_4th Annual Tampa GTG - SAT Report (50+ images) - some visible wrist shots as well ;)

[watchfan1]

It is not easy to describe the atmosphere and the fun we experience at these get-togethers.
It is not about the door prizes, it is not about if we break a new record in attendance every
time we have one of these and believe or nor it is not first and foremost about the watches either.

It is about people - it is about new and old friends. I am very thankful that this hobby
of mine allowed me not only to enjoy a watch or two - but also meet some
wonderful people and make some great friends.

Together with New York City (3x) - this was already our 7th large gathering (Tampa now 4 x)
For those that want to and have the time to participate - these events are not
only the GTGs meetings themselves. We always have a blast the whole weekend (starting to party
on Fridays in Tampa and actually starting in Thursdays in NYC.

Final count:
- 39 people in attendance
- between John Brozek with Qualitytyme.net, Yamron Jewelers, AvantGold, Ball watch USA, Orbita Winders
Henri Stern Watch Agency (Patek Philippe USA) and Rolex Daytona painting posters that
I donated - we had 41 total prizes !!
- Everybody received 5 tickets.......some people that came as couples would win 2, 3 or even 4 prizes,
some would win nothing.....but that's part of the fun ;)

Unbelievably and inexcusably - we forgot to take the traditional table shot of all the watches as well
as the traditional group shot. As there was other party following closely after us (we had the room 3-8)
our raffle drawing went a little longer and we simply ran out of time. This will NOT happen in New York, ...LOL !
After the GTG we had a smaller group of about 8 of us going to another sports bar and as we were taking
a small table picture of 4 watches - we realized in horror that while rushed we forgot about this. After the
GTG and after the Sports bat this long party continued in one another friendly establishment and finally
in 'casa-watchfan1' for final cheers with friends from out of town that were staying with me this weekend

Without going into too many details, I am sure that the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!
































































































































I would like to take this opportunity to thank one more time to all those that made this
great event happen: - All attendees, all gracious sponsors mentioned above that donated the
door prizes as well as the staff and the owners of the establishment that held the event for us.
I would also like to thank Mr. Brian Binnie - BALL watch spekesman who was attending a pilots convention in
Tampa. He was kind enough to stop by our event and meet fellow WIS. Mr. Bennie was a test pilot
for SpaceShipOne, the experimental space-plane developed by Scaled Composites with cooperation with
Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic that flew to space without any public/government support.

I hope to see many of you in NYC at our next big GTG on SAT May 15th.
(Many people from out of town will be arriving on THU - May 13th and as always,
we will stay at the same hotel and again will have a discounted group rate).

If you want to attend and register for NYC GTG on MAY 15th 2010, please E-MAIL ME NOW !!
I already created a new "NYC GTG 2010" folder in my E-mail where all your e-mails will be saved.
I will be creating a NYC-2010 registration page on my non-commercial hobbyist web site soon
and as soon as it is finished you will receive registration instructions and all details via e-mail.