NextNY's Holiday Party

Breaking News! I made it to a NY tech-related Holiday Party! I know. Stunning. Things happen. So, I made my way on Wednesday, December 13th, in the Big Apple to Apple Restaurant for NextNY's Holiday Fête. I happened onto one of the most enthusiastic groups of young gentlemen in a long time. They were friendly, outgoing and had very good social and networking skills! Hurrah! It made my job so much easier. No more concerted efforts at pulling out information like, "hello" and "what's your name." These things were readily offered. Wow.

The first gentleman who greeted me was the affable Mark Crofton (SAP) who not only introduced me to a few other people but told me about the recent Office 2.0 conference and some interesting companies like Intailo (a leader in Open Source BPMS). We then chatted with Ram Tantaloor (Angleritech.com) and Anne-Marie Joss before stopping for a photo-op with Steve Eisenberg.

DealMine.com's founder & CEO Scott Cherkin proudly pronounced his upcoming article in the NY Daily News (12/14/06) before I launched into some extended conversation with the dapper-est young men there. Nate Westheimer (Innonate.com) told me off-the-record about his next on-the-record project. I'm fascinated and impressed with this bow-tie clad man's knowledge of women and the Internet. Let me assure you, it's more with Soccer Moms and Community and nothing to do with Jenny Garth. Equally engaging was Worth1000.com's Michael Galpert who foretold of the future capabilities of his company.

Gathered round NextNY's founder Charlie O'Donnell at one long table was RadioTail's Gregory Galant, TheGatheringWebsite.org's Juiette Powell and Pravda Marketing's Kfir Pravda. Pulver.com's Jeff Pulver and his Pulver.com posse ("wartime consigliere" Jonathan Askin and Network2.tv Chris Brogan) were also enjoying some dinner.

This dynamic community is, of course, dynamic online as well and you can find more picture and wiki-blogs at (http://www.nextny.org/wiki/). //\\ My pictures...