If you follow this blog at all, you will know that I don't attend many blogger events.
If you follow my Instagram feed, you'll know that last night I did.
Generally I shy away from the "monetise your blog" crowd, and have never joined in a Twitter party. You won't find me shouting out about turkey brands, feminine deodorants, family-sized vehicles, or the like - mainly because it's not something I'm comfortable with. My idea of writing for a living is being paid for the quality of my words, not how much I can jump up and down online about product A, B or C.
I don't get many PR requests - if you check my blog you can easily see that I don't run many of the requests here. My Wee Guy and I reviewed an event at the Vancouver International Children's Festival a few years ago (btw, it's coming up soon - at the end of May) and we stomped our Palladium boots into the ground, giving them a thorough road test (Wee Guy grew out of his pair before they gave out - almost a year of almost continual wear and the soles were a bit thinner, the zips still worked, and the leather was comfortably soft = winners! please send another pair to try out). And that's about it.
So why the event last night?
Well - it was a Klout perk. My score was high enough to gain access to a blogger evening at Metropolis at Metrotown (the first private brand Klout party in Canada no less!). And I thought, what the heck!
Once there, I joined the line up, flashed the invite on my phone and entered the fenced off VIP area to browse from savoury nibbles, delicious fruity mocktails, and cupcakes (no adjective is required for cupcakes - they're just cupcakes from Original Cupcakes no less). Once refueled I checked out the sponsors for the evening, sampling Himalayan Salted Caramels from Purdys (thanks for the chocolate flower lollipop - the Wee Guy's eyes grew even bigger as I handed it over), and yummy smoothies from DQ/Orange Julius alongside an even yummier make-up demo from my favourite supplier, Benefit Canada (mascara! and the perfect shade of The Big Easy foundation, which I'll be adding to my cosmetics bag soon), and a lovely chat with the charming rep from L'Occitane who gave me a couple of samples of my fave lotions. I even got some Happy Water, which apparently contains a good dose of lithia (something to do with lithium) from some really upbeat promo reps, and tips on taking better self portraits from the event photographer :)
I posted, I tweeted, I Instagrammed ... I replied, thanked and hashtagged my way through the evening.
But now - what else do I do? What's the etiquette?
I had a lovely time. The music was great (thank you ms DJ). The nibbles were super. The sponsors were a lot of fun (especially the dancing Benefits cosmetics group) ... but what's my call to action here?
Have I gushed enough?
