readers
Consumerist Meetup Great Success!

11.5.09 1:56 PM EDT By Ben Popken

readers meetups gitem steve dave's labcoat

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!)