• by Kelly Samardak , September 8, 2008

ABM/FIPP B-to-B World Conference Cocktail Reception, The United Nations, New York
September 7, 2008

What did you do on your Sunday? Did you hang out with some pals, watching eight different football games? Did you try to get your Advertising Week calendar all squared away? Maybe you were perfecting your couch potato lean. While you were up to no good, I was hanging out at the place to be on Sunday nights: the United Nations.

I've never been to the U.N. Stupid, I know. I mean, what kind of person lives in Manhattan for four years and doesn't set foot in this historic location? Not me, because I was there last night! As I approached the U.N., I reveled in the beautiful weather. Not too hot in the sun, 10 degrees lower in the shade, and the gentle smell of approaching Autumn mixed in with the hot dogs and curdled road milk. The sky was already melting into shades of pale violet, pink, and deeper blue with helicopters buzzing around like massive metal mosquitoes.

Large multi-government buildings make me nervous, which then makes me look guilty, which then makes me feel guilty- which is also why I don't rob banks. Unfortunately, I wasn't frisked, just sent on my merry way up to the Delegates Dining Room feeling very tiny. A lone keyboardist tickled the... plastics as I peered into the dark nearly-empty room. Oh, there's everyone -- on the terrace enjoying an amazing view while sipping on cocktails in their business casual, contemplating the B-to-B universe no doubt.

Crab cakes slid by, followed closely by delicious little circles of tenderloin. In my attempt to put the kibosh on my ever-expanding social diarist gut, I had a Lean Pocket before heading out. This was a dumb move as now I had meat pieces, crabcakes, and vino layered on top of it. Inside there was also a huge buffet of pasta and veggies and rolls, grr.

The first person I met was Eric Baum, Vice President, Corporate Development, Summit Business Media. Eric spent a little too much time in the sun this weekend and is also my almost-Village neighbor. I later found him chatting it up with Kamal Virdi, Executive Vice President, Aequor.

While snapping a photo of Megan Andrews, Committies and Councils Coordinator, ABM, Steve Palm, President & CEO, NewBay Media, and former ABM and current BBN employee Lauren Gabriele, I nearly slugged the official event photographer for letting me set up the shot and then shooting my shot over my head. Literally, he could have been resting his huge showy lens on my wadded-up hair. I should be flattered, I'm sure, but I call bad camera etiquette. Get your own eye.

No one seemed to be concerned that the following evening (tonight) we'd all be held captive with 250 other people in the NY Waterway. I mean, don't you get a little squirrely at the thought of being on a boat with 250 strangers for a four-hour party. No fashionably late, no early departure? The people at last night's reception put my squirrels at ease - they weren't the stiff crowd I was expecting at all. In fact, Jeff Martin, Reality Facilitator (what?!), Darren Fowler, European Operations Director, and Michael Biggerstaff, Chief Inspiration Officer (all from nxtbooks media), and I have a bet going.  See, I'm convinced someone in that four-hour period will feed the fish -  they think not.  I'll let you know how it pans out.

Oh! Remember the PostAdvertising.com launch party? Jeremy Greenfield's little soiree? Well, Jeremy used to write for minonline and I met his successor, Naomi Reither, a towering blond who once penned a party column herself. It's funny how that beat starts out so strong and then suddenly, you become the curmudgeonly crudite dweller.

And how could I forget - there were MediaPost subscribers in our midst (besides me). Jun Imada, Deputy Group Manager, Nikkei Business Publications, is an avid reader and promises to subscribe to and read this column daily. He was hanging out with Fredrik Sommerfelt Kvaal, Development Manager, Multiplan Editorial Software; Christine Scott, General Manager, FIPP, and Amy Duffin, Editorial & Communications Manager, FIPP.

I need to take my Bonine now in preparation for tonight's New York-waterway-bound luxury yacht party. I don't want to be the one feeding the fish.

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com if you've got a gathering of the minds that you want covered in Just An Online Minute!

Check out the view from the United Nations Delegates Dining Room !

Follow me through my overloaded September party schedule on Twitter.