Attending Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event in San Francisco
I don’t think that I would’ve ever imagined that, I would get such an opportunity in my life. This was an experience that I would never, ever forget in my life. I partly work as a Samsung Brand Ambassador, and my work is to promote the products and services by Samsung on a online community of Samsung known as Samsung Members. Each year, Samsung selects some special members from this members community from all over the world, and gives them once in lifetime opportunity to attend Samsung’s Unpacked event, where they showcase their next generation of devices. The trip is fully sponsored by Samsung, which includes air tickets, accommodations, food etc.
I was selected to represent my country, India. Even more intriguing is that, I was the only Samsung Member representing community from my country. I was informed about this opportunity during the end of month of January. I was very excited for it, since my last foreign vacation was back in 2018, when I visited United States. This was also going to be my first ever trip without my parents, so that was a challenge and half. So, let’s have a look to my trip and what experiences I had, what I got, what I learned and which kind of people I met.
Outbound Journey
I was booked onto a Air India flight #173 which was a direct flight from Delhi to San Francisco on 10th February, 2020. The flight had a duration of approximately 15 hours. I reached airport 3.5 hours before the departure time. However, I had a pretty torrid time at the Check-in and Immigration since it was so crowded due to night rush hour. The intended departure time was 4 AM local time and the arrival time in was 6 AM Pacific Time. However, the flight departed 30 minutes late. Our aircraft was a Boeing 777–200LR (registration VT-ALF), which was delivered to Air India in 2009. I also had a mentor from Samsung India, who was accompanying me on this trip. However, he was booked on a United Airlines flight, which was also a direct flight, but had a departure time of 3:50 AM (10 minutes earlier than us).
Due to unfortunate circumstances, I was not able to get either a window or an aisle seat. So, for a 15 hour flight, I was struck in a middle seat in economy class. However, I had one thing in my favour, that was exceptional leg-room. I had a total of four hour sleep on the flight, and had watched couple of decent Bollywood movies on my in-flight entertainment screen. Our flight landed in San Francisco at 6:15 AM in the morning.
As I de-boarded the flight, I connected my phone to airport WiFi to see my messages, and to my surprise I saw message of my mentor, who informed that his flight was cancelled. He informed me that he won’t arrive in San Francisco until the following day. If that wasn’t enough, I was greeted by a big queue at the immigration. I was able to clear immigration and customs by 9 AM.
There was an arrangement of pick-up for me to the hotel. After some effort, I was able to reach to my driver, who happened to be from Turkey. He was really a nice guy, whom I had a lot of fun talking with. During my way to the hotel, I took many shots of the nice scenery of San Francisco. Here are some of them:
Day 1: Introduction and Ice-breaking
I arrived at my hotel at 10 AM that morning. The hotel was InterContinental which was located at 888, Howard Street. I think that was one of the best hotels that I had ever been in my life. I was greeted by the Samsung team, who were very warm and friendly. I first went to the Samsung Members lounge, which was located at the 6th floor. I was given a welcome kit, which included tripod equipment, maps, information brochures about the events, a cool hoodie for the Unpacked event which was scheduled for the following day and set of sanitary things like face-mask and hand sanitiser (due to scare of Coronavirus). I was also provided with a sim card which had unlimited internet and local calls available. But the most important of all was the name badge with my country on it!
Then I headed to my room to have a shower and came back to the Members lounge for remaining formalities. We were given a free one year subscription of Adobe Premiere Rush for Samsung for free along a GoPass for the final day of the trip. The Members longe was pretty exciting as it had all day snacks and drinks along with a good area of seating. It also had lot of props to take pictures with them.
After that, I went for a walk to see the neighbourhood and explore the nearby area around my hotel. I had a two to three mile walk which took almost an hour or so. I visited the nearby Costco and BestBuy showrooms for prospect of shopping. I was able to click brilliant pictures during it. Here are some of the shots:
I was able to reach back hotel just in time for ice-breaking session. They arranged a session, where-in we could interact with other members. The managers of different countries introduced themselves. The team also introduced us with the overall agenda of two following days. My table was arranged with the Japanese, Mexican and Portugese teams for the dinner. Since I was not of a legal drinking age, they give me special wrist band for non-alcoholic drinks. We had a great time in interacting with each other, and I made lot of friends. So, I called it for the day since I was craving for a good night sleep after a 15 hour flight.
