Friday was a bit of a run around day for me. My first stop of the day was a seminar called Tea Room Survival. I was hoping to pick up some tips to help us at +Tea Drunk. Most of what was covered didn’t really apply to us or they were common knowledge sort of things that we’re already doing. Not all tea rooms serve food and flavored teas! After that was over I did a little bit more walking the floor. Christine from Camellia Forest was kind enough to give me a couple of tea seeds. Much to our surprise, one of them was already germinating in the Ziploc baggie.
I was perusing the aisles with +Chris Giddings when we realized that we were missing the start of the US League of Tea Growers. Although we missed some introductions, we managed to catch most of the presentations. There was a large turnout and it was great to hear from tea farmers in Hawaii, Mississippi and Alabama. The end of the event was a momentous occasion because I finally got to meet +Geoffrey Norman in person. He’s one of my oldest “tea friends” since we started reviewing for Teaviews.com together before either one of us had a blog. Afterward, we ran off to the shindig at Teas Etc’s booth where we ran into +Nicole Schwartz.
We were having so much fun that we had to race to the Tea Blogger’s Round Table. I was a bit nervous since I was on the panel for the first time. Joining me from left to right was +Linda Gaylard, +Jason Walker, +Chris Giddings, +Jen Piccotti and +Gary Robson. Our moderator +Naomi Rosen came up with some great questions, many of which were challenges that we all face. +Nicole Schwartz was kind enough to live tweet all of the action. It was interesting to hear the other blogger’s perspectives. The audience asked some great questions and I had a chance to meet some people that I had been missing the last few days like +Ricardo Caicedo, +Charissa Gascho and +Bonnie Eng.
Many of our friends were off to the awards dinner on the Queen Mary so a bunch of us went to a local pub type joint. After returning to the beach house we learned that +Elyse Petersen had won the award for Best Social Media Reach and +Tony Gebely had won for Best Tea Blog. Congratulations guys! Both awards were well deserved.
Stay tuned to the blog tomorrow. I’ve got an interview with James from +Aiya America Organic Matcha green tea to share with you!