We begin day three with some housekeeping. First of all, apologies to Sokratis Papafloratos from Trusted Places whose name I spelt wrongly yesterday. Sorry Socks.

Although in my defence, I did go to the hugely responsible journalistic length of Googling him and cutting and pasting the spelling from the first result I found.

Also, a couple of people mailed to point out that Stewart Townsend from Sun did take the initiative on the first night of The Clift Hotel and sponsored not one but two tables. Kudos, Sir.
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And so to day three of the Web Mission Fringe and, if there’s a correlation between time spent getting to the bar and the overall success of an event, the organisers of the Blurb meet-up and the Love 2.0 event last night should be feeling pretty bloody pleased with themselves.

The Blurb event in particular was so crowded that it might be the only place in the world where you could get DVT while standing.

Still – that’s the problem when you advertise that an event will be attended by two companies that attract fan boys by the million (Moo and Flickr). Lucky Apple weren’t co-hosts as well – the building would have exploded. If not the entire world.

The Love 2.0 event was a little weird too – not least because it finished at 11pm. A singles night that finished at 11pm. Think that through for a second (they hadn’t). The formula for a decent singles night in London is simple…

1) Have booze.
2) Stay open late enough for people to drink it.
3) Ensure enough drunken couplings result to ensure great word of mouth for next time.

One leads to two leads to three. Job done.

Booze they had – free booze in fact – which was an excellent start. But given that most people didn’t turn up until 9:30, there was only an hour to drink anything and meet people before last orders were called. Unless the room was packed with absolute sluts and man-whores (it wasn’t – these are Americans and there are rules) then there’s no chance of even getting someone’s number. Cue hundreds of disappointed San Franciscans being herded out into the night, unlaid and unimpressed.

Of course the WM Fringers had it figured. We rolled up at 9:30 after the Glasshouse event (more on that in a second), assessed the situation and decided to drink the free bar dry before dragging as many people as we could to a much cooler bar across the street for the main event. In other words, we Fringed a fringe event. Cue drinking ’til two in relaxed surroundings with a great crowd and then finishing the night with a huge American breakfast in the Pinecrest diner. Super.

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So – yes – Glasshouse. It was an absolutely astounding success. Michael Birch from Bebo AOL an island in the south pacific in conversation with Jim Buckmaster from Craig’s List.

Michael – if you haven’t seen him speak – is a brilliant interviewee. He doesn’t really reveal anything of course, but he does it with panache and wit so you almost don’t notice. I won’t spoil the fun for when the footage of the evening is published (watch this space), sufficed to say that Michael’s explanation for the huge success of Bebo was simply “my brilliance.”

But seriously folks, it was a really informative hour of so of discussion between two people who really know their stuff and who – more importantly – don’t take themselves too seriously. That tends to lead to much more candid information – as indeed it did – although the fact that both men were drinking throughout (yay Brits and hippies!) did help.

Also delightful were the free bar and the best canapes I’ve had in a very long time. They had an entire shellfish table, for fuck’s sake. Main course appetisers before the main event and then tiny desserts afterwards. And a free bar throughout. Eleven out of ten.

With the great presentation, the free booze and the great food, it’s no wonder the caliber of attendees was so high. Web Missioners were there in force, of course, but there were also plenty of journalists (Sarah Lacy – still suffering from ‘borderline pneumonia’ – was a no-show and it’s still weird to hear Pete Cashmore’s British accent IRL) as well as plenty of serious players to meet and greet.

The only piece of advice I have for the organisers – if I had to be ungrateful enough to offer one – would be to work a little bit harder on the way the sponsor is pitched. “HSBC is genuinely passionate about talking to entrepreneurs.” That line was used maybe half a dozen times in the intro and it took every ounce of my strength not to revert back to school assembly and hide the word “BULLSHIT” behind a loud cough.

“HSBC is as genuinely passionate about entrepreneurs as a multi-billion dollar enormous faceless corporate behemoth can possibly be.”

Still, they paid for the brilliant booze and food so I’ll give them a pass. In fact, I might even open a current account.

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So, to today. The Web Missioners spent the morning pitching to VCs at Heller Ehrman and then on to Google for an impromptu tour. I’ll leave TCUK to give the official review but the backchannel says that there were some really great – and genuinely interesting – pitches. A great success, then, at least on that front.

Also the trip involved another ride on a coach, allowing Oli to relive his days as a Butlin’s redcoat. Hi de hi Web Missioners.

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So – tonight the Fringe event of choice is the Digg Meet Up. Mighty on Utah Street from 6:30pm. It’ll be rammed to the roof with fan boys of course but there are going to be some actual humans 2.0 there too. A really good crowd, if Twitterings are anything to go by.

Be there or be thumbed down.