• by Kelly Samardak , November 5, 2009

ComScore's Ad:Tech Party, The Park, New York
November 4, 2009

When you see the name comScore and you're not an industry newbie, you probably recognize it as a marketing research company.  You've probably read a report or even included a comScore quote in your slick Powerpoint presentations.  ComScore hosted a party at The Park last night where guests were invited to enjoy delicious food and listen to comScore Chairman and Co-Founder Gian Fulgoni share a brief recap of key industry developments from 2009, also highlighting some of the next big movements of 2010, which sounds like 2010 is getting enough fiber.  I know, you're thinking "A research party? How can that be fun?"  Well, dear reader (or skimmer), when you add an open bar featuring sangria, a shushing guest, garlic-drowned shrimp, and an up-to-the-minute AccuWeather forecast, it's kind of hard NOT to have fun.

The party was held in the upstairs area of Park, a place I have never seen probably due to pure laziness  -- who wants to walk up so many stairs?  The room was beautiful. I felt like I was in a mystical opium den in an Asian country not yet discovered.  Which of course, made sangria confusing, but hey, keep it international!  Gail Hilton of Thought Equity Motion met me and Invoke co-founder Dario Meli at the door and was on the same thought train as we were: Food. Now.  You can work up quite an appetite walking from the Javits Center.  A plate of skewered shrimp shuffled by and I popped one into my salivation station.  Holy garlic, Batman.  Every burp was nostril-burning after that.

The next dish was some sort of meat chop, which I bit into, then gulped, "Well that was flavorless." Why so flavorless? Because the olive tapenade was now on my dress.  Go me.  I returned to my entourage after inhaling crispy coal oven pizzas and taking a round of photos to find Mel Adler of AccuWeather.  He was showing off the AccuWeather app on his iPhone and assured us that a BlackBerry counterpart did indeed, exist. "They live and breathe algorithms," Mel declared proudly of the AccuWeather development team. Hot!

I also talked Viceland with Michael Tennant, GM of Vice's new ad network, AdVICE.  Oh you clever Vicers.  He was making the rounds with his bespeckled partner in Vice, Matt Heindl.  I spied proud recent dad, Reprise Media's Anthony Iaffaldano.  For your entertainment, he's a huge fan of "Glee" --- if I remember our conversation correctly, he may have been in a glee club in high school.  We were  multitasking the sharing of Facebook "why did this person from high school friend me?" stories and viewing his adorable son dressed as a pumpkin.  I swear the only reason to have kids is Halloween.  There is just nothing like a kid dressed as a gourd, legume, or tuber.  Joe McDonough, East Coast Sales Director at Tech Media Network, joined us with his equally adorable daughter dressed as a witch.  I love dads that are in the trenches with girls.  The hell of hormones that awaits them is fearsome.

Also sampling from the continual flow of yummy eats were Richa Patel of Fox News, Derrius Clark of NCC, Lew Alpert of Chilmark Programs, Dennis Prechtl of National Cable Communications, Karen Gordon of UBS Investment Bank, Kwok Eng of UBS, William Manny of NetElixir , Daniele Campbell of Rodale, Ilene Kennedy of Turner Media, Matt Chesler of Deutsche Bank Equity Research, Kevin Gianatiempo of TubeMogul, Inc., and a whole slew of others.

I knew it was time to head for the EPIC Advertising "Heaven and Hell" party at Marquee when the speech portion of the evening started.  It's just so ill-placed to get a party in full swing and then suddenly expect your sauced guests to pay attention and stop networking, blathering, shimmying. 

The speakers in the room where Gian Fulgani wasn't physically presenting were so loud that everyone maintaining position in the bar couldn't keep their conversations below a roar.  This inspired a velociraptor-like reaction from one guest  who stalked into the bar violently shushing the crowd and delivering a samurai-sword-slicing stinkeye to all offenders.  "No one can hear!" she hissed.  This was true because, oddly, the speakers in the room where Fulgani was addressing his guests were either not functioning properly or at all.

You're right, these captioned photos aren't from the comScore Party.  I uh, did that on purpose to tantalize your curiosity about the Epic Advertising blowout.  Yeah, that's it.  That write up is coming soon!