Verizon VIP "Feed Your APP-etite" Party (Crowdtap)

As a member of Crowdtap, I'm occasionally offered the opportunity to apply to host a party promoting one brand or another.  I've applied for every party that came along for the past few months, but was never chosen.  This spring, I applied to host a Verizon VIP "Feed Your App-etite" Party and  I was chosen!  YIPPEE!

Swag provided by Verizon Insider

Problems in shipping of the Verizon promo kits caused me to reschedule my party a couple of times, but we finally were able to host last Friday evening.  I wanted to give my guests some goodies to take home, so I visited our Verizon store and they provided pens, phone stands, coozies and magnets.  My promo kit included 4 bracelets, 2 water bottles and a shopping bag, and I planned to use the water bottles and shopping bag as prizes.

As party time approached, we set up and decorated our patio in bright red, arranged the food and goodies on the table, and prepared to fire up the grill.  Then the hot Oklahoma wind paid us a visit.  Having a plan B is always important...and we moved our party indoors to enjoy the comfort of air conditioning.

Ready to eat!  

Our menu consisted of grilled steaks, baked potatoes, baked beans, fresh fried okra and a cool tossed salad.  The steaks were fantastic!  Our dessert was cupcakes decorated with Verizon flags.  I scattered the Verizon goodies randomly on the table for my guests.

As we ate, we discussed our favorite apps.  Of those attending our party, one person had a Blackberry and AT&T, one had an iPhone and AT&T, and the rest were Verizon customers with Motorola and HTC phones.  I was surprised that most people prefer the game apps over any other apps, and Angry Birds was the favorite.  So, after we ate, we had an Angry Bird race.  The person who completed level 1 in the shortest time won the Verizon shopping bag and two runner-ups got the Verizon collapsible water bottles.  I tried to get photos, but I barely had time to be a good hostess, much less take photos and tweet.

Winner of the Angry Birds competition!

Favorite apps were (in no particular order):  flashlight, Angry Birds, Instagram, various barcode scanners (ShopSavvy, ScanLife, Red Laser), TuneIn Radio, and social media (Twitter and Face Book).  One person enjoys the Amazon Kindle app.  When given the opportunity to download an app that cost money, no one could think of any they wanted that they could not either get free, or find a similar app that was free.

Everyone really enjoyed the freebies provided by our Verizon store.  The favorite freebie of all were the phone stands!

Phone stands were a big hit!

Those of us on Verizon also discussed the new Verizon Share Everything plan, and it appears none of us will be saving any money.  Our bills will remain about the same, but the money will be redistributed to different areas, and we will lose our unlimited data.

We had a great time, even though our "outdoor" cookout and party turned into a "come into the house where it is cool and not windy" party.  Thank you to Verizon Insiders and Crowdtap for sponsoring our get-together.

I am a member of Crowdtap and Verizon Insiders. I received promotional items and financial compensation in return for hosting this event in my home.  As always, the opinions shared are my own.