Many thanks to my friend, the Cynical Sourcer, who pointed me to this excellent story about a $15,000 martini coming out of Japan. To many sourcing professionals, this is just the type of extravagance that makes fiscally sound and responsible people squirm on their bar stools. My favorite quote is the description of the “service” that comes with the actual vodka: “That price includes drink preparations table side, a serenade of “Diamonds are Forever” as a cut stone slides to the martini glass bottom, and later a ring mounting by a local jeweller.”
I had a number of people at our recent user conference comment to me that drinking beer in a brewery is a whole lot better than hanging out in a posh 5 star resort being schmoozed. Those blow out events might lead people to believe the hosting companies are doing well, but more appropriately have them scratching their heads trying to figure out exactly who all this money is being made from…oh yea, its the attendees!
It’s still not as expensive as Manchester’s slightly more expensive Diamond Cocktail, which uses a 1/2k pink tourmaline and diamond ring set in 18k white gold, and averages around $30,000 a pop, as I pointed out here:
You Know Your Recession Is Over When …
But David, on the other hand, you could interpret that holding an event at a Marriot is essentially is telling your customers: “we believe in overpriced mediocrity”. Not that Iasta’s solutions are overpriced or mediocre, but you can read into an event’s location in many ways. BTW: the room rates at Ariba’s event were very reasonable for the quality of the place. But in your defense, I’ll take a beer over an overpriced Chardonnay any day
David,
Pfft. Don’t worry about these other bloggers.. The point of you post is solid.
As a friend of mine from Las Vegas once commented, while I was admiring all of the free multi-million dollar spectacles in front of the new Vegas hotels: “This wasn’t built by losing money to the tourists coming here”.
As I also prefer a good beer over an overpriced cocktail, the good news is that there may be a compromise for all. The worlds strongest and most expensive beer (at only $100 a bottle), is American made: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/02/10/ultimate.beer/
Thanks Tony, and to clarify, my discussions were with people that had attended WorldSource, back in the hey day of opulence, not Ariba Live.
Tony, have you tried this $100 bottle of beer? I had a $15 bottle once and it tasted like beechwood aged rubbing alcohol. I will stick to my buck a bottle tastes for IPA and Stout.