A Night At The Market

Yesterday I took a three hour drive to Chicago to check out a party thrown by the good people at Microsoft. The Night Market Event, as it was known, is just one in a series of cross country parties to help promote the second cycle of Windows Phones. Microsoft promised us food, drinks, a whole lot of swag, and a really good time. I'll just be frank here- they did not lie. The party was amazing.

The picture above was the scene as we entered the MCA Warehouse- it emanated classy and cool; swanky is the word I believe I'm looking for. Microsoft had the whole upper level decked out with bars, Windows Phone booths, interactive demos, and more. It was a little dark for pictures, but my Samsung Focus held its own considering it's all I brought with me. People took pictures with Angry Birds masks, played Fruit Ninja while being hounded by real ninjas, and watched as some of the amazing Microsoft staff went through all of the ins and outs of Windows Phone 7.5. Four devices (Samsung Focus S, Samsung Focus Flash, HTC Titan, HTC Radar) were on display for demos; the two Nokia devices were nowhere to be seen.

Past the chance to eat, drink, and be merry, Microsoft provided plenty of chances for people to win stuff. QR codes, scannable wristbands, and Twitter competitions were just a few of the ways that any of the attendees could win. They were giving away t-shirts, Zune passes, Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, and yes, even Windows Phones. I actually got a Windows Phone in a "quick tweet" competition at the top of the night. (Just a word of advice to those who are attending these events: it would help to know the @windowsphone tweet tag by heart before you tweet. When I finished my tweet, many others were just starting to type, as their Twitter app hadn't loaded yet.)

Anyways, I won an HTC Radar, and in less than 24 hours, it has become my new everyday phone. I'll have more on it later in the week after I've thoroughly played with it.

My first ever Fried Twinkie- where have you been all my life?

To cap off the night, there was a band! The Drums, an indie pop band from Ohio (I got that from Wikipedia!), got up on stage and jammed for a while- I had never heard of them before, but I liked them...at least enough to download some of their music. Everyone in my vicinity seemed to enjoy them too, so that was a win/win. Check out the pics below.

If you want to check out one of these events, I definitely recommend that you do so. Microsoft is halfway through their tour now, but they're still hitting various locations around the country from Boston to San Francisco in the next 10 days. Scratch that- I don't recommend that you go to one of these events, I DEMAND that you do. ALL BOW BEFORE THE HOLDER OF THE MIGHTY RADAR!

So...yeah. For a complete list of cities, check out the city list HERE. Invite your friends or your significant other, and believe me when I say that a good time will be had by all.