Snacks and Sweets Expo 2010 - The Initial Post

This is a post to remind myself to upload some pictures, post them to the Expo's Flickr page (and do a check to see if others posted pics with me in them), maybe give some shout-outs to the social networking and candy people I met at the Expo - and then start up with the reviews!

So much candy, so many snacks and sweets, so many random tales to tell and attempt to recall.

I need to post about the new products coming out from these awesome candy companies, and the giant creepy mascots we encountered (including Garfield, who happened to be hocking coffee products), and some of my highlights of the Expo (oh, Jack Links crane machine, I will miss you). There were wheels to spin, prizes to win, and win we did!

*glances at a 3-foot-long tube of gumballs*

Don't worry, there's pictures.

Speaking of which, one story that I must tell right now because it's freshest in my mind (it happened as we were leaving the Expo center):


I was doing lots of Twitter posting during the Expo. It seemed to be their new thing this year, and the organizers at the NCA sent notifications to everyone attending about Twitter. They had an @SWEETSandSNACKS profile to follow with interesting updates (especially during the showcases and panels), and a hashtag #SSE10 for people to use that would not only show up on a huge TV screen in the Connection Café section of the Expo, but also make you eligible for prizes during the Wednesday Tweetup. Oh yes, there was a Tweetup, and more about that awesomeness (and prizes) later.

Anyway, thanks to Twitter, I was making new network connections, chatting about booths and awesome stuff going on, and taking pictures of interesting people I was meeting.

Fast-forward to the end of the Expo, 2pm Thursday and the mad mob heading out. I make it through security with my giant bag of candy being taken home for Day 3 and I hear people waving towards me and calling for me. I'm taken aback as I recognize the two girls from the Rips booth (where I played Plinko every day trying to win another tin truck like I did last year), and they're calling for me.

They've been following my tweets all week, and told me that they would score some major cool points with the rest of their crew if they could get a photo WITH ME.

That's right - somehow at a convention center full of people who are taking pictures of the exhibitors and their products and mascots, this company's reps wanted to get a photo WITH ME.

I was overjoyed - and as one of them got the shot with the other next to me and my girlfriend, I simply had to thank them and get their Twitter account names (since they'd apparently been using it to follow my tweets). So as soon as I got home, I connected myself to @RipsLicorice and @EiffelBonBons - knowing that they are the company accounts, but if they're really that interested, they'll know where to find me.

And maybe I'll find that picture they took with me - somewhere on the 'net and sometime in the future. So I can have proof that in 3 days at the Sweets and Snacks Expo 2010, I somehow became so awesome that people wanted to get pictures with me.

Come to think of it, there was someone ELSE at a booth who asked to take a photo of me as well - but those were different reasons and another story to tell after some rest and recombobulation after such an exciting time.


Back to the candy sorting and maybe eating some healthier food for dinner! Read more!

Finally a Winner!

I guess what they say about numbers is true. No matter what the probability, if you keep going and going over and over, eventually you're bound to catch it every now and then. It's enough to make me believe the "legend" of some guy asking every random woman he met if they'd like to fuck - right off the bat - and despite the horrible odds or if working, with enough test subjects he eventually got positive results every now and then.

I'm not sure if it's enough of a boost to advance from random sweepstakes to propositioning random women for sex on first sight, but it's at least enough to boost my confidence just slightly and I will keep pressing onward.

It all started around Thursday or Friday of last week when I found www.onlinesweepstakes.com from some news article about some guy who enters tons of contests and winds up winning tons of prizes. So I thought, if this guy can do it, why can't I?

Within one week of starting, and entering maybe 30 to 40 contests daily, I struck my first victory:

Congratulations. You have won a copy of GAMBIT. I have emailed your name and address to the author and she should be getting your copy out shortly. The book should appear within the next few weeks. Thank you for entering the drawing and please continue to support reviewingtheevidence.com by reading our reviews and entering our drawings.

Thank you

Barbara Franchi
Sharon Wheeler

For further verification, I went to their website, reviewingtheevidence.com and lo and behold! I was there on the front page!!

"The Winners of the drawing for a copy of GAMBIT by Karna Small Bodman are: Aaron Samuels, Chicago, IL;' Rhonda DiSanto, Cranston, RI, David G Bertolo, Scottsdale, AZ."

So it's true! Anyone can be a winner!

[insert random comment about not doing drugs]

I'm continuing onward, hoping for more victories and better prizes in the future. I'd tell you to come and join me in my crusade, but that just increases the competition!!

BACK OFF!!

(No, really - it's okay if you want in. Just remember who started you down the path of victory. Tithing is acceptable.) Read more!