Thursday, June 15, 2006

QVC Red Carpet Weekend - Recap Friday night

I arrived early for the Friday night the kick off of Red Carpet weekend at QVC Studio Park. As I lurked in my car waiting for my sister to arrive I was scouting out the other folks coming to the weekend and as I suspected, they were almost all older, plumper, and nerdier than us. Up until the time she arrived and we actually started walking towards the building I was thinking that we should skip it and go home because this was such a nerdy thing to be doing.

We walk into the building on an actual red carpet. There was even a guy with a giant camera snapping pictures, thankfully not of us. We were greeted by a swarm of name-tag wearing QVC executive types who shook hands, thanked us for coming and swept us into the lobby. Once inside we signed a release form so they can use us on TV or in advertising and then issued us our name tags for the weekend -- complete with our schedule of activities for the next three days. I was on team Diamonique. They also handed everyone a Fuji disposable camera so you could get snapshots with all the QVC stars without feeling like a crazy nut who brought their own camera along.

One the "festivities" started we were taken upstairs into the studio tour area where we could look down onto the sets and see them filming the on air stuff. We also got to meet lots of QVC hosts who were chatting and signing autographs and generally milling around schmoozing with us. We saw: Lisa Robertson, Rick Domeier, Bob Bowersox, Dave James, Jill Bauer, Carolyn Gracie, Antonella Nestor, Dan Wheeler, Dave King. I can't think of anybody else. It was like Disney world where they crowds line up for autographs and photos with Mickey Mouse. Totally odd and funny yet we got sucked right into the mix. My general impression of the hosts? They are all much shorter in person. The men look better close up than the women who tended to have too much makeup on to look normal. Bob Bowersox was notable for having a very ill-fitting and outdated outfit that looked like he stole it from 1985.

We also got to talk to Emme the plus sized model who was nice and funny and was making fun of Dennis Basso (famous QVC guest) and she posed for a goofy photo with me for Brian who totally loves her. She also hinted that we'd be getting great free stuff. She gave us a sales pitch on QVC quality standards and stuff about sizes being true so maybe someday I will order her clothes.

Nothing much else went on except having snacks and awesome desserts while we wandered around. We also learned that we were selected at random to attend this party. They send 600 invitations and take the first 250 YES responses. People came from 31 states (including Hawaii) plus DC and Puerto Rico. On our way out they handed us all red roses.

We headed home around 9:30 because we had to get a good night's sleep for the big day tomorrow. Our Vendor Expo visit started at 9am sharp!

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