The Low Down on Keeping Up – Verizon West Area Headquarters Visit

Visit to Verizon West Area Headquarters, Trip Provided…

Earlier this year, we switched our wireless phone service to Verizon. It wasn’t due to any special promotions or peer pressure. Rather, it has the best coverage in my area. That alone made me switch and I never really took the time to find out any more about the carrier company. Last week was pretty much an eye-opener for me in terms of learning about Verizon apart from it’s cell phone service. I was invited to southern California to visit the Verizon Headquarters here on the west coast. As a #VZWBuzz Lifestyle Ambassador, I was very interested in learning more about how their products and service could fit everyday life.

The Verizon team really put together some nice presentations for the #VZWBuzz Influencers. Due to a delayed flights, I missed the portion when they spoke in length about the company’s green initiatives. Another attendee filled me in with a few facts. Did you know that the Verizon recycles billboards? I never even thought about that as being waste in the first place!

There was also discussionabout how Verizon supports HopeLine, the service dedicated to the support of battered women. Verizon donates old phone to these women so they have a way to stay connected with their loved ones.

Lastly, we heard about the various wireless providers joining together to for the “It Can Wait” campaign. The focus of with was discouraging people from texting and driving. 4.6 seconds texting, at 55mph, equals the same distance as the length of a football field! See tinyurl.com/m3on2mw for more details on how you can prevent the dangers of texting while driving.

On day two, in addition to learning the benefits of converged solutions (working w/ cable companies) and useful apps, we also got to see several new devices in action. These included signal boosters like Home Fusion, home cameras, the Delphi Vehicle Diagnostics (to save costs on car repairs and keep your teen driver under control), and VGO. VGO is an innovative way to let home-bound children attend school as the VGO shows their face and allows them to participate in the classroom.

One of my favorites was the inSite Separation Alarm. You can put it in your wallet or on your keys so that you never have to go search for them again. Another was the Wemo outlets that allowed you turn electric items at home on and off from your mobile phone. I can NEVER remember if I turned my flat iron off and usually have to run back into the house to check. By using Wemo, I can just turn it off remotely.

Here’s a list of links and prices of the products we saw demonstrated:

In the coming months, another feature I’m looking forward to is the roll out of Usage Controls. This expands the control parents have in safeguarding their young ones online. You can get a log of texts, phone contacts, and usage summaries. These provisions will work best, though, if they are coupled with open communication between you and you child/teen.

We finished off our fun and informative trip with an hour-long #VZWBuzz twitter chat with great prizes. If you you haven’t participated in one of these yet, you learn a ton AND have the chance to win awesome stuff. Join every Friday at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT.

Being a #VZWBuzz ambassador is not all about facts and gadget news. We do also get some perks – the main one being that we each found a brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 and case in our swag bags. Nice!

Don’t worry, if have some fun swag to share with you as well! We were specifically given one Mophie 4000 Juice Pack Powerstation to keep (red) and one to giveaway (black). So make sure to follow #VZWBuzz and stay tune for more Verizon and Verizon Wireless goodness over the next few months! Enter to win the black Mophie Powerstation below.

I was provided with an all-expense paid trip to attend this event and given several ‘thank you’ items. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own.