• by Kelly Samardak , October 4, 2010

Facebook Wrap Party: A Benefit for GeneratioNext, Roseland Ballroom, New York
September 30, 2010

I left the CollADborate party with my ears full of beatboxing and my eyes full of flipping sweaty bodies.  My feet were already protesting in my not-so-comfy boots due to my "whoops wrong way" underground tour of NYC.  "Thank goodness I have these gel inserts at the balls of my feet," I thanked myself, as I headed back out into the night, destination Roseland Ballroom for the Facebook Wrap Party. Except, I wasn't wearing gel inserts...

Yeah, those were blisters.  Another blister I was sporting was more in my memory.  As you may remember, I had a hell of a time at the LCD Soundsystem event at Angel Orensanz Foundation.  Due to that hell of a time, I was promised in all caps that there would be no problem for me at the Facebook party.  I got the all caps promise, people, that's supposed to mean something.  You can guess by now that my trust got crapped on again because when I walked past the lengthy line and into the lobby area where the check-in tables were set up, no one knew what I was talking about or who I was talking about.  Lucky for me, I sounded like I knew what I was talking about and the woman waved me on in.

Buddy Media's Joe Ciarallo was in there somewhere, so I shot him a quick text.  "I'm at the bar," came his reply.  I looked at the bar.  It was at least  five rows deep, layered with sweaty advertypes (and supporters of Generationext, I assume).  I slithered through, meerkatting over the lines to see if I could recognize the back of Joe's melon, but no luck.  "Do you... do you... DO YOU HAVE SOCO!?" a young man barked at the bartender.  Flashbacks to underage college embarrassment bashes trickled through the holes in my memory.  I had to get away from the bar.

Roseland was awash in blue. Blue chairs, blue indoor light posts, blue shots of  spotlight across the main floor, and of course, huge blue Facebook signs bordered the entire area.  A DJ could barely be seen up in balcony seating, but he could be heard, getting the crowd moving with the Alicia Keys/Jay-Z New York City Success Anthem, "Empire State of Mind."  I always cringe when I see people dancing at what I would qualify as a "work function," not because I'm judging but because I would NEVER want my coworkers or people I want to do professional work with see me wiggling around to "Rumpshaker."  But everyone is different.

Settees were strewn about Roseland Ballroom's ballroom, draped with advertising types of all kinds, all with their phones out.  In fact, I found one blue hued hallway where everyone was lined up, heiny to heiny on the single-layer seats tapping away at their mobile devices, their faces lit up like leprechauns.  One big white cushioned area also played host to a cute little girl... who was tapping away at a cell phone! 

I turned around and almost face-planted into the bellybutton of Grizz Chapman of Grizz and DotCom "30 Rock" fame!  Seeing him without DotCom was like seeing a horse milking a goat, but I pulled myself together and shot him and his two buddies, one being Sean "B" Bouldin of Mummum Music. Like Bambi into the thicket, three girls bounded from the left and joined the photo.

Before Cirque De Soleil dazzled our eyes with their fluttery red-pajamaed, bouncy-house routine (seriously, they popped out of windows, and bounced and flipped all over the place, seeming to run up the sides of this huge black box thumbing their noses at gravity), I met Jennifer Stack, Corporate Communications Director, and Christine Fruechte, President and CEO, at Colle+McVoy.

I did finally meet up with Joe Ciarallo.  He was with Meg O'Brien, Senior Publicist and Online Media Specialist, Random House, and Jason "I only go out once a year" Chupick, PR & social media strategist at Crenshaw Communications and co-editor of mediabistro's PRNewser.  While we rehashed our "on the list but not really!" annoyances, AttentionUSA's Yuna Park arrived with Scott Bullard, a strategist according to his LinkedIn Profile.  Methinks the open bar agreed with Yuna as she side hugged a flustered Bullard.

I also ran into Grégoire Vogelsang, whom I met nearly a year ago and haven't seen since.  Well until the Facebook Wrap party, obviously.  He was with Simeone Scaramozzino, CEO at CREATVT.  I also spotted JumpTap's CMO Paran Johar stoically perched on the arm of a white couch.  And, I met a huge gaggle of Starcom Mediavest's Coca-cola Accounters including Jose Castillo, Andrea Lipstein, Pat Foglia, Kathy Kim, Matt Goodmark, Alex Colcord, Christine Potter, Lauren Bass, John Ohara, Michelle Futerman, and Jenny Darcuic.

My squealing feet and my eyeballing of advertypes getting amorous told me it was time to go.  I didn't need to witness anything that would singe my innocent industry brain forever.  And really, everyone needs to feel free to cut loose after an exhausting advertising week without a lens in their faces, right?  On my way out the door I snapped Advertising Week's organizer Matt Scheckner and Director Matt Miller (also President and CEO if AICP).

And that's it, another Advertising Week in the bag.  Cliché and all, but never a dull moment.

Photos from this party, including a creepy Zebra lady, are up on Flickr!