Ebay Germany invited me to an Open Space in Berlin

I think it was 2 or 3 weeks ago when I got an invitation via email to come to an Open Space ( just to let you know "Open Space" is the new "Brainstorming").

Ebay invites me? Why? And is that for real? I answered with "Yes, I am interested" but also told them that I would be living in Ireland in 2 weeks from now. And I thought I am scratched off that invitation list.

Nope, instead I got phone call the very next day, shortly after that Ebay booked my flights and hotel and yesterday I got back from my very first Open Space with Ebay.

In Berlin are the Europe Headquarters - so in Berlin are Offices for Spain, Italy, France and so on.

The concept of an Open Space Meeting was totally new to me and at the beginning I was more than skeptical. But that technology worked and it was very interesting to see how everyone got really into it.

Why did Ebay invite me and 20 other German speaking Fun Site/Bloggers ? Well, it looks like Ebay Germany would like to start their own fun site - Something like "Ebay Fun" and they wanted to hear from the pros. Well, I feel honored to be called "pro" in something but compared to the other bloggers I was more an amateur and the saddest thing was, that more than half were at least 8 years younger than me.

CRYYYYYY!

Maybe Ebay could get some useful information out of us but at the same time I could connect with people who are doing the same thing (My friends in general just don’t understand what I am wasting my time with and when I tell them I got boingboinged again they just roll with their eyes And I learned tons of new things as well. And if Ebay decides to run such a site, they promised us that we will profit from it as well. Hmmm …. let’s see!

I would like to thank Ebay and the great team from VM-People.

Here now some quick pics from that day..

Ebay Headquartes are in Berlin in Dreilinden ..

Here a sign which states that the Volley Ball field is only for Ebay employees and last preparations for the Open Space (I think all the Bloggers in the room where like what the F … when they explained us what open space is)

Things we ,the Bloggers, wanted to talk about.

Ebay Reception.

As a little thank you we all got one of the Hawaii shirts, they are being used in the current Ebay TV Spots.

Me hanging out in the Ebay Coffee Shop.

Ebay Merchandise and the Ebay PEZ Machine.

The office Dreamcast and us bugging that poor guy - The tour through Ebay was not planned but was strongly requested by us.

Bye, Bye Ebay … you can invite me anytime again …

I take requests now to attend Open Spaces from Ebay USA,  Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon .. etc.

Tags: Open Space, Ebay, Dreilinden, Kleinmachnow, Fun Sites, Fun Bloggers, Auctions, Meeting, ProBlogger