Certain Wednesday's during the month have me more preoccupied
than others and this month was my regularly scheduled "Cocktails
with Courtney." Actually, I started the month with a cocktail party as
March's event was on April 1st. Held at the Melville Gallery in the
South Street Seaport, over 100 friends, acquaintances and new
business leaders came to enjoy complimentary wines from the
Gundlach Bundschu vineyard (www.gunbun.com) and dinner from
Radio Mexico (www.readiomexi.com). My dad helped me out at this
event, as he always does -- Thanks Dad! -- and other friends like
writer/consultant Anne Yoakam, Steve Introcaso (Sun Microsystems),
Metro Byte show producer Chip Lewis, and Sachin Shah
(PR@vantage). Michael Terpin (Terpin Group) was there with Amy
Goldberger, the Terpin Group's new NYC general manager and their
new client Hurricane Technology (Robynn Delin, was this hot Silicon
Alley start-up's rep). Hurricane actually just got funded by top tier
VC's including Hummer Winblad and just announced $6 million in
funding this week. Walter "Jay" Sternberg of DraftWorldwide, Barney
Lehrer, Tanya Corrin (Pseudo), Jeramie Wright (InfoSpace) and
Christine Harmel (Interactive Resource) were among some of my
guests. Jonathan Perkel brought Deborah Lightfoot, CFO of
Foodline.com, Isabel Walcott (president, SmartGirl.com) Catherine
Winchester (Soliloquy), and Guillermo Suescum (ShopGuide.com,
Inc.) enjoyed some of the savory Bearitage wines. Donna Williams
and David Friedensohn of BigStar came with one of David's
Dartmouth buddies. Their offices were right upstairs, so it was quite
convenient. Bernardo Joselvich (Duty Free Guide) once again saved
my night with his digital camera pictures.
Jon Serbin, Cliff Ainsworth, Tim Nadeau (Brandscape), Lisa Carley
(CAP Gemini), Connie Lerner and writer John Chaffee ("The
Thinkers Way") came out too. Groups from Avenue A, Scient,
Renaissance, Venture Direct, Octet and Uproar made an impression
and some folks from Middleberg and 24/7 came out along with Mia
Paterno and Rachel Tischer of Orientation. Madrid Tennant of NYU
CAT, Ravi Chandran (ABC.com), Kit Cody (Concrete Media), Janna
Rosenstein (assistant editor, iVillage Better Health), Ilana Arazie
(community producer, iVillage.com), Thomas Deierlein of NetGravity,
and Chad Henry (associate, Pearson, Caldwell & Farnsworth) all
stopped in for some fun times.
The PR world was represented with Kathryn Anne Lancioni (VP,
Ogilvy PR), Danielle Arceneaux (Alexander Ogilvy), Marie Elena Rigo
(Cohn & Wells). Elizabeth Gerst, producer/reporter for NY1 News
looked lovely in her black suit and springy black sandal heels and I
finally got to meet Mark Modzelewski of Golin/Harris, Laila Rubstein
of Greeting-cards.com and Kim Hill (Mediaworks)! Betty Wong
(president, ServiceFinders) brought Iders Marsh from San Antonio,
TX. Venture Capital was represented at the party by Kenneth Rand,
Chris Patyk and Chris Wood of Riverside Management Group,
Stephen Shull (Chase), Michael Thompson (Lehman Brothers).
Heather Carter (New Vision) and Vida Morkunas (Emerge On-line)
even came out from Vancouver! They were in the city for Thunder
Lizard's Web Advertising '99 conference. Stephen Petri flashed a
shiny new ring -- Congratulations to his recent marriage! -- and said he
had more exciting news for me! (Stay tuned)!
All in all, this benefit for the Seaport and The New York Pops brought
together new New York in an old New York space for a fun time in a
unique space and helped bring awareness for the Seaport and The
New York Pops (which is having a fabu gala in mid June!)
