An Evening That Ends With Dom Perignon Can’t Be All Bad
There’s really no mature way to say this. Tuesday night’s party scene at ad:tech New York ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKED! OK, now that we’ve got that idiotically juvenile behavior out of the system, let’s move on to what you missed if you weren’t out last night. Three. Count them. Three pulse pounding parties filled with your fellow industry mates. Three. Count them. Three smaller, elegantly reserved early evening cocktail parties during which actual conversation could take place and did. And one. Count them. One one-on-one drink (water, if you must know) with New York’s finest - and very successful- media publisher, Laurel Tobey of mediabistro whose company was just purchased by Alan Meckler’s Jupitermedia.
OK, so that was it. There you go. What was that? You want to know more? OK, our arm is easily twisted so here you go. Ready? OK. WTF? That sounded like a cheerleader. Sorry about that. Apparently we need one to help wake up this morning. Why, why are we telling you this? And who the hell is we? It’s just me, Steve Hall. Royal “we” dispensed with for now. WTF were we talking about? Oh, right, ad:tech parties.
So Laurel and I met in the Hilton Hotel bar to chat about business and what’s going on in the media space, the ins and out of publishing, hosting industry parties, how publishing has dramatically changed over the past few years and how much fun it is to be in the business right now. Countless familiar faces passed by as we sat there including Laredo Group’s Leslie Laredo and eMarketer’s Crystal Gurin.
After Laurel and I finished our waters and conversation, we headed over to the AdBrite party held in the Hilton Hotel’s Estruca restaurant where, amidst free flowing martinis, the dreaded PowerPoint-ish presentation was given to those who, for better or worse, were more concerned with socializing. To say the least, AdBrite’s Dan Madden (I think) had a tough time keeping the audiences attention. I’m not complaining though. It was a great party. If you really want to see a bitch session about industry parties, events, their structure and the behavior of those in attendance, there’s a nice rant about the recent Boston Ad Club’s Hatch Awards here.
After the AdBrite party, Laurel and I split ways. She headed off to some founder’s party because, well, she’s a founder and all and I tried really really hard to find Flute where Adverb Media was hosting a party. Unfortunately, I’m apparently and idiot and couldn’t find the place. So apologies to the fine folks who sent the invite.
So it was back to the hotel to beg Angela (Adrants Co-Editor) to stop working and come out and play. I lost that battle. She’s just so dedicated, she had to finish her work which, by the way is why you get to read really good stuff here on Adrants. Because, God knows, it doesn’t come from me. That is, unless you want salacious drivel.
So after the unsuccessful begging, I grabbed a cab and headed down to Stone Creek where Lindsay Mure was hosting a party for her company, AdFemme. When I walked in, I thought, “Damn, I’ve been here before.” Surely, enough, it was three years ago during another evening of ad:tech-related fun and games when my good friend Tia Fix - whose been to China and back since then - and, apparently (though I don’t remember) Lindsay, herself, where there to end the evening.
The AdFemme party was fun. Clickbooth’s Jen Sanbush and Laura Paff, who I’d met a year before, were there as was Adam Weinstein from mBill. I actually supported the party’s cause, and ordered a pink Cosmopolitan, Yes, a pink cosmo. I drank it proudly knowing my money would go to a cause far better than anything Adrants provides. (I mean, really, who needs drivel like this when you have Advertising Age?) Lindsay was a gracious host. The party was fun. Trying to remember my visit to the place three years earlier made for amusing conversation.
Switching gears from the sanity known as the ad:tech cocktail party to the insanity known as the ad:tech throbfest, it was off to the Arena Nightclub where eyeblaster was hosting its eyeblaster Awards. Formerly known as Show, the Arena Nightclub is a far better venue in its current incarnation than it was when it was Show. Every time I go to this place I have a great time. I’m nor sure what it is but it just is. The last two times I was there, it was for eyeblaster events as well and, like this time, it was just as fun, especially this year, thanks to ”
