sMoRTy71.com: #3 SXSWi moment: Gary V's wine party (2009)

#3 SXSWi moment: Gary V's wine party (2009)
What do you get when you cram Gary Vaynerchuk, hundreds of social media folks and dozens of bottles of wine into the outdoor patio of a gay dance club on a Sunday night in Austin, TX? Turns out, you get a hell of a good time.


Gary handing out wine

Rumors had been circulating all day that Gary was planning to have a flash mob-style party *somewhere* in Austin. The original plan was to host it at Cedar Street. But after 10 or 15 minutes of handing out wine, the party was shut down (since there was already another event being hosted there).


Gary and me

Gary and team quickly regrouped and moved the party across the street to Rain. After making our way past some dudes in Speedos dancing, we found ourselves in an outdoor patio area at the back of the bar.


Christine Major, Pete Cashmore, Daniel Ha and Aaron Strout

Within 30 minutes, the place was absolutely nuts. We were crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder and Gary was passing wine and wristbands back through the crowd which included Pete Cashmore, Robert Scoble, Chris Heuer, Scott Monty, Todd Earwood, Jim Storer, Aaron Strout and many, many others.


Todd Earwood, Scott Monty and me

After the party at Rain ended, a group of 8 or 9 of us ended going with Gary to the Pure Volume event down the street. Unfortunately, they were at capacity and couldn't let anyone else in. I left the group at around 3am as Gary and crew started organizing a tweetup in the Hilton lobby.