in my opinion. And for those that were subjected to the rudeness, they were gracious enough to roll with it. And thankfully the bad manners of the tweeters didn’t overpower the positiveness of the evening.
That being said, I HOPE that I didn’t make it sound like the event was a downer because overall the evening was very fun, the products innovative, and the presenters exciting and inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and it seemed most others did too. But I just had to bring up the rudeness because it was present too. Additionally, you can bet that I will be giving this exact feedback to Swagapalooza, as I feel it is worth a mention, in HOPEs this will deter this nasty behavior the next time around.
Now…onto the fun stuff. Just what was in this fab swag bag? Well let me tell you…it was everything listed above in the e-mail and more! Here’s a few of my faves:
TwoDegrees – For every nutrition bar you buy, they give a nutrition pack to a hungry child.
I love the concept of this company. If you’ve ever heard of Tom’s Shoes, this is the food version of the foot. Buy 1, 1 is given. For a couple of bucks, you purchase a TwoDegrees nutrition bar and one hungry child will get a nutrition pack. All the bars are made locally out of local ingredients, however not organic. – I tasted the chocolate peanut (with Quinoa, chia and millet) and it was delicious. Their mission: To feed 200 million hungry children, one child at a time.” So…how about buying a bar or two…or?
Saboteur Man - The world’s first tailored waterproof blazer
Cool. You’re out having fun, someone spills a drink on you and it just rolls right off. Worth $650 bucks? I don’t know. But getting one of their men’s French-cuff shirts for free was pretty sweet, I thought. I snagged a small size – Love a nice tailored man’s shirt on me. Doug will look so handsome in his too. PS: I haven’t tried it on for fit, nor have I even felt the cotton. But when I do and if I love it, I’ll be sure to tell you.
Flings Bins – Pop-up Recycle Bin
If it’s for the environment, I like it already.
New Flings Pop-Up Bins make trash and recycling easier in your home, at events, parties or on the go. These decorative, portable containers arrive flat for easy storage and pop open in an instant. All Flings Bins have a 13-gallon capacity and feature an easy-to-use drawstring closure. And each Flings Recycle Bin saves 60 cans or bottles from the landfill. Try Flings Pop-Up Bins at your next gathering, big game day party or just around home.
Transcendent Man – A documentary film about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil
I’m only blogging this because didn’t somebody, one of my readers, post a comment about this? I don’t remember. Well…I now own the DVD. When I watch it, I’ll blog about it if I think it’s worth it.
Boom Boom! Revolution - A card game you play by performing ‘underground acts of guerilla goodness’.
This was one of my most favorite freebies! No more counting on random acts of kindness. We all know that things happen when intention is the driving force. But sometimes we all need a little inspiration…a little reminder to be kinder. After all random acts are…well…random.
These cards are the answer to intentional acts of kindness, spreading guerilla goodness wherever you go. This is how the cards work:
Original Deck:
Revolutionary acts for work, friends & home!
As cards carrying members of the Boom Boom Revolution! you will perform 26 revolutionary acts of guerilla goodness in your every day life, spreading kindness in your workplace and home, as well as your greater community. Each time you complete a card, you post your experience on the website and then give the card away for someone else to play. The card’s unique ID number enables you to follow your Boom Boom! Card’s journey on the website’s map and witness all the goodness they’ve inspired!
Kit Includes:
- 26 Boom Boom! Cards designed for busy adults who want to make a difference
- Boom Boom! sticky note pad
- Handy carrying sack to keep it all in
Check out their other card kits: “family deck”, “teen deck” and the “green deck”. ( I got this one and I am so excited to start spreading some green guerilla goodness.)
And lastly, I must not forget to give kudos to “Sour Flour” the bread company for providing a little warmth in my hands and comfort food in my tummy.
Yes, writing a daily blog may not pay me, but there are some perks. That’s it. I’m done bragging. Comments? Thoughts? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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