Getting the Fly off the Wall

Cast your net wide and you'll come up with something. Well, Flycast Networks has expanded their offerings to just web-based advertising solutions to email marketing and direct response and ROI results. And they moved into swanky new offices! So, what's a company to do when there's all this good news? Throw a party! And they did -- on Thursday, August 19th. Bright blue and orange balloons lofted above the crowd of mostly young men and women who were clients and friends. As I entered I paused to say hello to Ari Bloch and caught sight of super yummy hors d'oeuvres and desserts that were being passed around. Just a little further in was Thomas Flynn (northeast sales director, Flycast) speaking with Ed Murphy of Thomson Financial Services. Ed was saying how they're currently experiencing the "now that we're grown up, what do we want to be?" phase (a portal? a service?). Erin Brennan of ScreamingMedia.net was there with a childhood friend, Joyce Song (client service, Flycast, SF) who was also chatting with Chris Hulse (media sales, Flycast, NY). I soon realized a bunch of iballs were staring at me--er, Andrew Ralles, Patrick Cartmel and Andrew "Mag Daddy Media Planner" Chen of iballs, that is. Chen was speaking with Allan Ng of Bright Sun Consulting in a corner, so I let them alone after a while. Wes Horvath (manager, media sales, Flycast) introduced me to John McMenamin (VP, General manager, iVillage network), Nick Pahade (co-founder, CSO, Beyond Interactive), who has just opened their NY office and Amy Wilson of BroadPoint, which offers free long distance phone service for listening to ads. Jeff Lehman, VP media sales & customer service, Flycast) greeted me and Ms. Spataro and Andrew LaValle, who'd just arrived. Also just arriving was Catrina Gregory (biz dev, Sabela Media) who had a fabulous outfit on -- a stylized suit, terrific heels and a great baubly-pearl necklace! Tres chic! Heather Rosen, formerly of BBDO and now at Media.com gave me some interesting insight into her recent job change. Apparently there's something in the @tmosphere!