• by Kelly Samardak , December 10, 2010

Control Group Holiday Party, The Woolworth Building, New York
December 9, 2010

I emerged from the elevator after the Yelp Snow Ball, into the temporarily abandoned office space on the 21^st floor of the Woolworth Building.  My Ohio almost fell out of my mouth as my eyes drank in the fabulous lighting of this landmark space.

The welcome mat was a rotunda that may have served as a reception desk by day, but last night was the champagne pick up zone.  Catchafire's intern extraordinaire and young woman passionate about improving the lives of those who may not have the tools to do themselves, MaryBeth Bognar (also my sister, who obviously, I am very proud of), and I scooped up chubby plastic tumblers of the bubbly stuff and weaved out way through the purple blue... tunnels.

The space was ridiculous.  In fact, space is a great word for it because it felt very Logan's Run with its stark white tunnel hallways dripping with white festive lights, dotted with nattily dressed architects, pocket flared producers, and colorful techy artists.

I immediately recognized Jonny Cigar of Noblerot.  I had first met him at the Michelin Guides party, and he was every bit as speakeasy-schnazzy as I remembered, right down to the bespoke suit and detailed Santa tie.  He mixed a dangerous cocktail and sent me on my way to discover custom suckers (I can't say lollipop, the word makes me skin want to roll of my body and slink away) in the "Control Group Blue," hand crafted by "Mihow" or Michelle, new control group CTO Toby Joe Boudreaux's wife.  The word may make my skin crawl, but I never knew mouth candy could be described as beautiful until I visited her Etsy shop. Pretty little suckers.

Lisa Lacy, Control Group's PR wrangler, gave me the lay of the land, also introducing me to Thomas Batson, a bartending blogger.  I'll bet bartending bloggers get to attend some seriously boozy events.

I also met Brad Iroff, the company's insurance agent (keeping everyone in one piece!); Campbell Hyers, CEO at Control Group; Scott Anderson, partner at Control Group; Danny Anders from Kaltura; Allison Alexander, VP of Sales at AmSale, Emily Leu of AmSale; Alison Formicola; Jason Jimenez, an architect; Phineas (just Phineas); and Jennifer C. (just the C.)

The DJ, I loved him.  He was Matt Mikas and he bounded back and forth in the red party glow, bopping the music and rifling through his boxes of records, snatching up a square here and there, tucking the rejects back into their crate.  He was later replaced by Chico Mann, a man and his synthy, bassy, keyboardy band.   Partygoers stopped to soak their ears in the goodness as they munched on goodies from Scoozi Events the included crinkle fries, teeny burgers, and... some sort of fried chunk of something.

After popping into the photobooth, I ventured into the live painting room where iPad and iPhone users could download the application Mrmr OSC and remotely play together to create interactive art.  It was trippy gorgeous. Near the collaborative art and photobooth I found Lisa Munuz, a producer with The Wilderness; Peter Svanik, a producer "with myself"; and Ryan Manchester, a composer.

It was hard to leave that party, it was overflowing with creativity and surprises around every corner, like the kids I ran into with their stacks of post-it notes.  They were waging a war with the company's Purchasing Coordinator - seeing who could put the most "kick me" style signs on his back.  I found one little mischief maker with a sticky reading "I am The Eggman." 

Back into the chilly night I went, dragging MaryBeth off to Orchard Street for the Mr. Youth Holiday Mashup.

Sassy photos are up ! (check back, more coming!)