What do you get when you put together four industry icons and their respective guest lists? Pair it with one of San Francisco's trendiest drink spots and you'll get a turbo-charged cocktail party. More fun than a barrel of monkeys, the cocktail party on Tuesday, January 29th at the Clift Hotel's Redwood Room was hosted by Brad Nye (founder of LA's The Vic), Gloss.com CEO Peter Hirshberg, Niehaus Ryan Wong's co-founder, president and CEO Ed Niehaus and yours truly. The occasion? Just to get together with friends for some drinks and lots of great conversations. And who came? Well, we had people like: Interactive Associates' Dr. Diana Gagnon Hawkins, 7x7 Magazine's Tom Hartle, Heather Hartle and Geoff Workman, Hummer Winblad's Steve Kishi, Niehaus Ryan Wong co-founder Bill Ryan, Ramprate CEO Tony Greenberg and Wolff Olins's Eric Scott.
Writer Caroline Waxler stopped by before her next social engagement and Business 2.0 senior writer Paul Kaihla, StartupAgent.com's Lisa Perscutti, Eric Mummert and Pankaj Gupta chatted amongst themselves between meeting other guests. EssEff icons like Craigslist.com's Craig Newmark, Iconocast's Michael Tchong and The Webby Awards' Maya Draisin and David-Michel Davies stopped by for a few 'tails as they exchanged tales.
Co-hosts Brad Nye, Peter Hirshberg and Ed Niehaus kept themselves busy introducing their respective guests to each other. Among some of the people I met were Marino Associates' principal Marianne Marino, MeVC CEO Peter Freudenthal and our very own SF Cyber Scene contributor Renee Bakos. Technanogy EVP Scott Mize came out to meet up with people and help pump up the crowd for our "Intro. to Nanotechnology" panel he was speaking on the next day. Sheridan Johnston of his own firm.
It wasn't long before the long glass and mirror etched bar filled up with cocktails and people began noticing the digital "portraits" hung on the walls were looking at us--blinking and checking us out. The storyline behind the featured portraits was that the spanish beauty was having an affair with the WASP-y career woman's husband. Either way, it was of great amusement to all, including Administaff consultant Kathy Meklir, Zip Reality Palak Shah and How About Lunch's Carole Shattil. Acteva's Pankaj Gupta was full of energy and buzzing about the party meeting the other fine folks who came out.
The sleek 30's-style mahogany walls and art deco room was the perfect setting for a swanky cocktail soiree but having all the wonderful people who came to celebrate new and old friendships was what made the evening even more delightful.
A chronicle of the people and events in technology, internet and media since 1997, mixed in with snapshots of musings and observations.
