I am surprised that I'm one of the first AR Staffers to report back on RE Bar Camp (Rich beat me to it...dangit!), but I have to say that I have a valid excuse!  But first, the play-by-almost-play from my Bar Camp experience.

As you know, this is the first one I've attended as a Rain staffer.  Usually, I stay back at HQ and make sure everyone's flights are lifting off properly, answering phonecalls, and trying to keep the deluge of tickets down to a dull roar.  This time, however, since Bar Camp took place in my lovely home town of Seattle, Washington, a mere THREE blocks from my actual home, I got to go play with the big kids.

The morning started off with me staring at the Wells Fargo sign and checking and rechecking the address that I was supposed to show up at.  "WTF?" I thought, one hand on my hip, frowning at the sign.  "Why doesn't Zillow have a sign up?  Am I even in the right spot?"  A polite doorman offered me a smile and directed me to the 41st floor, and up I went.  It's weird to me that a company so large doesn't have any branding on the outside of its building where it can be seen, but I digress, signage is not the point of this piece.

Moving on.  The first person I noticed (whom I knew) was Jeff - lovely Jeff! I was so relieved to see that he was there, because if he was there, that meant both Bob and Brad had already arrived, too.  Which MEANT: I was not the first ActiveRain staffer to arrive.  Now, folks, despite my innate and unfiltered ability to tell it to you all exactly how it is, I have a heart-stopping fear of strangers asking me questions about the Rain.  I worry that I'll get the answers wrong and someone will have to correct me, confusing you, making me look like an idiot, and thus killing any credibility I may have. The fact that the guys had already arrived put a bounce back in my step.

It seemed like food arrived shortly after I did; I spent a good hour BSing with Crista Caulk and our very own ActiveBrad as they tapped various important projects out on their laptops, and then suddenly, we were ousted out of the room by sandwiches arriving!  The boys down at Jimmy John's were nice enough to run and make me a sandwich without tomatoes (I'm allergic) when I asked whether anything they brought was devoid of such, thank goodness - I would have been starving later because as the sandwiches were done being laid out and Rich gave the go ahead to open the flood gates, my Martha sense took over and I was setting out drinks, chips, directing people to the roast beef, tossing water bottles across the room, and making sure all the hungry RE Bar Campers were fed.

Tired, I finally made my way out of the little room and flopped into an arm chair in the "lobby".  Rich Barton (of Zillow) sat down next to me, gave my nametag a secretive little glance, and suddenly thrust out his hand, "Hi, Claire, I'm Rich Barton!"

Flustered, I blinked.  I have, not kidding, applied for a job with this guy three different times.  Although it seemed like an eternity between the time he introduced himself and I shook his hand, it all happened in a matter of a milisecond.  "It's a pleasure to meet you," I answered, a big smile splitting my face.  We made some niceties and discussed the conference shortly, then got onto the topic of the Rain. 

The best part of the conversation came next:

Rich Barton: ActiveRain is... *pause* Hold on, thinking of something nice to say.
Me: Kicking your ass? *big smile*

To my credit, he didn't throw me out, but he did give me a slightly incredulous look as though he hadn't quite expected such a challenge to come out of my mouth.  I was always taught that when you're in someone else's court, you have to bring your A Game, and this was no different.  All in all, it was a pleasant conversation, but you all seriously should have seen the other staff's eyes bug out of their head as the story made its rounds through Jon, Bob, Jeff, and crew.

(Moving on again.)  I sat in on Rich and Brad's panel about ActiveRain as the day progressed, and it was an interesting thing to see them work in tandem; I can see why the community trusts those two so much.  They really do know what they're talking about.  I was pleased to be able to offer up some useful information and advice to some of the people in the panel who were learning how to use ActiveRain to help their business or to make connections, myself. 

I can't count how many freaking pictures were taken of me (grr) or how many hands I shook.  I do hope that in making rounds and meeting people, some good information was passed about the Rain and about what we do here.  I realize that RE Bar Camp was not simply about ActiveRain, but I can't help but feel that we had a major presence there.  I have a whole pile of business cards (and went through quite a few myself!) of people whom I met, so if you see me suddenly subscribed to your blog, that's why ;)

I learned a few things, myself:

1. I am apparently the definition of transparency (according to Brad).
2. I'm apparently funny (according to Sonny Kwan).
3. I apparently do finger quotes a lot (according to Rich's capture of me in his video).
4. I use the word "apparently" too much, as evidenced here.
5. I takeover any mundane task that appears to have no supervisor (including feeding 400).
6. I should never, ever wear heels for 15 hours at a time, especially when I'm running around trying to help an event.
7. I should never, ever, ever, take Jon's advice on sushi (I've been puking my guts out since Friday night).
8. Next time, I'm bringing hairspray and extra hair ties (I got asked by FOUR different people if I had an extra!)