ON SATURDAY EVENING, March 13, 2004, the main ballroom of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel opened its doors to accept the well-dressed and buzzing crowd of the “IDPromotions.com CEO Birthday Network Celebration.” It was promoted as a who’s who network party of corporate San Diego, with Ivan David at the center of attention as the host with the recent birthday.

Black, white, and gold balloons littered the air, held down by golden bags of Hershey chocolates, with various sponsor business cards attached to the strings. Tall standing tables were spread around the room, covered with white tablecloths trimmed in gold. Plastic wineglasses were set out on each table, with bottles of red and white wine delivered from wine sponsors. Each table had sponsorship name tags and website addresses for added promotional value. Between each set of five tables stood a waiter or waitress in black pants, shoes, vest, and bow tie, with a white button-up shirt. Two long tables of catered foods were spread along the far left and right walls of the fine, chandelier-lit, decorated room. The DJ booth and speakers were set at the front of a large open dance floor area.

Maya and Daphne, both wearing golden dresses, worked the doors as usual, backed by security men dressed in black suits. But instead of collecting money, the girls punched holes in black and gold tickets that the guests were allowed to keep as souvenirs.

“Welcome to the ‘IDPromotions.com CEO Birthday Network Celebration,’” Daphne told each group of supporters who approached the ballroom entrance with their tickets in hand.

“The first annual network celebration,” Maya added, handing out the first of five hundred black and gold gift bags.

“So you mean you’re gonna do this once a year?” an older white gentleman asked. He and his wife were both well dressed for a gala affair.

Maya said, “If everything goes as well as we expect it to, then why not?”

The husband nodded. “I agree. Well, you got us interested.”

His wife smiled and didn’t say anything until she commented in passing, “Those gold dresses you two are wearing are very nice.”

“Thank you,” Maya responded. Lucina had told all sixteen of the girls who worked the event to find and wear tasteful gold dresses.

Four of Lucina’s girls were still on probation status. She still had to determine whether or not they were professional enough to be paid at future events. “You can never have enough new interns,” she explained to Ivan. “These girls are gonna come and go every day.”

More than two thousand tickets out of twenty-three hundred were sold prior to the event. An extra hundred were held at the door, and a hundred tickets were given away to special guests. The grand party idea was already a success and had broken more than a hundred thousand dollars.

Outside the hotel, the uniformed valet staff were already counting their extra dividends from the expensive luxury cars they began to park.