• by Kelly Samardak , September 22, 2010

Thought Equity Motion's Ping-Pong Showdown, Spin New York
September 21, 2010

Do you hate the sound of a little plastic ball hitting a strange, green, sort of soft, but not really, table? Do you despise mini burgers so much that you would rather roll around naked in a pile of dead squirrels than be near one?  Does the thought of miniature wedges of grilled cheese make your stomach lurch in "Imma have an alien baby!" explosive bursts?  Does free beer and wine make you want to pierce your ears with an Airstream trailer?  Then you would have been miserable last night.

Because I would want others to do so, I suppose I should disclose my friendship (as if you didn't already know) with Thought Equity Motion's Gail Hilton.  You should know by now that no matter what ties, if someone horks, prances around topless, or makes out with a storm trooper in the corner, I'm going to write about it.  Gail knows this better than anyone, too.  If I see something, I write something.  If you don't trust that I'm being honest in my coverage of this party, there's really nothing I can do about it -- but hey, I tried.  Moving on!

Spin New York weirds me out for a number of reasons.  One, the membership fee.  Two, that people actually join a ping-pong club.  It has to be dude-skewed because I just don't see any of my girlfriends sending out a mass email "Girls! ping-pong Club! Let's get on it!" no matter how many tasty beers are on tap.  Last night I discovered a room that might make it worth it.  I had no idea this cozy, dark, moodily lit private room existed under the stairs.  Shag carpeting, a private bar, the "sound proof booth," and a private ping -pong table for those shy about such ball sporting - fantastic. 

"I kind of feel like I'd want to have a birthday party here, but none of us are turning 30 anymore and no one throws big parties after 30," I said to Gail as I screwed my flash into my camera.

"40," she said, always the logical thinker, "We'll do it for 40."

Guests were already practicing their paddling technique on the private table as well as on the tables reserved in the main room.  People were very serious about this ping-pong Showdown (complete with brackets, and brackets terrify me. I had a bad bracket experience with beer pong in a CT garage years ago), with one dude sporting bright-yellow knee-high socks, cotton Daisy Dukes, a Mohawk, and of course, a sweatband.  Another fellow (who was nametagless so we'll just call him Grouchy) seemed depressed by the whole event, but maybe that was his game face.

In a little corner by the soundproof booth I found Jessica Z. Mackasey of Thought Equity Motion (TEM) with Michael Hermann of The Fabulous Wicked Cow Entertainment.  I don't care what the Wicked Cow does, but by name alone I love it.  Michael also had some pretty clever business cards: they were movie theatre tickets that can be separated when given out.  So Michael always knows who goes with what ticket.  Mine was 555.  Almost evil.  We were joined by Matt Turnbull of TigerSpike, an agency that specializes in mobile and social media. I kept calling it TigerStripe, a pretty easy mistake.

I finally met Dan Weiner, Vice President of Marketing & Products at TEM, in person.  He was bracket man with Chief Revenue Officer for TEM Sal Siino, who was wine connoisseur for the night.   JP Cadaviera of Red Car was hard to miss with his bushy beard and twisty moustache ends.  I may have met the entire TEM staff, including Allison Wolf, Lori Farber, Jessica Carmody, Francelle Wax, and the beat boxing Andrew Gutterson.  Little tidbit for you "Nurse Jackie" watchers.  Remember that scene where Sam the male nurse takes Dr. Cooper to see his "real life" and it's a circle of beatboxers? One of them was Andrew Gutterson.  He is incredibly talented and he even taught me a few...beats...before I got shy.

Mingling amongst all the tiny passed foods were a really great group of people. I think that goofy games attract a more fun-loving crowd.  Among them were Marissa Kraft of Grey, Kerri Lasako of GSG, Lauren Mandel of G2, Stephen Barnwell of R/GA, Zach Slovin of Grey, Colin Reilly of PS260, Jenna Warnecke of PS260, R/GA's Vin Farnell, R/GA's Reggie Ross, Lauren Reilly from Kaplan Thaler, Nick Thorndike from The Smithsonian Channel, Anton T from R/GA (who, begrudgingly I think, entertained me with one game!), Keryn Santiago of Torre Lazur McCann, Christina Ta of Grey, Colin Edelman of PS260, Abby Hannon of Grey Healthcare Group, and Jennifer Dee. 

Wieden+Kennedy sent their ping-pong finest in the form of camera-shy LaTeisha Moore, Sounun Tek, and Michael Burch, who was wearing flannel, just like last time I saw him! Not the same flannel, though, don't worry.  But not even W+K's finest could topple the ping-pong skills of big winner Eric Bergman from Deutsch.

And oddly, I found myself talking French with TEM's Nick De Toustain.  See, the magic of mini burgers!

Well played, Thought Equity Motion, the agencies who played, and even Spin, whose waitstaff was friendly and not jerky at all.

Lots of pinging and ponging on Flickr!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com