• by Kelly Samardak , June 2, 2009

ContentNext Mixer, Edison Ballroom, New York
Internet Week Kickoff Party, The Puck Building, New York too
June 1, 2009

Let the games begin! If you're stationed in NYC for Internet Week, I know you're already knee-deep in the first-timer naïve excitement or the quagmire of self-congratulating schmooze-hounds.  If you're not here and you're on Twitter, too, you're already tired of hearing about it.  So let's get to it already.  I'm a glutton for punishment and that outfit you're wearing says you are, too.

Sunday May 31 found me wrestling with guilt about not attending the Webby Sunset Cocktails at Above Allen on the Lower East Side.  I had just gone for a nice run on the Hudson River Park with my baldy and I wanted to keep Sunday for real life, not industry life.  Good thing I chose real life because the Webby Sunset cocktail party is on June 7.  Which also meant the Webbys themselves are on June 8, not June 1 as my lovely self had entered in my Google calendar.  With my brain tucked into the right corner, I headed to the Edison Ballroom last night, inadvertently blowing off the mayor's official kickoff to the week.  Also, I had no idea the ContentNext mixer was the end-of-day cocktail reception for some sort of conference.  That would explain the plethora of suits and palm-squeezing.

Always-be-closing aside, it's always fun to share a chair with David Kaplan who was  also seen mingling at the open bar with ...well... Evil Auntie of Evil Auntie's Quick and Sexy Family Cooking.  I wonder if she knows Savvy Auntie.  Matt Caldecutt of Trylon PR was also there, trading barbs and slurping beers with his sassy little sidekick Jocelyn Borgner and the usual suspects.  Around the corner from the usual suspects in a wireless deadzone (I couldn't tweet, gahhh!!), I found EPIC advertising's Cherilyn Earl and second Internet Baldy spotting of the night, Mike Sprouse, CMO of Epic Advertising.  Valerie Berrios, Associate Editor at Waterfront Media, was perching on a couch nearby where I also found Mavin Digital's Jessica Valenzuela chatting with Jon Gelberg, CEO of Awards and Honors.   On my way out I met the very bubbly Nicole Jordan of The Rubicon Project.  Nicole and I share the Tameka Kee connection -- Tameka used to write for MediaPost and is now with PaidContent.

Next stop, The Puck Building for the official Internet Week Kickoff Party hosted by The Webbys, YouTube & The New York Observer.  This was my first trip to the Puck, which is right by my favorite sack dealer, Brooklyn Industries.  Inside everything was YouTube-red, even some peoples' eyes.  Attendance was spotty when I arrived, which was fine by me.  Made it easier to find HUGE's Katy Kelley, who was sipping "The YouTube" with its fancy glowing-red ice cube.  The first DJ was spinning some Michael Jackson and other booty-shaking warm-ups. 

OF COURSE Shorty Awards starter Gregory Galant was in the crowd and eventually I found Yelp's roboting Chantelle Karl and Carrot Creative's Kristin Maverick.  Social media educator Matthew Knell emerged through the crowd as I FINALLY reunited with Horn Grouper and PRNewser's Joe Ciarallo.  I also had a mini "remember when you got in a fight with the Brazilian film crew at the Shorty Awards" reunion with PSFK's bearded and awesome Scott Lachut.  

After pointing out people like Mashable's Pete Cashmore and Dollar Van Demos' Joe Revitte to a New York Observer reporter (btw, if you're covering Internet Week, shouldn't you know what Mashable is?) I spotted Ivanka Trump in a herd of eight-feet-tall people.

Yes, Ivanka Trump.  No, no one knew why.  She's flawless, in case you were wondering. Also bobbing in a wave of open-bar aficionados was Rodger Berman, President of The Webby Awards.  It was really great adding some new names to Internet Week like Jerry Lore of redstage networks; David Pietrandrea of ROBOX studios; Dan Gould of PSFK; Jon Gibs of Nielson Online; Billy Linker (and Magnus) of magnify.net;  Mekado Murphy of The New York Times; Aaron Rabinowitz of Arnie Sawyer Studios, Inc.; fedora-sporting Michael Galpert, co-founder of Aviary; and my nerd stardom moment: Anthony Casalena, Founder of Squarespace. 

I meant it when I said the party was low-key.  People just sort of mingled around the food stands (hosting what I think was cheese, focaccia -- focaccia?! -- and cylindrical meat, but it was so dark and red I couldn't really tell) and the bar, shyly drifting toward the dance floor when DJ Mike Relm mixed music and video simultaneously, but the vibe was missing some effervescence.  A couple of people were doing the hipster shuffle at the entrance and pockets of clique clumps were sporadically gyrating, but the overall vibe wasn't one of "we're all Internet nerds!" connectedness.  Maybe they should have started the party with trust falls, or "guess what's in the bag," or truth or dare, to bond everyone.  And then, maybe everyone is reserving their energy for... breakfast.

*edit* June 3 2009 at 12:17PM to reflect THIS

Hey guess what? The pictures aren't uploaded to Flickr yet because Flickr Uploadr V 3.2 for XP is sucking my will to live!  Check back though later tonight, maybe a miracle will happen!