• by Kelly Samardak , March 22, 2010

OMMA Global San Francisco Day One Cocktail Party, Marriott Marquis, San Francisco
March 17, 2010

Last week I traveled with the MediaPost events team (sales, marketing, IT... well almost the entire team) and even some of you to San Francisco for our first ever OMMA Global San Francisco (obviously). This year the theme was "unbound" and we walked the talk, offering the conference free of charge to our loyal MediaPost membership. Sure sure, you may think that would encourage folks on Skid Row to show up, hoping to get some leads.  What really happened is a colorful batch of folks descended upon the Marriott Marquis, which was smack dab in the center of town - including a pooch snuggled on his owner's lap, sometimes even participating in Q & A. Slapped in between and around two full days of brain soakings and sometimes volatile panel perturbing were three cocktail parties. And I think that's what we'll talk about now.

We all woke up to beat the sun.  It inched over the bay each morning as I ready-steadied myself for a full day of photogging. There was an air of mischief on Wednesday March 17^th, the day of St. Patrick's. By 3:00p.m. attendees were itching for the cocktail hour. Those that split early missed the 5:00p.m. Debate: Free vs. Paid - Big Media Bluff, which was boisterous to say the least, with David Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7 Real Media needling Brian Sugar, CEO & publisher of Sugar, Inc with accusations of less than premium content. Sugar and the panel didn't take these barbs lying down, don't worry.

The Expo Hall was a vibrant place even during set up, but add some green JELL-O shots (word on the street was that pile of empty shot glasses were actually devoured during a panel), dim the lights, and coat everyone in a frosty lime glow and what you get is an other worldly vibe, with flat screens lighting up attendees' profiles with demos of easy stat grabbing, content management, even better spreadsheeting (and by better, I mean having software do it for you).

I met a dude wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with, "I hate doing this shit," not reflective of booth bunnyism, but an actual customer complaint satisfied by the team over at Acquisio. The crew over at VideoEgg with their adorable bird logo and make your own tshirt station always had handfuls of people milling around them, but they also had a hot location next to the primary colored Google carpet at the entrance of the hall. The Rubicon booth had greasy fun squeezy balls, which Phluant Mobile's David Breckling tried to explode, and blinky light spinning fans that I eventually saw whisking all over the hall.

Twistage's Corey Kronengold and Edelman-MATTER's Paul Kontonis were like two peas in a pod, never apart accept for when they allowed Zvika Netter of Innovoid (who is hiring a Director of Marketing, by the way...) into their circle of two for some suction cup shooting at the Conduit booth, which was armed with all kinds of toys and Elaine Podulka who gave me Band-Aids for my nonsensical shoe injuries. Near the back of the hall flanking the bar I found Grant Tomlinson and the Jaksinc.com crew pitching away happily. This was also where I found Brian Suthoff of Localytics (which at first I read as "Lolcalytics", damn you txtspeak), who entertained me with tales of Boston and photo apps for mobile devices.

Glass after glass of delicious green beverages slithered down the mouths of our OMMA attendees, some sealing their fate for a no doubt painful beginning to Day Two, but you know what, sometimes, you just have to cut loose after a day full of panels. I know for a fact the party didn't stop when the cocktail hour ended, because I happened to tail some of the attendees to the Barrelhouse for "Prohibition with Pereira & O'Dell" whose summary I'll hit you with in a little bit. And really - any party that hands out fuzzy little stick on 'staches is ok in my book.

Photos from this end of day cocktail party are on Flickr (with TONS more coming!

Send party/event invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!