• by Kelly Samardak , December 18, 2009

2009 Mashable Holiday Party, Hotel Roger Smith, New York
December 18, 2009

Holiday party season in the land of digital media and advertising (and schmoozing and boozing) is winding down.  The open bars are closing, the mini burgers are heading back to their stables, the nondenominational vague messages of potential joy in December are finding their way back into our personal lives, as our professional lives wrap up 2010.  Last night Mashable threw their own holiday hootenanny at the Hotel Roger Smith, with portions of ticket proceeds going to the Association to Benefit Children (ABC).  Lots of nerds converged on the bizarre penthouse floor for, well, whatever nerdlings get together to do.

I was a good hour late because I had been buried under the hundreds of pictures I was editing from the "Mad Men" party the night before.  I was also nursing some small brain bruising delivered by that powerhouse skull-fighter, sparkling wine.  But you know, dust yourself off and keep on keeping on, right?  The elevator opened onto the penthouse floor and I almost ate floor.  See, I don't know what's up with the Roger Smith.  The floors are sporadically ramped or raised in surprise neck-jolting spots that I managed to connect with clumsily.  The party was spread out into four or five rooms, which made the cohesive "we're all in this together" party feel a little challenging.  No big whoop though, because business cards were being whipped out left and right.

While I snuck past a large grey brick of gherkin-covered madness (I had to sneak, I was afraid it might sprout a tentacle and wrap wetly around my wrist, taking me to some sort of liquefied organ hell) I saw a little hairless melon I hadn't seen in, what, 6 months or more?  It was David Weiner, Manager, Emerging Media for PR Newswire!  He was schmoozing with some other marketing types, one who was speaking in such a booming manner that I could barely hear the soft-spoken Weiner.  Sorry, David! I wanted to talk more.  I walked over to the bar to get some water and ran smack into Colin Gillis, Managing Director of Internet Equity Research at Brigantine Partners -- sans shiny red briefcase, for once.

While hunting for 360i's Karen Ram and tripping over carpet lumps I nearly fell into Mashable's Editor in Chief Adam Ostrow.  He was keeping an eye on the elevators with Digg's Matt Van Horn, who was being held together at the neck by Owen JJ Stone AKA @OHDOCTAH, who is still an enigma to me.

Rounding the corner, I body-checked Ari Greenberg, still mystified by his status as an emerging A Lister (please insert your tongue into your cheek or I will do it for you) party dude.  Typical of smart people, Ari is already pondering his next move.  And actually, just typing that makes me excited for 2010.  Not that I'm tired of hearing about/experiencing Twitter and Facebook miracles, but I'm ready to play with something new, get dirty in a new mud pit -- aren't you?  Bring it!

I found 360i's Karen Ram having a sticky conversation with 360i's Matt Wurst.  Mattwurst.  He was blotting something on his arm that looked like a stripe of blood.  It wasn't.  It was cookie.  "Matt ran into my cookie!" laughed Karen. Ah, coworkers.   It was around then that 360i marketing kingpin David Berkowitz scuffle into the room.  I had just seen him out in the larger room ("the one with more salmon," one guest informed me) with Chaim Haas of Kaplow PR.  Berkowitz is like The Flash!

While blathering about bangs and five-hour-long haircuts with the 360i crew (yes, men contributed), I spied Roger Resnicoff, social media consultant dude that walks the talk, splitting the crowd with new-to-me faces belonging to Amanda Rykoff and Esther Chen.

I spotted a furry cluster in the center of the largest room.  No, it wasn't a basket of squirrels, it was a couple of Web developers in their scruffy, bearded, floppy-haired glory. Kyle Bragger works on My Social Dog with the sweet as Portage County Ohio honey Sharon Feder; the other fuzz supporter was Caleb Brown of VaynerMedia and Sqworl, which is stamped with my new favorite logo.   Bragger helped me build my "come on, I want a flippin' dog" case with some medical facts like, say, dogs lower blood pressure.  I also like to use the hardened prisoner analogy.  Where I'm the prisoner of life and a dog would make me less homicidal.  This is all an analogy, people, don't start opening those cold cases.

Who else who else?  Obviously the Mashable crew was on hand (Brett Petersel, Adam Hirsch, Sharon Feder -- and Tamar Weinberg, Director of Community at Mashable , who was either being tased or interviewed by Jay Berkowitz of 10 Golden Rules), and also Damien Basille, who I'm pretty sure thinks I'm his personal photographer, tugging me over to snap him in various smirky shots.  Last night he was with Petersel, Brian Simpson, Director of Social Hospitality at Roger Smith Hotel or Hotel Roger Smith or that Hotel where the social media types hang out, and Stephen Melfi, tech PR guy.  

SavvyAuntie's Melanie Notkin, Deep Focus's Ian Schaefer, Oz Sultan of esultancy.com, Mashable's Leah Betancourt, Chris Corriveau of StockTwits, and Leon Yu from Thomson-Reuters also milled about, probably hiding from the grey log of fear.

Tonight SocialVibe's President Joe Marchese is throwing a little Happy Hour, which I have the best intentions of covering, but I might need a sanity break. 

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com

Photos are up on Flickr !