Click Here for pictures from
eBay Live!
Click Here to for News from eBay
Live!
Chat about eBay Live! |
Ina's
Web Log
Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com, keeps a diary of her visit to eBay
Live in Anaheim, California
-----------------------------------
Thursday - 6/20/02
12:30pm I arrived at the John Wayne International
Airport in Orange County. A large bronze figure of John Wayne greets visitors to the
airport. Palm trees and other exotic foliage lined the roads on the way to my hotel,
letting me know I was not in Massachusetts anymore. The weather is perfect - in the low
70s.
2:30pm Nikki Ballard of the CollectingChannel.com joined me for
dinner. We went to Downtown Disney and ate at an outdoor café. Nikki and I will be
doing a Report from eBay Live chat on the CollectingChannel.com boards a week from Sunday,
and we discussed our strategy for covering the show
We reviewed the show's schedule and decided we would meet up at 1:30 at the first
"preview" class being held tomorrow. We strolled around Downtown Disney.
Department 56, a stand with Disney pins, and lots of other shops full of goodies. I
regretted my meager expense account.
We passed the convention center on our stroll. We heard a rumor that the convention center
was expecting 1,500 people. We had heard 3,000, so we will be monitoring attendance
numbers with great interest. So far, it's pretty quiet.
9:30pm The weather has cooled off considerably, it must be in the
50s. The hotel room is nice and has a fridge. And an Internet connection. What more could
a hard-working reporter want?
-----------------------------------
Friday - 6/21/02
7:00am I feel I have mastered the 3-hour time zone
difference. Of course, I check my email before I do anything. The San Jose Mercury News
quoted me in an article about eBay Live. Well, you can't pick your quotes.
7:30am David called to tell me to get busy working. He doesn't realize
that I'm in California now, I'm supposed to be laid back. Jeesh, those East Coast
workaholics!
10:45am I met a couple walking toward the convention center and
discovered they were headed to eBay Live registration. They were from Riverside,
California, and had decided to come to learn more. They don't know anything about selling.
Although Riverside is about 55 miles away, they decided to stay over in a hotel.
We arrived together in the registration area, but it wouldn't open until 12, they told us.
The exhibit hall was full of crates, and nothing was set up yet. The exhibit hall was
scheduled to open on Saturday.
Another couple arrived on the scene, parents of an eBay employee, they told me. They had
flown in from Illinois.
It was pretty quiet inside. When I stepped outside, I saw a woman wearing a home-made hat
of sorts, and discovered her name was Tina. She told me she made the "hat"
herself by placing eBay logos on top of springs placed on a headband. (I took a photo, see
other page.)
Tina introduced me to Bob and Cherbear. All three were eBay aficionados who had flown in
for the event. They seemed eager and impatient for things to get started.
As I stood chatting, eBay folks started to arrive and get organized.
11:45am Pinguino Kolb from Zoovy arrived on the scene, and we started
taking pictures. (Zoovy is sponsoring the AuctionBytes Update from eBay pages.) Kevin
Pursglove, eBay spokesperson, graciously allowed Pinguino to get a press pass so she could
roam the halls and take pictures for AuctionBytes.com.
1:00pm I saw a man wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt, and figured he was
TieDyeJohn from the eBay chat forums. (I'm not sure of the exact spelling of his user ID,
sorry!) Sure enough, it was he! He was very nice, very cool. His t-shirt was incredible;
if you are into tie-dye, track him down online.
2:30pm I attended a class given by Chris Spencer. (See http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m06/i22/s04
for full story)
4:00pm I went to the Category Portal Extravaganza and chowed down on some
food. We reporters are known for crashing parties for free food and drink.
I met "the parents" again. Virgil and Lola Coleman flew in from Illinois for the
event. Their son is Andrew Coleman, Category Manager for eBay Sports. Virgil told me that
Andrew is a die-hard Cubs fan, but I let him in on the fact that the Red Sox are winning
the World Series this year. I don't know why they started laughing.
Later, I was talking to someone and the topic turned to sniping. This got the attention of
a couple standing beside us, and we had a big discussion on the topic. Hmmm, I've been
meaning to do another story about sniping, and someone recently emailed me asking my
opinion of sniping tools. Guess it's a great story idea! Subscribe to AuctionBytes-Update
if you don't already get it.
6:30pm I ran into Bob, whom I had met early in the day. He told me Meg
Whitman, eBay President & CEO, was in the Category Portal Extravaganza room signing
autographs. I hunted her down, but was too late. I caught her as she was stepping onto the
escalator, and she allowed me to snap a photo. She was very gracious and charming
throughout her appearance, and did not seem ill-at-ease in the role of celebrity.
7:15pm A long line had formed at the Marriott to get into the PayPal
party. I was allowed to bypass the line since I was a member of the press. (AuctionBytes
carries a lot of weight around here.)
There was plenty of food and drink (do you see a theme here?), and PayPal was giving away
tshirts. Attendees who wear PayPal tshirts during the eBay Live event qualify to win $250,
so I expect to see a lot of white tshirts tomorrow.
I chatted with an eBay seller who wanted to know if we had done a story comparing PayPal
with eBay's Billpoint. He was concerned about eBay's attitude toward Billpoint and wanted
to make sure that they weren't forcing members to use it.
-----------------------------------
Saturday - 6/22/02
7:30 am I walked over to the Marriott Hotel to have
breakfast with the Zoovy team, who is sponsoring this live report from eBay Live. We were
all wondering who decided 7:30 in the morning was a reasonable time for a meeting, and I
tried to look innocent.
