Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Hello Everyone! First entry :)

I've decided to dedicate some time into this blog and write a little bit of everything about me.

Hi!  If you don't already know.  My name is Mary.  I love a good food, company and traveling!  Grew up in Sunny Southern California.  I just can't get enough of the great food and weather out here.  

Groups I am a part of

Gogobot Pro - Travel based website and app to rate hotels, restaurants and attractions. The Gogobot community is really helpful if you need any recommendations for a trip or places to go. Gogobot has 1-4 events depending on the month. Their events are focused on experience/adventure based and less on food. I like how you can make postcards with your photos on the Gogobot app and it's really easy and simple to use. The LA community managers Audrey/Justin and the ambassadors (Sandra, Tara, Alice) are super awesome in organizing events. I recently attended SD branch and it was an amazing experience as well. Tiffany and Becky were super friendly and I loved the San Diego community.
www.gogobot.com




Tastemade - A mix of Vine, Instagram, and Yelp all together. It's an upcoming review site that is video based. They are now on Apple TV! Users upload videos reviewing their favorite places to eat, events, etc. They can select photo filters for their reviews, fonts and sounds to make it stand out. Tastemade also feature Tastemade chefs that show you how to make cute and yet simple dishes. They usually have 3-5 events monthly in Santa Monica for Bite Club where they host local eateries under the theme (BBQ, Mardi Gras, etc.) It's too bad they discontinued their Amazing Taste series. I had a great time getting to know fellow Tastemade foodies and meeting their wonderfully mega cool staff (Nitar and Taylor) at the Amazing Taste series.
www.tastemade.com



Yelp Elite - One of my favorite sites to-go-to in order to find a store or events and got me into reviewing in the first place (special place in my heart). There's a lot of events posted on their site for people to get together and interact. Users are always putting reviews for up and coming restaurants. I love that they have community in Orange County and that their community manager Ryan and Yelp interns (Jeni and Sarah) are unbelievably incredible organizing some great events. Typically, Yelp usually hosts 1-5 events monthly depending on the community manager. Some of the events are Elite status only while others are open to the public but you have to RSVP on yelp. They have two LA yelp groups (LA East and LA West) along with North San Diego and San Diego so they always have events happening. I've been to a North San Diego event and Trish, the community manager, was delightfully charming.
www.yelp.com



Google Local Experts - Is still pretty brand new in the Los Angeles and San Diego area but it's one of the sites I would love to see grow. Google is creating it's own review based site that's integrated in Google maps and Google search which I think is pretty darn awesome and would save me the trouble finding reviews and places. They're branching out slowly in other parts of the world (Syndey, Paris, London, Barcelona) not just in the states. I wish they would have more official events because Jess and Shannon, the community managers, are great in decorating and finding great caterers for the events. The Google last event I went to (Beach Clean up) was well organized and we made significant dent in cleaning our environment.
https://www.google.com/local/guides/