January 23 | iDate2009, Miami

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GIMMEO

After years of planning, programming, discusions with intellectual property lawyers and generally just talking about how cool the gimmeo concept would be, it happened. We gave birth to gimmeo in a 10x10 foot booth at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

It was a lot of fun seeing the reaction from some of the biggest dating sites around. We knew we had a great idea, but were unprepared for the great reception we received from the site owners and other industry who's who of the online dating world—we had no idea the rest of the world hated virtual gifts as much as we do.

Our message was simple: Another way for social media users to socialize and a new way for social media sites to monetize. Being a conference for the social media industry, our message was well received. Online dating sites are searching for that competitive edge to attract new users and keep them onsite longer. And the weak economy has a lot of site owners searching for alternative revenue streams as advertising revenues slow. gimmeo is a great answer to both. Not sure if it was the timely message, or the copious amounts of V Chocolates caramels we were giving away, but we felt like the "belle of the ball".

Thanks to all the new friends we made especially Jeff and Lynn for shared meals and taxis, Monika for wearing our shirt and making it look good, the girls at White Label Dating for being so willing to eat all our extra chocolates, and all the dating sites who will be adding gimmeo.

Next time we promise to have t-shirts for everyone who wants one and not just the spokes model.

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January 25

OUR FIRST SOCIAL MEDIA PARTNERS

The first email came the day after our public launch at iDate2009. We had another site call us today. We were a little surprised at how quickly we were contacted by these sites. Being the first sites to use a new technology takes guts and we thank our early adopters for their willingness to be on the cutting edge and move social media forward.

It won't be long now.