Day 2: Unpacked Event
The following day was the most important day of the trip. The launch event, for which we all were invited. We all had breakfast and all of us boarded the buses for the event venue. We arrived the venue two hours prior to the commencement of the event. All of us had our temperatures checked before going inside (due to coronavirus outbreak). My mentor was finally able to arrive, directly from the airport, to the event. We had loads of time for exploring the event venue, and created loads of content. The best thing of all was that, official Instagram account of Samsung India actually posted my pictures on their page! That was really a honour for me. We also clicked a group picture at the stage of the venue! Here are some pictures from the event:
We had loads of time at experience centre for exploring the devices. For me, I think the best part was experiencing the Galaxy Z flip smartphone, as I was never able to experience the Galaxy Fold smartphone before, and the fact that I was experiencing a foldable display smartphone was actually great!
But the best part had yet to come. One of the member from the team came to me, and said that I shall show my name badge of the event to people at the counter for a special gift! The gift was actually the Galaxy Buds+ (the very wireless earphones by Samsung that were released on that event) and a limited edition Olympic themed case as well!
Then we headed off to The Pub restaurant for the lunch. There we had a great lunch and we shared the table with team Mexico. We also had a session on how to create good vlogs by famous Youtubers that showcased the 100x zoom capability of Galaxy S20 Ultra.
After that, all of us got $50 gift cards for our dinner at Pier 39, which was only ten to twenty minute walk from there. Along the way, we got opportunity to click some amazing pictures of the beautiful city of San Francisco! Here I would like to share some shots!
We had a great time, and then we headed back to hotel using a shuttle provided by the Samsung team. At hotel, we were able to experience the new devices! I was able to compare the low-light performance of Galaxy S20 Ultra with my Galaxy Note 10+. I must say, there was a substantial upgrade in performance according to me! At that moment, I fell in love with the new devices. Before going to sleep, I also released my first ever vlog, which covered all the events of that day! Here’s a link to it:
Day 3: Exploring San Francisco
Day 3 was the final day of our trip. This day was given to us for exploring this beautiful city. For this, we were provided us with All-inclusive GoPass to each one of us. First, we headed to Galaxy Creators lounge for a special session by Samsung team, giving insights about the challenges in making those amazing devices.
After that, it was free time for us until 4:30. I used my GoPass to take a ticket of Hop-on Hop-off bus for tour around San Francisco. I was accompanying Japanese and Korean teams at that bus. The bus driver and tour guide on the bus were very friendly. Our bus happen to have a stroll though the Golden Gate Park. We also happen to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on our journey. I experienced it while sitting on open roof! That was hell a lot of windy!
I de-boarded the bus at Pier 39. And using my GoPass, I took a ferry ticket to Angel Island! That experience was amazing! However, I had to return early, using the same ferry since the next one was at 3:50, which would’ve been two hours later. Here are some pictures of the journey:
After returning to Pier 39, I had lunch of some great fish and chips from another $25 gift card that Samsung gave us! I also did some shopping, and took the same bus to go back to hotel.
I reached hotel at 5 PM, which was 30 minutes late, so bus was waiting for us to take us to the Golden gate view point to take some pictures! Even though by the time we reached at the sunset point, the best light had already gone, but we were able to have some decent shots!
Then we headed for the farewell dinner to Spinnaker. There they announced the winners for vlog competition. Unfortunately, I was not able to win it! But my friend from Mexico, Kevin won it! I was also able to click many pictures with other teams while holding my country’s flag!
After the dinner, we boarded our buses back to our hotels for one final ride. But that wasn’t without having fun! We all sang along some different songs in the bus! Some of the team members were even dancing! However, I had an early flight the following morning, so I was straight to bed! I also made a vlog of my experience in exploring San Francisco. Here’s a link to it:
Inbound Journey
I woke up at 4 AM to check out of my hotel and give my final good bye to this exceptional journey! Our event manager was waiting for us at the reception to give us one final good bye gift! It has some chocolates and two photographs of the whole members community together. My mentor was going with me this time since his flight back with Singapore Airlines was departing at same time as mine. However, his journey again was going to be much longer than mine! This time I was able to book myself a window seat for my journey! Here are some pictures from the airport:
I reached the airport on time. The check-in and security went smooth as well! My plane was different this time. It was an Air India Boeing 777–300ER (registration VT-ALJ) with a special Star Alliance livery on it. It was delivered to Air India back in 2007 brand new. The flight was direct from San Francisco to Delhi, but was going to be heading over Atlantic rather than Pacific (as outbound flight).
I had good sleep on flight as seat beside me was empty. The flight reached Delhi actually 10 minutes earlier than expected. Immigration was ok, and did some shopping at duty-free. My father came to the airport to pick me up. So, yeah! That’s how my once in a life time trip went. To end this article, I would like to share you a picture showcasing all the goodies, and gifts I got on this trip:
I would like to thank Samsung for giving me this opportunity! I would also like to thank all my community managers in India, with whom this trip wasn’t possible. I would also like to thank the managing team in US for such a great experience!
