Thursday evening at the Meza on Wardour Street was the venue. Upon arriving I got crossed off the list, entered the venue and caught a few familiar faces. Drinks were on offer, laptops on the side with the Three websites displayed. I hadn't got me bearings quite yet when @stephenwing tapped me on the shoulder and said hello. With company, I headed straight to the bar. All good meetups start at the bar. I got myself a beer and asked for a place to hang my jacket, after we were shown where to put them, we started chatting.
Someone somewhere and somehow (I don't quite remember) made us aware there was a competition to win an iPad. The answer was to be sent via SMS to a phone number with Name. The question was "which handset did Three launch in the UK" - myself and Stephen started throwing suggestions at each other. Then suddenly it clicked, I remember owning one when I was back in school, the first 3G handsets which offered so much, but sadly didn't quite deliver - the NEC e606 in question here. We were joined by @cbetta in trying to find the answers, mobile browser were launched and a scurrying of hits where sent to Google, Wikipedia et all. Then something else clicked! There were laptops out, why not use them? We headed to them, commandeered them and started searching. After a few minutes (15-20 mins) actually, we came to the conclusion; yes the NEC e606 was very likely, possibly the right answer. There's nothing better than instilling confidence in yourself than just sending the answer half heartedly, but nonetheless we did!
As we stood around talking about the other possibilities a few more familiar faces started showing up; @bensmithuk @jonchoo @mahadewa - as we all congregated together, @sarabolwell showed up, enthusiastic and full of energy as ever. She filled us in with what was happening in the Three UK team, the changes being implemented, what was happening with the Three Blog and grafting up ideas from us on how they could do more to engage with their audiences; customers, fans and interested parties - mostly led by @bensmithuk with ideas.
After a while discussions flowed onto handsets, which usually means grabbing David Kerrigan (@crinuboy) and interrogating him, in this instance he was willing to speak about a few things anyway. He pulled out the Blackberry Torch for a quick glimpse into see what he was using, a usual indicator to see if Three UK would be stocking it. Questions about the N8 C7, and E7 were directed at him, he gave the impressions they would be taken on board (with the C7 being confirmed).
I was introduced to Johanna (@JohannaWhitaker) who is behind the @ThreeUKLatest twitter account, she is a new member of the team and will be working with the community to make sure they are listening to what's being said, taking feedback and making sure Three are listening to their customers, fans around the country. Johanna was great chatting with, as she was new to the team I gave her some info about myself and how I've been working with the Three guys. All in all it was a pleasure meeting her first time.
During the event I was approached by @joebycro who initially welcomed me in, but did return later with a marker and some speech bubbles. He asked us to write down anything we would like to see coming from the Three Blog and ways to help them communicate better with us. As can be seen above there were some very good suggestions (questions that get answered), and some very outrages ones (Free Trips to Spain!). This clearly demonstrates that Three get this whole social malarkey business.
There isn't quite any other operator out there that actually gets into the faces off their customers, bloggers and people that have questions regarding their products like Three do. The key thing is more than anything else, they're willing to give facetime (no Apple affiliation here) and cover a broader spectrum than most others, who only seem to target specifics.
At the end of the night, everyone that attended got a chance to take home a Three MiFi unit to trial - and many did. To keep up with their experiences, you should follow @ThreeUKLatest on Twitter.
And the winner of the iPad competition - @mseckington - miss geeky. She'll be all over that. It's fair to say she's pleased about it!
Overall it was an enjoyable night organised by Brando who have taken over the Three account. I look forward to seeing what sort of interesting things they will be doing.
2 comments:
...so what was the correct answer? :)
@Jouni - I think I mentioned it in the post. The answer was the NEC e606.
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