• by Kelly Samardak , September 18, 2008

OMMA Global New York, Marriott Marquis, New York
September 18, 2008

Here we are! Day One of OMMA Global New York. I'll try to keep this post somewhat brief, because I'm also going to try and post again later with party/cocktail pics. Because, you know, it's fun and all to post the conference, but I know you crazy critters like to see the party-style mugging.

So how is OMMA Global New York going so far?

Personally, I had a rough start. I got up at 6:30 a.m., thinking I didn't really have to be doing photo duties until 8:30. I was lollygagging around, making coffee, looking at myself in the mirror, Twittering. Suddenly I thought: "Hey, smarty, why don't you check the agenda." Uh, the agenda said back to me "you're a dork, Joe Marchese goes on at 8:15 a.m." That was at 7:47 a.m. I live in the East Village. So, yes, I grabbed my stuff and ran. I made it, with a forehead covered in salty sweat beads just as Ken Fadner (you know him in this column as The Big Boss) welcomed the early bird crew.

It's always interesting to see what the first-comers respond to, which is also why I was excited for Joe Marchese, President of Social Vibe and all around good-humored goofball (and professional!), to get started. He began with a wonderful declaration that social networks/media traffic has now surpassed that of porn! Or pron. Then we got a nice little dose of "South Park." I think Joe confused people with his sense of humor so early in the morning, or people are just afraid to show the real them at these palm-squeeze-heavy conferences, because no one really laughed. And Joe was funny. It's not you, Joe, I swear.

It can't be Joe--because later in the morning, one panelist said: "I don't want my ad coming up next to a cat farting" in reference to advertisers' concerns about, well, context. Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, gave a quirky presentation that almost made slides not feel like slides. He quoted Joe Marchese in a few slides, which tickled Joe, according to his Twitter.

 The audience responded really well to Geoff Ramsey's fear slides--those being the three fears marketers need to get over in order to succeed. You can read the play-by-plays by slapping in #OMMANY or OMMA NY into http://search.twitter.com or get some really great reactions from the MediaPost writing staff and guest writers on the MediaPost Raw! (rawr!) blog.

I'm going to head out now that I've given you a little dose. The Expo Hall is open, so I'm going to GO on in and get some booth bunny shots for you as well as more from the rest of the day. Tonight we've got the Kickoff Cocktail Party, the OMMA Awards, and the Vizi afterparty. I'm going to try and last all night--thank goodness for my sparkly flats.

Keep your eyes on the Flickr set for updates!