Flippin' Swag

Last night I told you about Ed and I attending the International Truck's VIP Press Event. If you're interested in some of the details and a few pictures, you can check at my post over Life On The Road. The purpose of this post is to tell you about food and the swag, baby! First of all, I had no idea what to expect when I showed up. All I knew was that the dress was business casual and I was going to be taking pictures and writing a bit about what I saw while cruising the show floor. When we got there and checked in, the cocktail hour was already in full swing; open bar and h'ordeuvres. Tiny little food on tiny little plates: Grilled Baby Lamb Chops, a Medallion of Pork Loin served on a Polenta square, Chicken Cordon Bleu bites, Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce speared with a sprig of rosemary:

During the cocktail hour, Ed and I located Dan, the guy I was supposed to meet, who was in charge of the media stuff for the event. He handed me a Flip camera and told me what they wanted me to cover, gave me an idea of the kind of video they were looking for, things I can take pictures of and just sort of outlined how he's like to see the show documented for the LOTR blog and the Facebook page. The flip camera is cool, isn't it?

Know what makes it even cooler?? It's MINE!! Hell, yeah!! He gave me a brand new Flip camera! To keep. All for me! Isn't that freakin' awesome? I'm kinda thinkin' Dan is The Man. With that, Dan ushered us into the event and introduced us to a few people before directing us to the girls who seated us. We were sitting in the "VIP" section, with all of the other press people. Fun side note: As I was walking to my seat, someone called my name. My first thought is always, "Shit. Who can possibly know me here??" I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Tom Kelley, the writer who wrote the articles about Ed and I and Kendall and Michelle for Student Driver Placement Magazine. He saw the name on my nametag as I was passing by. Pretty observant. After the main event (which again, you can see a few pictures of over on Life on The Road), they served food to the crowd. Again, everything was tiny, like Tapas. Here's a picture of a few of the things we had. You can click to enlarge it if you want to drool. On the plates, from left to right, top to bottom: 1. Chicken Satay wrapped with Prosciutto, served on a bed of couscous. 2. Crabcake with slaw, served atop a delicious Remoulade. 3. Pork loin wrapped in peppered bacon, served with a cranberry chutney. 4. Macaroni and cheese served in a cone (not edible) with a chunk of lobster and a side of saffron risotto with a mushroom sauce. (can't see in this picture) 5. Salmon Roulade with a side of Pasta tossed with shaved parmesan and crispy garlic slices. 6. Sliced tenderloin sprinkled with crispy onion straws and a dollop of bourbon BBQ sauce.

After dinner, we hit the dessert table; Bread pudding with a Maker's Mark bourbon sauce, a red velvet cupcake with frosting and a Bourbon Ball - dense chocolate cake with a bourbon infused ganache center. The bread pudding was my favorite. After dinner, we milled around and checked out the International booth, and also walked around the show floor a little bit. People were still setting up their booth, and it looked as if some of them were going to be working until the wee hours of the morning. When the evening was over, we were instructed to hit the "Media" booth to pick up our parting gift. I love gifts, so I was all over it. Both of us were issued a voucher for gifts; Ed after all, was my translator for the event. The girls at the booth handed each of us a black neoprene laptop bag. Our goodies were inside. When we got back to the truck, we started to go through our bag; press kit, memory stick, wristwatch. Wristwatch?? It's a little Mission Impossible looking....and it took Ed a minute to figure out what it was. But once he turned it on, he realized that it's not a wristwatch at all. It's an iPod Nano!!! Again...how awesome is that??? So in addition to being part of a great press meeting, being in on the first information available to the media on what they were going to be displaying at the show, we also got a fantastic meal, YUM desserts, a rockin' Flip Cam and TWO iPod Nano's!! I am so thrilled to have been part of this, I would do it again in a heartbeat. And if this is the kind of perks "press" people get...I'm so all over it. I'm going to have to get a fedora with PRESS tucked into the hatband.

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