Zoovy's Pinguino Kolb provided all of the photographs of the eBay Live event featured on
the AuctionBytes Web site. After breakfast, Ping and I wandered over to the large ballroom
and managed to get front row seats.
Meg Whitman, eBay Prez/CEO, gave the keynote address. It was enthusiastically received by
members, who were stunned when she told the audience that eBay would enable Powersellers
to get health insurance. (When I later asked people what they thought, they all seemed to
think it was a great benefit, but some said they would have to learn more about the
details and costs.)
12:00 pm A visit to the exhibit hall was in order. What chaos! The aisles
were jammed with people. It was a tiny exhibit hall compared to the shows I've been to in
the library, technology and publishing fields. But the enthusiasm was high. (Ping got some
great shots of the hall and some of the exhibitors.)
12:45 pm Ah, lunchtime. I met Steven Nerayoff of iOffer.com for lunch at
the Marriott. As we cruised through a gorgeous lobster salad appetizer and our entrees (I
had a chicken/pesto/portabello sandwich on focaccia bread, hmmmm), we had an interesting
experience. A woman came up to Steven and asked him for his autograph. Steven and Pierre
Omidyar are both Persian, and when she saw Steven sitting at lunch with a reporter (me),
she assumed that he was Pierre.
(I've been told that Pierre is in Europe and was unable to attend the event.)
I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to various vendors and exhibitors about their
products and services.
4:00 pm Parties start early here. Off to the Hilton to a private party
thrown by Zoovy. David Steel, Zoovy's CEO, introduced me to his sister, who lives in the
area. She was charming, and impressed me with her knowledge of Southern California flea
markets. David (my David) and I are invited to visit when we make our trek across the
continent in an RV.
Pinguino and I had a chance to chat, too. If you are a Zoovy customer, then you've
probably talked to Ping. She is the ultimate California COOL, and a very interesting
person. One of the best things about the eBay Live event has been the opportunity it has
provided people to meet face to face.
5:30 pm I'm back in my hotel room, writing up a story about the exhibit
hall. It's beautiful outside, and Disney beckons, but alas, I must return to eBay Live for
more coverage.
7:00 pm The eBay party is in full swing. Meg Whitman has already given
awards - my new acquaintance, Cherbear, won a "Hall of Fame" award. Congrats,
Cherbear!!
Everyone was really tired at the end of the day, but the party perked people up. The Super
Diamond Neil Diamond band was playing, there was food from around the world (I had
Chinese, hmmm). Oh, it was Hosted Bar (back east, we call that open bar), meaning the beer
& wine was free.
I met Nikki Ballard (CollectingChannel.com) and her friend Kim. They introduced me to Rich
Rotman of CollectingChannel.com, which is owned by Sales Online Direct. The Rotmans are
well known in our neck of the woods (Eastern Massachusetts) because they own a large
furniture store chain and are entrenched in the sports collecting business as well.
The party started breaking up around 9:15.
Good thing, we all report back to class at 9 am tomorrow morning.
-----------------------------------
Sunday - 6/22/02
9:00 am I made it with a minute to spare into the room of
the “Power Panel” session. A video was playing on the gigantic screens in the
front of the room on either side of the stage. The first segment starred an eBay seller.
He listed Army dog tags on eBay and found the man for whom they were originally issued. We
saw a reenactment of the meeting that ensued when the seller personally delivered the tags
to the man in a nursing home. A clip of a ticker tape parade was thrown in for drama.
Although it was touching, the story seemed out of context for the opening of a meeting of
eBay’s top executives.
After the video, which also featured an eBay seller success story, the execs fielded
questions. It was good to hear the questions being asked, although for a few questions, I
heard canned answers. I will have a full report on the questions and answers in next
Sunday’s special eBay Live issue.
On to the exhibit hall. It was much calmer than the previous day, with
lots of people milling about looking at the vendor booths. I stopped at the Pinkliner
lounge and sipped pink lemonade, just so I could say I did! (posters in the eBay forums
know what I’m talking about.)
3:00 pm Time to start the long journey back to
AuctionBytes headquarters. I won’t bore you with details, suffice it to say my plane
was due to take off at 9pm, and I was due to arrive at 7 am in Boston.
Wrapup
The eBay event was a must-see event for me as editor of a newsletter that covers the
online-selling industry. I had a chance to meet vendors, eBay staff and sellers
themselves. I would love to hear from others as to what they got out of the event.
And I’d like to know whether eBay should hold another such event? Would you go if
they did? What would you want to see? (Email me, but please be patient with me about
replying to you; I’ll be playing catchup and fighting jetlag this week.)
AuctionBytes will be publishing a special issue on Sunday, June 30, and I’ll have
more time to synthesize the events and their meaning.
All in all, I’m feeling that the eBay Live event is like Chinese food. It’s
satisfying, but 5 minutes later, I’m hungry again.
Postscript
While David will probably chastise me for brown-nosing, I want to thank ALL eBay
employees. I was warmly received by everyone there, and they provided reporters in the
press room with computers, Internet connections, food and drink. (standard industry
practice) The press room was my home-base during the event.
I don’t think eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove will handle difficult questions any
differently in the future. He is eBay’s “gatekeeper”, after all, but I’m
happy to report he’s a nice, intelligent guy whom I’m glad I got to meet.
If you have any specific questions about the conference, tune into the
CollectingChannel.com chat room Sunday afternoon. Nicole Ballard and I will be answering
questions about the event. |
