Consumerist Meetup Great Success!
Last night's first ever Consumerist meetup went off like gangbusters. At least 75 people showed up to Botanica Bar in New York to drink our beer, mingle with one another, watch movies, and celebrate prolific commenter GitEmSteveDave, who has been asking for a labcoat in the comments for months, receiving said much-desired and deserved labcoat. More pictures and highlights, inside... UPDATE: Adding new event pictures, courtesy of commenter NYBiker!
It was really cool to see everyone last night. People were right there when we started at 6pm and by 7pm the room was packed and filled with an excited and enthusiastic energy. I met several people who said they read the site for years, even since it began. Commenter Jpropaganda was there. He told me about a cool project he is doing called Mustachebet.net where he and his friend are competing to see who has the superior mustache. Tweet your vote and for every vote each guy gets, his opponent donates a penny to fighting cancer. Pretty rad. Reader Chris, whose story we ran last year, was there too. I met three couples where the guy was always sending the girl Consumerist stories. Jody read the site for 3 years and was only in town for two weeks and wanted to make sure she hit the party. By the end of the night I saw Consumerists who had never met before giving each other big handclaps in farewell. Many thanks to Botanica Bar for providing such an excellent venue and being great hosts, and thanks to Rooftop Films for providing the high-quality A/V equipment rental at a good price. I'm very happy with how things went and look forward to throwing the next one! (perhaps we'll come to your hometown next!)
Dallas and Raf of Internets Celebrities present their awesome videos.
I do a little dance.
Commenter GitEmSteveDave prepares to qualify.
The presentation of the labcoat.
Meg is overcome with emotion.
This guy! He has labcoat!
The donning.
Does it fit?
It fits!
Readers throng to receive free Consumerist tshirts and free subscriptions to ConsumerReports.org.
Take some pics last night? Send 'em to ben@consumerist.com and I'll add them to the post.
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Comments:
I hope no one received bad customer service there...I mean, who would they write into to complain?
HAHAH! The long-awaited lab coat! That is SO awesome!
Nice hat!
Does GitemSteve wear the hat in New York? Brave.
ah I wish I could have drank your beer
WOOOO HOOOO!!! GO GITEMSTEVEDATE!!!!
Okay, so who is next in line? Catastrophegirl? Trai_Dep? Eyebrows?
By the way, we had a mini-meetup on Skype while these guys were downing beer.
More than 3 people showed up, and a couple of them even stayed till the end!
Oh and I got a 9/10 ... on accent.
It was a fun - though exclusivist - affair. Not intentional though. We just werent sure if it would be a good idea to give out original skype ids, so we created alternate ones, and by the time we were done, it was too late to let anyone know/plan for it.
Though we WILL have the skype meetup again in the near future. And this time it will be better organized.
For starters, add mostly.harmless.42 to your skype contacts, and IMPORTANT: mention that you are from Consumerist, so I dont ignore you as spam.
Warning: Inanity Might Ensue.
@MostlyHarmless: I am still sleepy so I bet I left some important details out. Feel free to correct/add stuff.
I missed something-- why did GitEmSteveDave receive a Consumerist Labcoat?
Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.
@TheSpatulaOfLove: Its a thing that people in labs/doctors wear to give the air that they are important.
@MostlyHarmless: And everyone should add katstermonster on skype (and Twitter)! :) I agree, the meetup was a great success. I still can't believe you have an accent, though. Hah.
@MostlyHarmless: Hrmm. Never done Skype. Perhaps it would be worth a shot. Can people mute me if I get too drunk and obnoxious?
Bahahaa. GitEmSteveDave done got 'em git.
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: We can always kick you out and ban you for life ;)
[Though yeah, if someone is being obnoxious, they can be dealt with - to save THEM and others any embarrassment.]
Yay, GitEmSteveDave! I presume we will now find you offering free medical exams throughout the city?
@katstermonster: And a strong one at that ;)
I don't care about the accent, but I think my voice sucks big time. Though that might be true for anyone who isnt used to hearing their recorded voice. It sounds so much different from what i perceive it to be.
So, did anyone hook up? :D
Three cheers for GitEmSteveDave!!!
HIP HIP!
Yay ... glad to see the event went well :)
@katstermonster: And on Skype, I created a subtlefrog account. (On Twitter, cdarwinsbitch).
Inanity did, in fact, ensue, but I think a good time was had by all.
Even if there was no free beer. Ben - can we get free beer shipped to the next Skype meetup?
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: Yes, join us. We would have such fun! And they would all groan at our dumbass jokes. Except Mostly Harmless. I suspect he would like our sense of humor.
It all sounds so interesting... Did no one take a camera to the meetup? can someone post some pics?
@subtlefrog: But you already ARE a scientist, and I assume you already have a lab coat too.
Also I think it is given out by seniority. Even I didnt put my name in there. (Rare case of humility on my part. Soak it in.)
I would love to do this.
Has that labcoat been tested for flammability?
@Applekid: LOL,,what you said reminded me of the old AOL parties that went on about 0 years ago. I attended one at a hotel/bar lounge in Grand Rapids back in '99. I think most of the dudes had never even kissed a girl before, or seen the sun. The one girl that was "kind of" nice looking was hounded by geeks recalling their glory days watching Star Trek / Battlestar Glatica, etc. One dude sitting by me at a table ended up killing himself that very night by walking into a moving vehicle. Very strange night and I never attended another. What I had also heard is that with many of the AOL parties, many of the people would end up getting rooms with each other. This is why the parties were held at hotel / bar lounges.
@MostlyHarmless: I admit, I am waaay down the list on seniority, so I didn't say I should be next...but I am a sad scientist without a lab coat of my own, truly. So I was just putting a request in to be on the list...that's all. Even if I am at the bottom of the list. Meanie.
@MostlyHarmless: LOL. If awarded a labcoat, I will not only take pictures of the baby in it, I will send nice winter footwarmers to the NYC Consumerist staff. :D
Since I still have about 20 lbs. of cherry pits sitting in my attic waiting to be turned into footwarmers!
@katstermonster: You guys tweet so fast I can't keep up since I'm only at the computer intermittently!
@MostlyHarmless: But you'd need an/other lab coat(s) for the person(s) conducting the test. But how could you make sure they were safe if the lab coat hadn't been tested yet?! IT'S A VICIOUS CIRCLE!!
Grr - didn't even think to take pics, but then again GitEmSteveDave's cowboy hat was in the way ;)
Great turnout last night - lots of fun!!!
That is awesome. Yay SteveDave!