With over 40 press people, 4 camera crews including Fox News, CafeDigital, akimbaTV (Japan) and 800 people, the Cool Site of the Year awards party on April 27th at the Webster Hall was a resounding success by all accounts. Emcee'd this year by Penn Jillette, the ceremony was run more efficiently than last year and Mike Corso, president of the awards and site, told me he had more than a handful of VCs approach him as a result of the evening. He also announced the Cool Site of the Day Games--a $1 million benefit event for Habitat for Humanity, Teaching Tolerance and Common Cause. This weekend-long paintball competition in Chicago will be amongst 24 Internet firms (of 10-person teams). The $75,000 entry fee per team will cover the airfare, hotel, food and production costs so the teams can participate in the new state-of-the-art paintball park, complete with replicas of old towns and real running water!
Music at this night's party was by NYC Swing and Abbie Gardner, beer was provided by Happy Hours, Thoma Winery provided the wine and a bounty of delicious food was served by Mark Fahrer Catering. Among the 800 guests were folks from infrastructure companies, ad agencies, guests of the sponsors about.com, netcreations, yahoo and promotions.com, and the 50 nominees and their guests. And the winner for the Year: Boxerjam http://www.boxerjam.com/. Check out the site to see all the category winners too!
