ad:tech Awards Spectacle Kicks Off Wednesday Night’s Activities

On Wednesday night, the second night of the ad:tech San Francisco 2007 conference, the party schedule was packed. I’ll tell you right now, we didn’t make it to all the events but we’ll give you a taste of the ones we did. After weighing in on the best exhibit hall schwag, Angela and I found ourselves at the ad:tech Awards Show, an event held in one of the very large Moscone North rooms near the exhibit hall. The event was well attended with open bar for three hours, cozy couches on which to site and a healthy supply of food. We particularly liked the mini burgers - perfect chow after hours of exhibit hall shenanigans.

Cirque du Soliel was the centerpiece of the event with two spectacular performances surrounding the presentation of the actual awards by ad:tech Chair Emeritus Susan Bratton, eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey introduced by ad:tech VP Don Knox. Following the first performance of Cirque du Soliel, which the audience loved, Knox took the stage and suffered dead mic syndrome for a minute or two. Making light of the situation, Knox called out to the techies in the background who, for some reason, couldn’t find the “on” switch for Knox’s mic. No matter, Knox exuberantly mastered the stage as he reviewed ad:tech’s recent accomplishments and activities and then turned the stage over to Bratton and Ramsey.

Now here’s where we have suggestions for future ad:tech Awards events. The presentation - more a collection of quickly-paced announcements - flew by which, perhaps, had to be the case due to time constraints. Angela and I, having seen many other ad-related awards presentations, would suggest the finalists’ creative, rather than just the campaign name and agency, be shown. Some creative was, indeed, shown but not for all categories. Secondly, and we’re well aware this would lengthen the show tremendously and perhaps too much so for the purposes of the event, we’d suggest the winners of each category take the stage as they do at many other creative award shows so as to bask in the glory of their accomplishment and receive the adoration of their industry peers. After all, everyone in advertising needs their ego stroked from time to time.

All in all, the Awards event was a success. Having an easily accessible place to eat and drink immediately following the show is, itself, a wonderful thing. Throw in some fanfare and Cirque du Soliel and you’ve got an event of which to be proud.

So checking our long list of parties to attend and feeling as though it was more of a job than the enjoyment it’s supposed to be I headed over to the Thirsty Bear where the Online Lead Generation was hosting their party. It was a smallish affair held upstairs. Looking to take a few pictures I was initially turned down by a gentleman who was perched perfectly in front of the event’s banner but soon found a table of three obliging women to smile for the camera. Much appreciation, ladies.

Following that quick stint, Angela and I headed over to 111 Minna, the location of last night’s Bay Area Interactive Group party, where we thought, based upon cards handed to us outside Moscone by the afore mentioned Girls of ad:tech, MoVoxx was a party or at least a promotion whereby through some texting foolery, one could acquire a reduce priced Svedka Vodka. It wasn’t happening. The folks at the door were very kind, but told us they thought the event might be the next night. No one was sure.

We then headed over to Swig where Girls in Tech, Social Diva and out new friend Lindsay Mure and her year-old AdFemme. There, we ran into uber PR blogger Jeremy Pepper, HereWare President Skip Graham UnSubCentral Director of Sales Brian Ambrose and countless other industry familiars. The place was crowded but we found the perfect spot in the back near a set of stairs and the bathroom which, of course, worked to our advantage as everyone eventually came past us and we didn’t have to fight the crowd to find anyone.

Having never physically met AdFemme’s Lindsay Mure, it was a pleasure to finally meet her and talk to her about the AdFemme organization which has grown substantially during its year-long existence. As Lindsay and her organization’s site explains, AdFemme “builds international communities of women in advertising/marketing, through weekly newsletters, news, a networking room, teleconferences, events.” Clearly it’s been a success as Lindsay, who had the proverbial “real job” in advertising, is now focusing her efforts solely on AdFemme.

You’ll appreciate the dissonance of this picture she posed for when we all headed over to the Mighty party and wandered up to the stage where the usual barely-dressed hotties were writhing to the music. Let’s just say that our sites have different editorial bases. Then again, maybe now that Angela’s joined us with her excellent writing Adrants will finally grow up. But…we’re not promising anything.

The Mighty party wasn’t entirely about barely dressed stage dancers. There were fire eaters/breathers, bongo drummers, stilt walkers, break dancers, contortionists a rap group and tons of other stuff. See, Lindsay’s influence is already charming us. You can get another take on the Mighty event by reading Chris Eaves’ story here.

We didn’t make it to CPXinteractive’s party held at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club but that’s just as well. Had we ventured over, you’d all just have to listen to me blather on pointlessly about the pole dancing flesh-fest I’m sure it was. If you really need to know, just ask any guy hanging around the CPXinteractive booth today leering at their version of the Girls of ad:tech. I’m sure you’ll get a drool-enhancing ear full.

Also, we didn’t make it to the party held at Vessel or the Atlas party, but we did have a particularly fun cab ride home as the picture will show. All in all, it’s not so bad getting back to the hotel pre-midnight providing the ability to actually wake up in time to enjoy yet another fun-filled day at ad:tech. With ad:tech occurring over a three day period, we’re all bonused with a third night of parties to attend and we will be sure to share all the details with you Friday morning if we can manage it prior to the very long plane ride back home.

And be sure to check out MingleNow’s coverage of the evening’s events over at their ad:tech photo album. Their picture are, by far, orders of magnitude better than the ones you see here.

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By Benny Mcclain on 2008 11 12

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