Last week I received a somewhat last-minute invitation by a company named Ener1 to attend a U.S.-China Advanced Technology Vehicle Summit in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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I'm half-expecting that dinner invitation.

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For a first-timer, it was something akin to an out-of-body experience when I was presented with an official invitation to play.

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So when I got an invitation from Badoo, which bills itself as Europe's hottest social-networking website, to attend their American launch in SoHo a few weeks back, I hesitated before hitting the delete button.

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