Tuesday, November 09, 1999

The Report From The "Ankur Man"-Getting Soaped at Cybersuds

'–And in his Cyber Scene roving reporter debut, I sent Ankur Shah out to hit the streets and cover the beat'–
The night started out at the NYNMA-sponsored Cybersuds, held at Club New York. Along with the socializing and fun of the event, people also donated money and/or non-perishable items to the charity CityHarvest. With the donation, people could leave their business card for a drawing. I was told by Ms. Toni LoPresti, who is the head of the Member Relations Committee of NYNMA, that the prizes were donated by Balducci'­s.
After a quick chat with Ms. LoPresti, I met Mr. Rob Gould, who is the president of Quinzer.com. This is a startup company that works with database applications. These databases are free and allow for Qmmunities to develop between people, clubs, companies, etc. Mr. Gould has just started into this venture, so watch out for the coming of the Q.
Want to know how CyberSuds will play over in Japan? Well, you may get a chance. TV Tokyo was present at the function. They were filming a news show that centers on business and technology. They have come to New York to see what the internet/new media scene is like. They will then incorporate this into a feature on Nasdaq Japan, which is set to be unveiled next year.
As I wandered amongst the masses, I met Ms. Katherine Corrado of TMP Worldwide and Mr. Bruce Dorskind of The Dorskind Group. TMP is a staffing company that recently merged with Monster.com. And who was responsible for this merger but none other than Mr. Dorskind. Along with the merger, Mr. Dorskind is currently working on selling four websites.
Wondering what'­s new on the web? Check out www.thefrequency.com. Mr. Ronnie Kinsey informed me that the site is a prototype site that the company is trying to get feedback on whether to keep or to rework. This company is about to bust out. It is close to VC status, so keep your eyes peeled for it.
I next got a chance to meet Ms. Frances Schlosstein, who is an independent consultant. She works as a marketing consultant for startups and pulls on her 20 years of experience in marketing to help companies get their feet wet in the Internet industry.
We all know that PR firms are there to help their clients become more visible. But who is there to help the PR firms? Well, Mr. Adam Chiaino was kind enough to tell me about Video Monitoring Services of America, or VMS. VMS is 'like a wing of the PR industry,' according to Mr. Chiaino. He explained that VMS does video monitoring service for its clients. The company tracks where and when their client has been in the news and can get them the tape if the client'­s VCR breaks down.
My final chat was with the Vice President of Business Development for Blink.com, Mr. Ari Paparo. He had many an interesting comment on Blink. When someone becomes a member of Blink, they can take all their bookmarks from any computer and upload it to one sight that can then be accessed from any computer by anyone. Since being launched on Oct. 6, Blink has around 10,000 users and over a million bookmarks on its site. Along with this feature, a new program will be coming out in a few weeks. Blink members with web pages can have an icon on their page that will link them to Blink. If someone that is already a Blink member visits the webpage and clicks on the icon, that page is automatically bookmarked for the visitor. If the visitor is not a member, clicking on the icon will register them as a member and the person whose webpage this occurs at will earn a finders fee from Blink.