April showers may bring May flowers but they didn’t keep the crowds away at this month's Cocktails with Courtney, sponsored exclusively by XSeeksY.com. (www.xseeksy.com) Held in the interesting former bank vaults of JP Morgan's bank, the Vaults at Vine, almost 400 people came to learn about this relationship resource destination. We had decorated VCs like brother-sister dynamic duo Hal and Gloria Vogel, wizened attorneys like David Leffler and Danielle Cyr and seasoned media like Chris Allbritton from the Daily News, Elizabeth Brown of ABC News and Charles Molineaux from CNN attend. Even Harper's Bazaar's Melissa Ceria came by with her photographer Sasha Buvvubov and her husband, Arthur Ceria, creative director of Agency.com, popped down the street for a quick Hello.
I introduced myself to Brian Stengel, managing director of eColony, and learned a bit about his company. Melanie Hughes, director HR partners of Doubleclick and Yolanda Wardowski of Ernst & Young were near one of the gloriously colorful paintings we previewed by artist Kim Park--a nice addition to the stark, dark, cold vaults! (www.kimpark.com) Kim was busy chatting it up with other guests interested in the paintings in the security boxes room. Some people busied themselves with finding secret keys in the security boxes, which would lead them to one of XSeeksY's several prizes. Some people happily sat on the comfy chairs to play with the romantic magnetic poetry on the cocktail tables. And others sent virtual kisses to each other from XSeeksY's website.
Aimee Kessler Evans of MarketingSherpa.com, J.D. Miller of AssureNet, David Murrow of IAN and Matthew Keddy and Michael Cole of Ezuz.com were among the guests in attendance. John Bader introduced me to Emmanuel Pfeffer, visiting from Paris. Man-about-town Bernardo Joselevich brought along Sam Hamadeh co-founder, Vault.com. Jennifer Frommer, VP New Technology, Sony Music and Jeff Schock of Paradise Music and Entertainment stopped by for a bit and folks from firms like XUMA, Searchbymedia.com, StreamSearch.com, MovieGram and EventMe! came for the fun event. And while they've been receiving good press before their opening, the venue really didn't live up to the standards they touted despite the significant money and efforts that went into this party. All new restaurants have kinks to work out, but I was equally disappointed by the inconsistencies and reversals in arrangements while planning this event with the management. Problems with the venue aside, the party was a smashing success with many happy people leaving at the end of the night and excitement for next month's black tie!
