Lots of people turned out for the Crush event. We raised $690 for the Food Bank and the balloon pop for charity was a success. Some of the giveaways were great, Elixir gave $150 for dinner for two, the Keg gave $100 for dinner, various others such as the Pacific Crab Co. and Relish also gave out gift certificates. 54 balloons were sold in total in the course of the evening. The balloon pop, where the ROI was significant also allowed me to gauge the person I was speaking to as well. Mostly the people who were open to the pop, ‘got it’, had a positive attitude, were open to new things – people that I was more likely to invite out to our events in the future. Pictures from this event are up in the Urban Mixer photos section. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time retouching red eyes.

On another note, tonight is the Social Empire event at Mo’ Butta. I’m really looking forward to it as the turnout should be better than last year’s event. Let’s see!

Frances and I, in our search for a new venue tried out Saveur tonight – the day after their media launch and the first day of their operation. They’re soft launching the restaurant and advertizing by word of mouth.

The food was good, they have a three course prix fixe menu with an appetizer, main and a desert. I enjoyed the Endive Salad, Veal Osso Buco (with gnocchi) and their Dark Chocolate Torte all quite well done. The dessert was especially well done, the chocolate was melt in your mouth good. Dinner for two was a bit over $100 (prix fixe was $38 per person) and included a couple glasses of wine and a couple bottles of Monteforte. I’ll go back, will even have to invite some people out for a dinner party or even the Social Empire. Their front lounge which seats approx. 6 would be good too.

We learned alot from the event about running them as well as about the overall process.

Frances was very helpful in the whole process and overall the attendees were quite happy with the end result of the event.

Things learned:

• The men will need some coaching through the process – some people didn’t get to see all men in the room because some of the guys randomly switched tables instead of counting up by table number. I’ll make it a point to have someone (or myself) put some face time explaining the process to the guys.
• Change catering company – for the $200, the guests weren’t impressed. One guest even labelled the appies as unappies. We got a couple plates of samosas and coconut prawn skewers. The catering which was provided by Potluck Catering, a social enterprise in the Downtown Eastside, wasn’t very inspired. I thought it might have been the selection of food last time so this time I left this affair up to the caterer. Next time, we’ll head off to the Gallery Café as our previous experience with them has been excellent.
• Guys are hard to find in this city, get the early and get them fast. Apparently there’s two girls to every guy in this city so why am I not dating an ubermodel yet?

After the event, I grabbed Frances, Eugen and Brady, we went out to Inferno for dinner. Food was good as usual, Ghalib was friendly and considerable as well. We’ll have to do something else there soon.

I can’t wait until next week when Frances will have her 1 year party. I look forward to seeing it in action! No huge plans for the weekend – probably best left to relax.

It was serendipity. Jules, one of our members, e-mailed out last Friday in the morning letting her contact list know that she was to attend a wine tasting on Monday night but was without a partner in crime. Despite the fact that I was in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, using my cellphone’s GPRS connection to check my e-mail and only had 15 minutes of battery power left on my laptop, I was the first respondent to her e-mail.

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I spent the last day with Galit of Haaretz (Israeli daily newspaper), showing her around town and doing some shopping. I picked up some foie gras – nothing spectacular.

On the morning of return, I cruised back to the airport at 160km/h. The cab driver was quite proficient and for this he got quite a good tip. I boarded and took the plane (Lufthansa) to Frankfurt.

The trip from Frankfurt to Toronto aboard Air Canada was dissapointing. The stewards and stewardesses are all way over the hill. I have concerns that a fat, balding, 50+ year old man isn’t going to save my ass during an emergency. Another issue is that this person remains to being a flight attendant, bitching about how his pay has been cut twice instead of thinking on how he might be able to apply his knowledge in serving those of multiple cultures in contributing back to society.

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It’s funny, I’m sitting in a panel that’s discussing “Blogs and Grassroots Media” with D. Gillmor as Chair, Dresdner Kleinwort, DAD, LinkedIn and The Guardian participating.

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