• by Kelly Samardak , March 23, 2009

Media Summit New York Cocktail Reception, McGraw-Hill, New York
March 18, 2009

I always want to punch myself in the face when I see myself update my Google calendar with two events in one night. In theory, it's a great idea -- have a post on deck for Monday so the people have new content to read -- but usually by the time that day arrives I , well, want to punch myself in the face. At any rate (really? Any rate? Does anyone ever specify a rate?) I hit up the MediaSummit Cocktail reception at McGraw-Hill where I wasn't able to make any of the day sessions because I work so I can pay rent, but I sporadically checked the hashtags on Twitter (those little #word snippets that denote a conversation thread) and saw a lot of activity around the Zucker interview. Anyway -- off to McGraw-Hill we go.

I was a touch early and my brain was firing signals that weren't connecting. When I went to check in my coat I saw that the coat check closed at 6:30 p.m. I was sweating like a sumo wrestler, but I thought "Why the heck would I check my coat for half an hour?" so I said, "I guess I'll just hang onto this then... and how are other people supposed to get their coats after the reception?" The coat check person looked at me like I had half a head. Why? It was 5 p.m., and the cocktail reception was scheduled to end at 6. I mistakenly thought it was 6 already. My visibly moistened, salty brow and my confusion should have inspired the coat checkers to call security on an escaped crackhead, but they gave me the benefit of the doubt. I checked my coat and walked by a delicious spread of sliced veggies, balls of cheese, dips with dippable things, rolled-up meat, chunks of chicken pieces, and other belly goodies.

The demo area was small; when I peeked through the glass at the auditorium, my stomach turned a bit imagining all of those people milling around in such a close reception space. I bypassed the bar and gave myself a quick tour of the demo area. I stopped two fellows deep in conversation, R. Maximiliano (Max) Ramirez, Director of Advertising Sales, US and Tom Friedman, Director, Content Acquisition, both from blinkx, Inc. When he saw I was from MediaPost, Max let me know that he was working with us to cohost a party together. "That doesn't sound like us," I said. "Are you mistaking me with mediabistro?" This is typical, both companies have media and the long "O" sound, common mistake. But nope, Max was adamant, stating "we're going to make you hip!" I knew how to get to the bottom of this. "Who are you working with on this party?" I inquired, knowing the name he was about to offer up was not going to be from MediaPost. "Um, Tatiana..." Max said, looking off at Tom Friedman for a brain jog on the last name. "Yup, that's mediabistro," I confirmed. Le sigh. He was talking about Tatiana Ridley Events Manager at mediabistro, and all-around nice gal.

I moved on, running into Mari Mineta Clapp, VP of Marketing for BitGravity, who kindly lined up her booth bunny crew for a photo. She even grabbed a nearby napkin and labeled everyone for me. I love that. They were Perry Wu, CEO of BitGravity, Jon Chait of Dace Ventures, and Sean Marsh, general partner with Point Judith Capital. On my way into the larger buffet room, I ran into Ryan Lawler of Contentinople, who wasn't hanging around for the cocktail reception due to dinner plans. I also saw Mark Kapeczynski, COO Kontrol Media (and summit speaker) chatting with Fran Pomerantz, Korn Ferry International. And that's all she wrote! So what's going on this week? I'll tell you...

Tomorrow night is a little diversion from the normal party circuit -- I'll be hanging out in the NHL luxury suite taking in the Rangers game with some NHL types, including Michael DiLorenzo, Director of Corporate Communications for The National Hockey League, who promises no shop talk, but I'll poke around social media style. The only drawback to the luxury suite is, you can't catch any pucks. Anthony Iaffaldano from Reprise Media will be at the game as well, so I may have to hunt him down. On Wednesday I'll be hitting a "Night of Eco-Chic Entertaining" celebrating the book "The Lazy Environmentalist" by Josh Dorfman, green entrepreneur and media personality. I'm looking forward to that party because the chic duo of Katie Smith-Adair and Jen Moses from Morris+King will be getting their eco on, too! On Thursday a very chick-centric event is being held at Saks, with a panelist of experts including Lois Joy-Johnson, Style & Beauty Editor of BettyConfidential.com, set to entertain me and some of my ladyfriends. All you manly men readers, don't unsubscribe from this column due to the overmention of lip gloss and herbal wraps, OK?

Some of you might actually be at OMMA Global Hollywood today and tomorrow, so I wanted to give a little shout-out to the official MediaPost events Twitter -- twitter.com/mediapostlive -- this is where you'll get notification of looming events, agenda reminders, hashtag info, and any other official OMMA show info. If you're there and tweeting, remember to append the hashtag #ommagh to your tweets! Want to see what you're missing? Go to search.twitter.com and slap #ommagh in the search field to reveal the latest roll-up of tweets.

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!

There are more photos on Flickr !