Streaming Media East party

Straw island hats were bobbing around on head of hob-nobbers in the crowded newly-renovated and swank New York Club for the Streaming Media East party on Tuesday, June 28th. Each guest was lei'd as they arrived and throughout the party sunglasses, straw hats, sparkly "wands" and Yack! chattering teeth were passed around. Early on I attacked the life-size Yack! "Chattering Teeth-man" with giant sized beach balls. After this workout I got my hair braided and headed up to the VIP lounge for a nice big stoagie, compliments of iBeam. Randy Pear of IESG.com came up to me and said, "there's Mark Cuban!" The music was so loud though, I thought he said, "Hey! There's a real Cuban," and was thinking of trading up my cigar for a better one. Alas! No cigar. Just Mark Cuban, who was probably one of the most wealthy (in terms of fame, looks, and a few beans too) men at the party. Mark and I chatted briefly as Nicholas Butterworth (SonicNet) talked up a storm about biz-ness. Absolutely delightful to talk with was Serena Doshi of Liv4Now (and who's engaged to Sean Matalesa--senior executive & co-founder of Yack!). We then met Frank Morrocco of Icon Broadcasting Network, which represents the most famous woman in sports broadcasting--Anne Liquori. Ann had just returned from interviewing Michael Jordan on the golf course with her husband (and producer of her show) Steve Geller. Nearby I ran into Christopher Levy, of Clickhear Productions, and we began our discussion of various ways we'll get The Cyber Scene and Cocktails with Courtney webcast. Soon you'll be able to hear "The Cyber Scene" over the 'Net and eventually, hear interviews of notable industry players, catch part of the Cocktail party and be a part of the scene, even when you can't be there. He introduced me to Jon Fox, Cory Smith (CEO), Randy Levine (dir. of strategic relationships) and Martina Johnson-Kent (strategic advisor) of Webcast Solutions.com. This was one of the nicest groups of people! They were all very friendly and Jon and I spoke at length about how at events in California, people are a bit more friendly and will come up and introduce themselves, whereas in NY, people can be a bit more standoffish and keep to their cliques.

Farhan Memon, executive producer & co-founder of Yack!, announced they just hired execs from Viacom and CBS Marketwatch. I ventured back to the disco dancing room, where some too tuckered out sat in overstuffed antique lounge furniture draped in strings of flamingo, pineapple and crab lights and at tables peppered with plastic shells and fishnets. The tallest person I met (: )) was Jason Droege--a fine young man who told me that his company Scour.net just got funded by Michael Ovitz. I knew this was an Island-party-NY-style when I noticed more people had cigars and martinis in their hands than Pina Coladas. Among the other fun guests who came out to play this hot, sticky day were Cory Podolsky and Dena Lawless (Sonicnet), Andrew Duncan, of EMC2 who just got promoted to Worldwide director of field operations, and who I shared some stories about the Hamptons scene with, J.D. Heilprin (Rioport.com) and Geoffrey Maresca (Yahoo! Internet Life). The party was going full swing and had no signs of stopping even when I left. And I heard the next day that a few select people (from Clickhear, EMC2, and Broadcast.com) tied on a few more into the wee hours!