It was a few hours ago now, but this afternoon we held the draw for the 50" HDTV that has been brightening our networking lounge since Tuesday morning.
The winner was the lovely Dianne Stayton of Web Your Business, who seemed more than a little excited to have won the prize.
Congratulations to Dianne. We had a lot of fun at the networking lounge this year.
A while later, at the other end of the exhibit hall, most of the exhibitors who had prizes to give away took the stage at the presentation theater to announce the winners (the TV was a little bit big to bring over there).
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At the conclusion of things, Keith Duncan of Ping! Zine took the stage. After a little grandstanding and the obligatory good-natured potshot at the WHIR, Duncan proceeded with the much-anticipated showstopper, giving five lucky winners the chance to sit on a motorcycle for a couple of seconds.
Nobody wins! Goodnight everyone!
I suppose it was understood in advance that there was really a very slim possibility that somebody would actually win the motorcycle (about 2 percent, I believe - five people each drawing a key from a bowl of 250, one of which apparently unlocked the box containing the actual key to the bike). But it was still a big of a lame duck promotion, and it should have been apparent to everyone hyping it up that it would be a bit of a let-down as big end-of-show prize drawings go.
Sure, it would have been fun if, against all probability, somebody had actually won that motorcycle. As it turns out, there was a bit of "how do we know there's a real key?" and "let everyone take one more key." Nothing too serious, but it wasn't much fun. I'd rather have a Nintendo Wii.
Kudos to Keith for making a big to-do out of what basically amounted to nothing. I suppose it was a pretty good promotion at the end of the day.
By the way, you heard it here first: at HostingCon 2009, anyone who can throw a baseball from Navy Pier to the W hotel wins 100 spaceships, courtesy of the Web Host Industry Review (a challenge made all the more difficult by the fact that the event's going to be in Washington DC).
