While I am an eBay employee the following are my personal views. I don't pretend to speak for the company.

My first day as an official eBay employee was at the eBay Live Conference in Orlando.  I flew myself down because I wanted a chance to meet the eBay user community and to understand their needs and problems with the existing user interface. Little did I know the fun and craziness which would ensue :)

about 10,000 users, mostly sellers, were in attendance along with 600 employees from all different divisions of the company.  eBay knows that their success is built on the success of their customers, thus the theme for the show, "You're the star!"

Another important point that really hit home at the conference was that eBay works because of the efforts of real people.  These are small business owners of all sorts, from husband and wife teams, to companies of 50 or more, to entrepreneurial teenagers. These are real people speaking with real voices. 

The conference was a lot of fun.  Ebay understands that many of their users are collectors by nature, so they provided a number of things for attendees to collect.

• Buttons
• Cards
• Bucks

Each Ebay employee was given some of each to give out to attendees at different events throughout the conference and to encourage people to ask questions and give feedback.

Buttons

There were around 20 buttons for different categories at eBay including: Collectibles,  Fashion, Computers, Motors, Tickets, etc. 

Not all pins/cards were equally plentiful.  A market is only interesting is there is scarcity, so some pins were harder to come by then others.  There were also a limited number of coveted gray versions of each pin. 

Cards

In addition to the pins there were a collection of 22 trading cards that highlighted aspects of eBay or the user community.  Each card was numbered and there was a healthy market for trading cards, including the limited edition Meg card.

Bucks

The last thing attendees collected were eBay bucks. This fake currency was given out at show booths, after games, and by eBay employees.  The money was used at the end of the conference during a live auction for cloths, books, and eBay schwag signed by Meg.

The show had a carnival like atmosphere with lots of games and fun.  Both the users and the eBay employees seemed to enjoy themselves.

Beyond the fun, the conference was also about learning how to grow your business

It was very inspiring.  I talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, most of whom had started their business from scratch and were growing.  Over 75 classes were offered to help people learn how to take their business to the next level.  For many sellers eBay is now their full time job.  Last year at eBay Live the company announced a program to offer Health Benefits to all PowerSellers.  Many employees are also sellers on the site.  Talking to everyone I started to grasp the user interface challenge of designing a site to support the full user community; from first time sellers, to people selling a few items a week, to thousands of transaction a day.

The show floor was huge and filled with booths from various eBay categories (electronics, entertainment, business, tickets, etc) and third party companies like UPS, Channel Adviser, SquareTrade, and others that offer services to help sellers scale their business.

 
                         view from the show floor

The pinks lounge where eBay employees chat with customers.  These employees are called pinks because when an official rep posts in the community bboards their message background is pink.

Our CEO Meg Whitman gave the keynote.  It was the first time I had heard her speak and I thought she did a great job.  I think she understands the ethos of the eBay community and has good business sense.  I like where she's leading the company.

During the keynote Meg also invited Pierre Omidyar on stage.  Pierre is the company founder and Chair of the Board.  His vision of a user centered community based site was at the heard of eBay success and remains part of the core mission.

At the end of the keynote Weird Al Yankovic appeared on stage and performed his song 'eBay' (lyrics) which is a parody of a Back Street Boy's toon.

At the closing dinner they played the song again and spontaneously a bunch of users and employees climbed on stage and started singing and dancing.  After snapping this picture I ran on stage too.  Soon after Meg Whitman herself joined us.  There must have been 150 people singing and dancing on stage.

(listen to a snip from the song we were jamming to)

It was a special moment and one I won't soon forget.  Thank you to the eBay employees and user community for making me feel welcome.  I can't wait to get started. :)

My other eBay related posts

More Review of eBay Live 2003:

• Auction Bytes coverage
• Matt Croydon mentions a Washington Post article
• Buisness Wire report
• Bloomberg report
• The Register
• eBay Live schwag now for sale on eBay

are there any other eBay interested bloggers out there? Let me know.