JUNE 19TH was a jam packed night. It started off at Lycos party, held at their new offices for their sales department. A Keith Haring poster and stop-light red surfboard reception desk were fun touches. Handouts included faux ray-ban sunglasses, glow-in-the-dark spider rings, and a raffle to win a magnum of Piper-Heidseik Champagne (Congratulations to Peter Grasek of Y&RNT). Caricatures by Akbar in the nice dark navy carpeted conference room.
Paul Bremer, a Lycos rep, introduced me to speak with Kelli Raftery of CBS Sports Media Relations for the Olympic Unit. After checking out the cellophane red fish fortune teller novelty, I spoke with Alicia Marziali, eastern regional sales manager for Lycos who gave me the scoop on sales efforts. Currently staffing 15 full time employees, she is planning on expanding to 30 by the end of the year. With headquarters in Framingham, MA, servers in Pittsburgh, PA, and customer service in Kentucky, Lycos embodies a 90's networked way of running operations. Speaking of networking, I also spoke with Frank DeMarco of Outside the Box Interactive, which does primarily CD-ROM work, animations and character development, and Peter Schwartz of GTFH Public Relations, who specializes in working with Health Care advocacy groups. Larry Chase and Henry Nass of General Mnemonics (wearing an original Bert Pulitzer tie) were chatting it up, munching on the good hors d'oeuvres. Henry gave me one of those other rages in Japan (not the Tomoguchi) - photos stickers by Atlus. Cute.
On my way out, a media buyer of K2 Design (who wished to remain anonymous) told me Wednesday's Cybersuds was the "worst party ever!" It was apparently all the people on the WWWAC list looking for jobs. Oy.
(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)