I arrived at the Hilton just in time to bump into Michael Gray and then Michael McDonald along with Rich Ord, the owener of iEntry, the parent to WebProNews. The first topic that came up of course, was the Vintage Tub and Bath party thrown by Allan Dick. This is an invite only kind of event and it is always enjoyable.
A big thank you goes to Allan, who is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
With the promise of a shuttle ride to the Manhattan Penthouse, where the party was to occur, I bumped into good pal Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal and along with Matt McGowan of Incisive and Marie Howell of Bruce Clay Europe, we made our way not to a shuttle, but to the Epiar party bus!
Ken Jurina welcomed everyone onto to the traveling Epiar disco/party bus where people ranging from Jeremy Shoemaker to Tim Mayer were chatting it up.
I sat with Greg Boser and his lovely wife Barbara who were a cute couple and very nice people. One of the great things about the search marketing biz is that there’s a great community held together in part, by conferences and the connections that happen there. When the bus stopped, no one really wanted to get off.
Inside the party at the Manhattan Penthouse, there was a happy hour and in true Vintage Tub and Bath style, there were bathtubs filled with libations.
Dinner started with a wine and cheese pairing compliments of igourmet.com. It was tough to follow along though, because it was pretty loud (lots of search marketers in one room – they’re bound to make some noise) and hunger was setting in. The cheese and wine were fantastic though.
Great conversations were had by all.
I sat next to Rand, who introduced me to his fiancee Geraldine. Talk about a couple of kids in love, she was very funny and Rand was Rand, charming as ever. Dinner was served followed by bouts of “Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots” at each table.
The Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robot fun was finished off by a bout between Yahoo and Google and I believe Yahoo won.
Thanks to Allan as well as the sponsors, Hitwise competitive research, Range Online Media, PepperjamSEARCH, BizResearch and Performics for a great evening! Find more photos of the Vintage Tub and Bath party at Flickr.
The networking and conversation was so good that I did not notice if there were giveaways as has been the case in the past. If you attended this dinner, feel free to fill in the gaps. My big question is, “Did Chris Sherman win tools from ToolBarn.com again?”
