Commentary

Speacial Thanks To Sarah Fay (Plus The Missing Link)

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, September 24, 2009

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Sarah Fay for delivering an inspiring and heartfelt keynote to open OMMA magazine's 2009 Online All Star Awards. Fay, an alum, and former CEO of Aegis Media North America, schlepped down from Boston just to make the appearance, and had planned to kick off her talk with a brief video introduction courtesy of YouTube.

Unfortunately, the MediaPost team bungled it, and were not able to integrate the video, but here's the link to it -- the "Social Media Revolution" video -- for those of you who haven't seen it, or didn't know what Sarah was referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Sarah, by the way, did a masterful job of recovering and speaking extemporaneously without it. And I laughed when she referred to a "Federal Express moment." For those who may not remember that reference, she meant the classic 1980s Federal Express commercial created by Ally & Gargano, which shows a speaker attempting to make a slide presentation (yep, they used slide projectors in those days before Powerpoint presentations), by doing shadow puppets with his hands in front of the projector's light. It was hilarious, and reinforced Federal Express' whole "When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight" campaign theme. A theme that now seems quaint in the instantaneous, on-demand, digital world we live in. But as the MediaPost tech team proved, sometimes things absolutely, positively still cannot get there -- even on demand.

I'm sure most of us have similar experiences that can help us share Sarah's pain. But she recovered quite quickly, proving why she's always been an all star.

Sarah, by the way, confided to me that she's in no rush to jump back into the business, is enjoying life with her family up in Boston, though she has been taking a few board positions, and is getting some interesting nibbles to manage some media related businesses, many of which I'm sure could absolutely, positively use her right now.

Thanks, Sarah. (And a belated happy birthday).