Matt Stinchcomb, Anda Lewis, and Maria Thomas of Etsy fame made a one day trip to Vancouver this Tuesday and we had  grand ‘ol time chatting it up with them.

About 70 Vancouverites showed up for the shindig at Cambrian Hall (Thanks to everyone, especially Amanda (ebbandflo), Melanie (A Farmers Daughter, and Christy (buenostyle) for securing the spot, rounding up so many participants and organizing the nametags!). There were drinks, snacks, and lots of chatter to be had.

Maria Thomas, if you didn’t already know, is the relatively new CEO of Etsy. She joined in last summer and took over the position that red-headed Rob Kalin previously held.

Let me say this… I think I like her! It’s possibly that it’s because she reminds me of my boyfriend’s mother… However, it’s more probable that it’s because she’s the kind of person who I find approachable, yet authoritative (which is something that I think may have been lacking before – we need leaders who we don’t think of as our buddies). She answered our many questions and gave me some things to think about such as- what’s more important to the site in the long run- ease of setting up shop and having a market for every which person, or having a more in depth sign up process and henceforth weeding out some of the “don’t -ers”?

Matt and Anda on the other hand, are the kind of people you just want to hang around and get creative with! They’re all smiles and seem pretty laid back.  Some random thoughts: Anda is MUCH taller then I thought she was (although, I am much shorter than most people!). And Matt reminds me a bit of  Zach Braff. Which isn’t a bad thing. :)

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Matt and Anda doing “shake face”. lol.

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Here I am with Noah of drchoy.etsy.com and his lovely wife Kat!

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Although I didn’t find that there was much new to talk about, I’m really glad that I went and got to meet them in person and also met a whole slew of Vancouvers finest crafters (and buyers!) It was good to see the old faces and so many new ones too. So thanks, Etsy, for heading north to beautiful BC and staying for a chat!

You can see more pics by clicking here to my flickr page