iDate conference 2015 – part 4.

The final day of the conference arrived, and I spent the morning jumping between shaking hands with people and chilling in my room.  Being so close to the conference was a great thing.  I’m not a people person, so having somewhere I could go to when things got a little too much was a godsend.  Lunch was OK.  Not as good as the day before, but once again I got to chat with people about what we do on the site.  At 2pm I was sitting on the stage ready for the panel.  Marc Lesnick introduced everyone and gave me a glowing introduction.  He described me as a hero, explained that we do this purely to help people and told everyone to listen to what I had to say as I knew more about scammers than they did.  I do have a bad quality video of it that will be put up here as soon as possible.  This panel went really well.  Much more questions came my way, and I got to answer then with an air of someone who knew what they were talking about.  Afterward I was approached again with more questions by site owners about how to find if they were reported on our site.  After that was the final panel.  Eight of the biggest names in the dating industry sat on the stage for an hour and answered questions.  Now the conference was over and I could relax.

Elisa and I had arranged to meet for something to eat before the party that night.  Guess what I had.  Yup, another burger.  The party itself was a let down.  Most people had already left at that point, so a few of us went back to the Tropicana for drinks instead.  There I got to meet Svetlana Mukha, a matchmaker from Ukraine.  She was an absolute joy.  Passionate about what she does, and practically beaming as she showed me photographs from the weddings of people she had matched.  Marc joined us and even offered to drive me around the strip when he found out I’d hardly seen any of Vegas in my time there.  In the end it was agreed that Elisa and I would walk the strip the next day.  The night ended with Elisa and I in Marc’s hotel room discussing the dating industry until around 6am.

My final day was spent checking out the sights of Vegas.  We had a wonderful time taking in the view, avoiding the peddlars and generally soaking in the atmosphere.  We ate at Pin-up Pizza (no burger for me this time) and must have wandered around for 5 or 6 hours.  Then finally it was time for me to get my flight home.  The flights are a blur.  I dozed off a lot, almost fell asleep in Newark airport and spent the next 24 hours making my way back home.

So here I am, 2 days after landing, still jetlagged but otherwise back to normality.  There are a bunch of people I should thank for making Vegas such a pleasure.  Firstly Marc Lesnick for making sure I got there, Elisa Mclean for being such wonderful company, Scamalytics for being cool guys, Svetlana for showing me the good side of internet dating, all the people at the conference who made me feel welcome and the staff in the hotels and shops who shattered my illusions of the force smiled “have a nice day” I was expecting.  The next conference I’ll be attending will be in London, and I’m already looking forward to it.