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July 27th, 2012
Friday was a very full day! We started the day early at the
allrecipes.com offices. Upon arriving at the office, we were treated to a lovely breakfast with many wonderfully delicious treats! Once our bellies were full, we all gathered together to hear about the culture
allrecipes.com creates in their everyday working environment.
allrecipes.com is my kind of place! They believe in creating an all inclusive environment. They understand everyone is entitled their own point of view, and they try to maintain a respectful, non-judgmental environment. They have many different programs to keep their employees happy - such as massages in the office every other week!! They work hard to make it an environment where people want to get out of bed in the morning and come to work! Refreshing!
Additionally, they know their stuff. They understand their product and appreciate the folks who have helped to make their site successful. They are always looking for ways to improve the site, and are very open-minded to ideas.
The staff spoiled us rotten! Not only did they fly many of the Allstar Ambassadors to Seattle (nearly 70 of us!!) and put us up in a wonderful boutique hotel, but they spent the day telling us how important WE are!! They made the Allstars feel like ROCKSTARS!!
I attended several workshops throughout the day that gave me insight into what makes
allrecipes.com tick! I attended a Business Intelligence workshop where we learned about all the performance stats they look at each day. These stats help keep them at the top of their game and maintain their status as the #1 food site on the web!!
After the Business Intelligence workshop, I attended a Social Media Marketing workshop and learned how
allrecipes.com uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc... to promote the site.
We broke for lunch, and my sweet girl brought me a yummy sandwich from
Piroshky Bakery. Madison spent time at the Seattle Aquarium on Friday while I was in my workshops. She left the aquarium in time to eat lunch with me outside the offices (in the cold - it was quite chilly on Friday). She is such a sweetie!
After lunch, Mads went shopping while I attended more sessions at the
allrecipes.com offices. I learned more about how the recipe submissions are analyzed and chosen for the site. allrecipes Elizabeth filled us in on the process and was looking for our input into how they can improve the process. It was very imformative, and many of the Allstars had great ideas! Then I moved onto a video session where I learned about the video channels on the site. There are many more than I knew, and I intend to utilize that feature much more as a result! Michael K. gave a great presentation, and I'm looking forward to see the growth of the video side of
allrecipes.com in the future.
Our day was coming to an end and we all gathered together again for closing remarks. Everyone received a certificate, and that's when I realized I needed to do a better job getting to know my fellow Allstars. There were just so many of us - it was difficult to get to know everyone! For those I did get to talk to - even for a short amount of time - I feel so much closer to. Even so I have known many of these folks for a year now online - it takes it to a whole new level getting to meet everyone in person.
THANK YOU,
allrecipes.com for making it possible to meet so many wonderful folks!!
At about 3:30 we all headed back to the hotel to get freshened up for the big birthday bash! We met back at the offices around 4:30 and partied for a few hours in honor of
allrecipes.com 15th Birthday!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY allrecipes.com
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| Coolest Ice Sculpture ever! |
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| Allstars |
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| Delicious treats |
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| Sweet Carrie and me sporting our allrecipes.com orange! I miss her already! |
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| Beautiful Maria and I enjoying the party! Maria is such a sweet and beautiful person - I miss her. She owns Century House Soaperie and makes the most wonderful handcrafted bath and body products. She was so kind to supply each of the Allstars with their very own body lotion! Mine is lemongrass scented! I don't know how she knew - but that is one of my favorite scents!! The lotion is so creamy and makes my skin feel so soft and wonderful! I need to place an order!! Check out her Facebook page here |
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| Door Prizes |
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| Chef Karen busy making her tasty creations |
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| Sweet Ivory - love the costume!!
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| and the winner is.... (there were lots of winners! allrecipes.com knows how to throw a party!!) |
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| #RecipeForHappiness |
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| I've never seen someone so happy to win an oven mitt!! |
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| The oven mitt lost out to the flip video!! |
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| Julie and me - Julie you are one awesome lady!! |
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| Big Winner!!! |
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| yummmmmmmmm |
It was a great party! But that is not all!
allrecipes.com invited all the Allstars to join them on Saturday evening for a BBQ and to watch the SeaFair Parade right there at the office! Watch for another post about our last day in Seattle...
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Marion, I had so much fun reliving the experience through your photos! Had to laugh out loud at oven mitt man. That was so funny. I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to meet you and hope that we get the chance again. Fantastic post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Valerie! Oven mitt man was so cute - he saw the camera and just took the opportunity to pose! Love him! It was fun meeting you in person, and I do hope we get the chance again. I would love to have more time with you and everyone else!
Deletewhat a great post! the crew at allrecipes is fun and welcoming... just like the site! thank you for sharing your memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angela! We miss you! We should plan some FL adventures!
DeleteMarion thanks for making the trek to Seattle and what a wonderful post this is. It surely was fun putting faces and names together LIVE. Cory
ReplyDeleteThank YOU! and the whole allrecipes crew! What a fabulous trip!! I knew allrecipes.com was my favorite website for a reason!! and even better behind the scenes! Thanks for stopping by my blog (((hugs)))
DeleteYou are the awesome one Marion! Loved both you and your daughter though I wish I had way more face time with both of you. What do you think....... Maui Oct.2013 ????? Julie aka mauigirl
ReplyDeleteawwwwww - mauigirl you are too sweet! I miss you bunches. I wish we had more face time too. It was very overwhelming for me. I tried to get time with everyone, but it just wasn't happening. It's hard for me - I was in a bad accident a few years back and haven't been the same since with memory and things. Thankfully, you were a familiar face from online <3. I am going to do my best to be in Maui next Oct. Sounds like a great plan to me!!
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