SwagFest Blues

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HB
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Posts: 21983
Joined: 19 years ago

#1: Post by HB »

Whew! The initial phase of SwagFest is over tomorrow. Bob Roseman and I have been working the finer points of judging the five entries that will advance into the final round. The good news? With ten prizes (eleven if you count the People's Choice Award) and nine eligible entrants, everyone gets a reward for their effort. :D

As a historical footnote, let me share how HB came about, then how the SwagFest came to be and how the prizes were determined. Time passes quickly and soon I'll forget the details...

Originally I envisioned HB as merely an easier-to-remember repository for equipment reviews than my personal webspace. As more questions arrived in my inbox asking for clarifications, recommendations, suggestions, and so on, I figured some sort of blog with comments would provide a means to share these review-specific FAQs. But I'm not familiar with the capabilities and limitations of blogging software, plus I'd heard enough complaints from my neighbor who created EclipseZone that I hesitated to go that route.

A small forum then? My host ISP already supports PHP in the base package, and as promised, setting up phpBB wasn't difficult. HB forums were born. At first there were only three forums. Site Feedback, Espresso Gear, and my little-appreciated but quirky Overextracted (formally known as Knockbox).

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Poll reveals the sad truth about what readers thought of my blog (*sob*)

Marketplace was soon declared a "commercial DMZ" for site sponsors. To organize and simplify the equipment review process, On the Bench was next. Abe joined the team; I found his unique way of self-expression appealing and relinquished my blog's name to create the "catch all" forum that he moderates, Knockbox (if you haven't guessed already, the forum titles were chosen to reinforce HB's fun / serious approach).

Chris' Coffee Service, Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters, and Counter Culture Coffee were the first official sponsors. EspressoParts NW joined next, then 1st-line equipment. I was at the SCAA conference in Seattle and bumped into Todd Salzman of Whole Latte Love at the ESI party. It was good to see a familiar face in a sea of strangers and we talked a bit (we had met the year before at the Counter Culture EspressoFest). Before he left to meet some clients, he mentioned that WLL might be interested in becoming a sponsor and I should give him a call. At this point the SwagFest planning was already underway. What wasn't nailed down was the grand prize. Hmm-m.

Todd and I played e-mail / phone tag for a couple weeks. Finally he and I connected for a brief conversation; I could tell by all the wind noise that he was driving on the highway (tsk tsk!). We agreed that HB would review Brewtus. I described the SwagFest, how it would work, and suggested that being the new guy on the block, Whole Latte Love could make a "big splash" by offering the top prize. "Like what?" Todd asks. I hesitated for a moment and then suggested, "How about a Rocky grinder?" He replies, "Sure, but a Mazzer has a lot more cachet, don't you think?"

Oh yeah, that it does. 8)

The timing was right to feature a new Mazzer model to the Whole Latte Love offerings, the Mazzer Mini P. I've never seen one, but it looks snazzy with its polished aluminum body. With the top prize settled, I worked down my list of potential contest sponsors. Honestly I expected a lot of cajoling and arm-twisting was in store for me, but no, everyone agreed quickly. Maybe next year I need to start higher?

Team HB worked on the details of the contest. Finalizing the legal fine print of the contest was the hardest part. Examples were written, contest forums created (which were accidentally visible for a few hours and an unnamed smarty-pants posted in it :shock:). I announced the contest and waited for entrants to declare themselves. And waited...

"Unbelievable" I thought, "you put up prizes like this and nobody's interested? What is wrong with these people!?!" Then the trickle started, two or three a day. Started to look like a pretty good turnout by the end of week two. I have a list of those who expressed interest somewhere, around twenty people as I recall. As a writer, it's easy to appreciate why some later changed their minds. This point brings me to my closing paragraph.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to those who entered HB SwagFest 2005. Writing doesn't come easily to me. It's clear that all the entrants took the task seriously and gave it their best shot. SwagFest is a little about promotion while having fun. But most importantly, it's about documenting the "base knowledge" for the benefit of the espresso-loving community.

Thanks again for your contributions and good luck!
Dan Kehn

papalatte
Posts: 29
Joined: 19 years ago

#2: Post by papalatte »

Dan:
You also have a way with your writing, I've enjoyed reading your Blogs etc. ( I'm "written word challenged" This much was difficult. ) I just wanted to thank you for HB!

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