This event made me feel like a tech blogger at a trade show…
Last week Jules and I headed up to San Francisco to attend an event hosted by the blog gdgt. It was basically a smaller version of a tradeshow (ala CES) and open to the public at large (as long as you registered online). After waiting in line for a bit, they finally let a crowd of 100+ into the event space in the top floor of the Metreon.
It was crazy.
At the door, you got your choice of a gdgt iPhone case or t-shirt. From there, you could wander from booth to booth where various companies were demoing products and hosting giveaways/raffles. By happenstance, I ended up winning a pair of Monster headphones (the DNA’s) on the first drawing of the night (which was awesome)! We checked out a bunch of companies – some we had heard of and some we hadn’t.
Most tables had some sort of tradeshow “swag” and several were running in person giveaways. gdgt had also set up some twitter giveaways for the night of the event but the winners have yet to be announced. It was interesting to see how some companies marketed themselves to this surprisingly diverse crowd. I have never seen so many flip phones in one area before! Begs to question if these companies are missing a chance to educate consumers better.
Later in the evening we ended up running into Ryan Block himself! Ryan is the former editor of the tech blog Engadget and the creator of the blog gdgt. Both of those blogs still share a tight relationship (gdgt’s ratings are featured on Engadget) and I’ve been reading Engadget since Ryan was an editor (mid 2000’s). It was awesome to meet such a legend in person and he is (unsurprisingly) a very down to earth guy.
gdgt holds these events on both coasts. If you ever have a chance to attend one, I highly recommend it.
