• by Kelly Samardak , June 15, 2010

KSL And Experian Lunch, 21 Club, New York
June 14, 2010

With all the boozy Internet Week New York parties out of the way, I was more than happy to return to the networking coverage vs. the slobbering partying-just-to-party circuit. Fair fun to all, but this little ding-dong can only handle so much. I had no idea that my return to the gentler side would be at the other end of the spectrum.

Welcome to the 21 Club, where it looks like everyone's grandfather's train set blew up on the ceiling. Where the lighting is so dark on the ground floor, there is no way you can tell if you're speaking to man or woman, and where the 3^rd floor, where today's lunch was held, was the least old boy's club of all, sporting shelves of steins with lute-playing ladies and frame upon frame of strapping steed. Ah yes, where or where did I leave my stogie and my riding crop, should any of the waitstaff get out of line.

The room we occupied for the KSL Media and Experian engagement er, partnership announcement lunch, also had a fellow behind one of those moveable bars that I can picture in my apartment, who tried as hard as he could with the help of another white-coated waiter to offer harder beverages. I couldn't tell if anyone partook of those sneaky dark liquids. To the right of the port-a-bar I found John McWilliams, Judy Ha, and Brian DiMarino, all of Experian, there to offer presenter Michael Bragg moral support.

I turned around and met Regina Gray and Jack Ledbetter, also of Experian. "Well hold up now, that's a lot of Experian types," I thought to myself, familiar with the concept of stuffing a room with your own people. Oh, hush, you know it, too. Score! I found As Seen Everywhere's Trygve Duryea. He shared some story about Ford and knowing where to get the knowledge rather than actually knowing the info, while Michael Bragg introduced himself.

I was getting hungry, anticipating lunch to get cracking. Jessica Schmidt of DMNews and Lori Paterson of Time Warner Cable (I kept my high-speed Internet and HD channel blipping to myself, this was lunch after all) got settled at the same table as me, wondering aloud if there was assigned seating. I said no.

I wandered off again and found Jane Schloth and Marty Fahey of OrderMotion. They were talking with David Sklaver, President of KSL Media. Remember how I said there weren't assigned seats? Yeah, I discovered Trista [last name not given] placing name-inscribed envelopes on each plate. I saw my name at a seat tucked into the far window at the front of the room. This would not help me escape if need be, so I was the pain in the ass that asked if it was OK to just stay at my already staked-out seat. It was fabulous of them to seat all media types at the front, that's always awesome. But the room was small enough to get a good view anywhere.

As I returned to my seat, I met Eve Carmel and Adrian Lo of Marathon Ventures. At my table, digging into their tomato mozzarella salads, I found Kristopher Johnson of gsi commerce and Loren Wayne of Coeppel.

And then, at the second slide, I ran away. Everyone was nice enough, sure, but when have you ever read about a product pitch in this column?

I appreciate the invitation, though, a glimpse at some crazy chicken, and of course, meeting new people working their faces off out there.

Photos from lunch are up on Flickr!