View from eBay Live!.....As the Curtain Falls

Wow…..what a blast the Gala was (as you might notice, it’s taken me a day to recover!) The eBay Live! team does a good job of keeping the plan for the Gala a secret, especially from other employees, so even we traveled to it wondering what to expect. And it started off with my favorite part of the entire event – the clapping tunnel.

The thing about eBay Live! is that, as much as it’s a great place for members to learn about how to grow their businesses, it’s just as good for employees, who get to see how what they do affects so many people. And more importantly, you also see how it’s truly a partnership, because without sellers and buyers, our jobs don’t exist. The members really are the stars of the show. And to show it, all the employees lined both sides of the carpet leading to the entrance of the Gala and clapped and cheered as the buses with all the attendees pulled up. Each member walked down the aisle to the cheers, kinda like being introduced during an NBA game. And let me tell you…..this probably does more for me than it does for the members. My favorite part is watching everyone’s faces as they come down - some excited (those are the guys running the down aisles with their arms outstretched), some embarrassed by the attention, and some just overwhelmed. Yes, you don’t really want to clap for a week afterwards, and I almost had my hands knocked off several times by some really solid high-fives, but it is all totally worth it.

Then you walk into the ballroom, and it’s almost sensory overload. In front of you are giant screens with pictures from the event. To your left are dancers performing, and to the right are cowboys doing lasso tricks (a popular picture-taking area, by the way). You have food and drink everywhere, including the Zigmund favorite…..chocolate fountains! If you don’t know what that is, it’s like a regular fountain that spills water over the side, and then recycles it to come up again. But it’s with chocolate! You take your rice-krispy treat, strawberry, or whatever else suits your fancy, and dip it in the flow. I spent way too much time near that thing.

Meg came out to give one last address, and then it was time to party. A huge cake celebrating eBay’s 10^th anniversary was brought out, and Meg and Pierre cut the first pieces (no cake-in-the-face-related hijinks though). A local comedian warmed up the crowd as everyone ate, and then gave way to a country band. Once everyone had time to digest (and had been pried away from the chocolate fountain), the main event started…..the B-52’s!

The middle of the floor opened up to a giant dance area, and employees and members alike grooved to the beats of Love Shack, Rock Lobster, and the rest of the roughly 45-minute set. For those that didn’t feel like dancing, extra pins and other collectibles were being passed out in the back (so if you know anyone who went, see if they got extras). After the festivities started to die down, everyone piled back on the buses to go to downtown San Jose, where they partied and mingled the night away.

I’ve been to 3 eBay Live!’s now, and I can say that this was unequivocally the best – three days of having fun and meeting awesome members. And oh yeah, there was one other piece of news: the unveiling of next year’s location (June 13-15, 2006). See everyone again in Vegas…..