Monday, March 13, 2000

Monday, Monday, So good to me


Come Monday morning, March 13, I was freshly scrubbed and newly made up as I sat down to interview Tiffany Schlain, Academy president of The Webby Awards, who was equally fresh looking! Stay tuned to CyberSceneTV for her interview. After this, I met up with one of the most networked and influential women in Austin--Carol Thompson of The Thompson Group, whose interview will also be on CyberSceneTV in a few week's time.

This night was also the evening for my Cocktails With Courtney, sponsored by Hoovers.com, MShow.com and Aperian.com. Set in the Four Seasons, the weather was so nice we were able to expand out to the terrace and enjoy the sunset. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Michael Foster (Aperian) and his ties with the local CBS affiliate, KEYE, Mark Johnson, the local anchorman came down to check out this "jackpot of networking" as he coined it, and follow around Lane Becker, president & CEO of DeepLeap to highlight how young startups utilize these networking opportunities.

The wine was flowing and the antipasto trays were being refilled as we heard a word from our sponsors: Gary Hoover of Hoovers Online, Glenn Birk of Aperian and Keith Zoellner of MShow. Jim Butler, the Interactive Industries Development manager for the City of Austin came with friends and introduced me around. Dwight Adair of Granite House and Jessica Bray of Qwest were early arrivers, as were Carol Thompson of the Thompson Group, Beatrice Springborn of ChickClick and Charles Pugh of RTGlobal. NYer Robert Burnside came running up to give me, a fellow Alley-ite, a hug. Glenn Pagan of Hotline Communications, Kazumi Mechling and Kateri Gemperle of Hire.com were bubbly as they introduced me around, as did Terrall Lewis of Aperian. Ed Niehaus and Marcie Powers of Niehaus Ryan Wong were in town and stopped by too.

Mary Lambert of St. Edwards University, Heidi Schultz of Nourzads and Doug Driskell of the Speakeasy came by for some fun conversations. Curtis Young of Leo Burnett Technology Group and Jenni Lee of Deloitte & Touche came by. Academics Lon Berquist of the Telecommunications & Info Policy Institute of the U of Texas and David Donnelly of the International Telecommunications Research Institute at the U of Houston's School of Communication came by. Charlie Ramirez and Katy Fendrich of Dell, Will Kreth of Lifeset.com, Eric Sutherland and Russ Newth of M2K, Stacey May of eTour and Joanna Cash and AJ Procter, co-founders of Screamin' Media all stopped by too for this Cocktail party. Mary Oliver, EVP of Agillion, Jennifer Niederst of LittleChair.com and J Joseph of Lhombre also had a presence at the party.

High Tech Happy Hour man-o-the-hour Harry Pape came to see friends at the event and Sam Goodner of Catapult Systems and David Collier of Gamelet.com came out too. There were many more great people who came, including some attendees of the Film division of SXSW. It was a perfect evening and a great turnout -- tons of interest and interesting people and I hope to be back soon for another fun party!