• by Kelly Samardak , February 27, 2009

Digital Dumbo, reBar, Brooklyn
February 26, 2009

What do you think of when you hear "Dumbo"? I think of a drug-induced hallucination of dancing pink elephants that no doubt scared toddlers and launched many a stoner's flashbacks. And that was just the Disney movie. I'm not talking circus freaks and carnies, kids, I'm talking DUMBO -- that stamp of land Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, where I have had the delicious pleasure of cramming oozing slices of Grimaldi's pizza through my teeth after walking the Brooklyn Bridge (I'm sure the return walk burned off all those calories, right?), covering the Shorty Awards at the Galapagos art space, and actually walking through DUMBO to hit the Diesel XXX party in a tent. And last night, I was happy to make the Carrot Creative-hosted 2nd ever Digital DUMBO event to investigate the area further.

Hopstop.com lied to me again. It lies about the location of the Old Town tavern and thankfully it lied to me about the amount of time it would take me to get to reBar. I made the mistake of stopping home after the OMMA Behavioral show first to say hello to my couch. This is never a wise move because when faced with a 33- minute subway jaunt vs facetime with the DVR, it's hard to motivate. But motivate I did and the tunnel gods were on my side. The L didn't take a millennium to arrive and when I transferred to the F, Andrew Graham appeared across the aisle from me. He's a self proclaimed energy and finance nerd and he too was making the break across the bridge, planning to meet up at the scene with Matt Caldecutt of Trylon PR infamy. I passed the time by regaling Andrew with the details of my recent biological assault. Oh yes, I was attacked on the way to work by a drive-by cougher.

I. love. reBar. The bouncer was simply a ribbon of sautéing garlic. The smell was magical and my stomach immediately started gnawing on itself. After nerdily filling out my nametag with my twitter handle (@socialmedium), I ran into the gauzy-shirted Kristin Maverick, Director of Communications at Carrot Creative. She pointed me toward Mike Germano, President and Creative Director at Carrot Creative, who later declared: "DUMBO WILL BE THE DIGITAL HUB OF NEW YORK!" He also proclaimed that, because of the growing crowd, the next shindig would be at a new location. Our bartender was not pleased. She may always look that way, though. Speaking of...

...you know you're in Brooklyn when you're surrounded by a herd of Buffalo plaid (oh, and there's graffiti that reads "Yuppies go home!" instead of "I heart The Gap!") Fight it all you want, you indoor-scarf-and-winter-beanie wearers, but it's true -- and it's OK. Certain plaid and hat purveyors were James (@wordk) and Blazey who also rounded out the Ohio contingent with Lara Lebeiko, Digital Strategist (@natashaf8). I pulled the ole "nice to meet you" with Lara, who I've met before. Come on, when curly-haired people straighten out -- they look totally different. Sigh.

Jenna Briton, PR Rockstar at VSC Consulting, flew all the way from San Francisco just to attend Digital DUMBO! In reality she had a bunch of meetings in town, but still -- East and West Coast representation is always good! Andrew Zarick, Digital Strategist for the JAR Group, was slipping in and out of the digiDUMBOs while David Parmet, fresh from his niece's Bat Mitzvah, snapped some pics for his PR blog (he's either with, or provides, Social Media Solutions). I met Jason Beckerman, President and CEO of Teach The People (the required elements to sign up for the beta are irksome!), a Facebook-based, people-teaching-people platform. I plan to create a course called "How to talk like a human." Let me know if you're interested. I also ran into Eric Ross, Business Builder for The Brooklyn Paper. I asked "So, how is the Brooklyn Paper doing?" to which he answered "Great!" You heard it here.

Chantelle Karl, PR Sassafras for the East (best) Coast Yelp, was holding it down like a proper Yelper with Luther Lowe, Account Executive at Yelp and another guest without a last name, Dara, from Beyondtherock.com. Lisa Lacy, multi-talented and subject-flexible writer extraordinaire, was observing the crowd in front of a huge Obama head that kept freaking me out. Greg Galant, Founder of Sawhorse Media, also freaked me out by offering to take my photo with others, which forced me to do my "I don't let anyone touch my camera" song and dance that usually offends people. Whatever, man, it's my livelihood. When the UPS guy shows up, I don't jump in his truck and drive him around. Greg was just joshing, of course, and was eventually joined by Bernie Davis, Digital marketing and business development guy. Julia Kaganskiy, Editor at Unigo.com was keeping a corner smart with Andrea Rosen of the L Magazine and Karen Glidden, social media wrangler for Bliss Spa.  Couching it towards the back of the room was Billy Parker of Gothamist.com.

How could I forget Tim Nolan, the brave Flash artist displaying his latest pieces on glowing flatscreens? His frequently flipping bursts of color and light melded smoothly with the ear snacks served up by DJ Chima. Add to that fondue more than a dash of digital brobdingnagian (today's new word, thanks to @CatStormont) passion and I think this is a table worth revisiting. I think the creative geekdom that is DUMBO has a fighting chance of sticking its flannel swathed stake in the ground as the digital nexus of NYC, and I'm more than happy to include another borough into my coverage!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com and get your swank party in Just An Online Minute

Check out the entire photoset on Flickr!