Top 5 Things That Make Me Wish I Were at #ASAE10

As I blogged about in my guest post on the SocialFish blog, I didn't go to ASAE's annual meeting, which is going on right now in LA, and I'm plenty bummed about it. All my (imaginary, per my kids, who think the people I "know" from Twitter are mere figaments of my imagination) friends are there, plus people I'd love to meet IRL (that's "in real life" for those of you who don't speak nerd). But alas, here I sit, in Maryland, not in LA.

Lucky for me, though, I almost feel like I'm there, thanks to Twitter and the many blog posts coming from LA.

Sadly, though, as much as social media rocks, there are some things it just can't do. These are top 5 "IRL" things that make me wish I were there:

1. Technology Booth Crawl. I'm always looking for stuff to rationalize the fact that I use Foursquare on almost a daily basis, despite the almost total lack of any type of benefit. I think the technology booth crawl is an awesome idea and would have loved to have been there to see who was participating, what people were saying about it--and possibly win an actual prize.
2. Flashmob. Even though I would have sooner died of embarrassment than participated, I would have loved to see my braver-than-me YAP friends do this dance live...as well as the faces of the majority of attendees who undoubtedly had no idea what was going on.
3. Swag. I love swag and it physically pains me knowing that I'm missing out on free pens, cookies, post-its, and who knows what else. Last year my friends from the California Dental Association heard my plea for swag and sent me one of my faves: magnetic clips.
   
   They're still gracing my cubicle.
4. Jeff Hurt. Jeff Hurt is like a legend to those of us in the DC-area association community. His blog is incredible; he is super smart and a great writer and doesn't shy away from calling a spade a spade.
5. Kindle. I want to win a Kindle and I just know I would have won one if I'd been in LA.