Tuesday, November 09, 1999

The Vintner, The Marketer and The Entertainer

Cocktail parties are a dime a dozen these days, but it's a special experience when you can go to one and enjoy the wines of the host as well. Such was the case for Schneider Integrated Communications new office party in one of the Downtown Alliance's buildings at 65 Broadway. Sharing floor space with AlleyStyle.com and BookDigital.com, this company grew from Bruce Schneider and Scott Shapiro working out of there respective homes for several years (their first client was James Marciano's Upset.com in 1995) to 10 people working out of one unified office. Today they have clients including autovantage (since 1996) and TheHealthNetwork.com.

When I arrived the "mystery wine tasting" was just finished and Kailah Rowan of Redwood Partners showed me her booty -- a bottle of wine. Guests got to sample two white and three red wines from Bruce and his wife Christiane's vineyard in Long Island.

Marcello Weinberg of Redwood Partners was standing near his co-worker, who won (Kailah) and John Gilbert and Sara Jane Fleming of the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Suddenly everyone began laughing and gathering around Ross Moonie's office. His sign about meetings had people in stitches. It read:

 "Are Your Lonely?
Tired of Working On Your Own?
Do you HATE Making Decisions?
HOLD A MEETING!!!
You can:
See people
Draw Charts
Feel important
Impress your colleagues
Eat donuts
All on company time!!!
MEETINGS
the practical alternative to work"

And with this motto, I met briefly with Richard Lipkin of ResponseLogic.com, Tim Paul and Chris Jones of Schneider. Each person comes to this company with solid experience behind them and offering a true balance to the others' strengths. Guess all those "meetings" helped!