Wednesday, September 30, 1998

Forrester Research's 1998 Forum Series, "Making Internet Marketing Pay Off.

As an appetizer for next week's crazy conference compendium, I sampled some tasty morsels of conference schmooze at Forrester Research's 1998 Forum Series, "Making Internet Marketing Pay Off." The Sheraton Towers Hotel was a buzz with activity on Wednesday, September 30th. Some companies were showing their wares at the "Web Welcome Showcase" reception this night. I met Diana Butler (director, PR and marketing) and James Ontra (bus. Dev. Manager) of iXL.com and Colin Costello (program manager) of Chicago-based Giant Step.com. While listening to some impressive demo-speak from Post Communications' Hans Peter Brondmo I spied (and caught up with) NetGravity's Mark Elkin. Elkin and I shared some stories of our beloved Russia, where we both spent time -- at different times -- and how things are going in San Francisco, which is where he is now based. Matthew Moog, vp of CoolSavings.com outlined their sucess and gave me some real coupons (which you can also print out from their various clients' websites). Helloooo, Kmart! Ipix.com (Interactive Pictures) was also demoing their software, and as soon as I finish processing all the great information from the informative panels, I'll be able to take it for a test run. Speakers for this event included Christie Hefner (Playboy), Jake Winebaum (Disney Online and Buena Vista Internet Group), Tim Koogle (pres. and CEO, Yahoo!), Robert Pittman (pres. and COO, AOL), and our own local talent, Seth Goldstein (pres. and CEO, Root.net).

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)

Monday, September 28, 1998

Michael Wolff @ NYNMA/Wharton School of Business joint event & WWWAC Mtg

With next week promising to be another phenomenally phrantic Internet World phrenzy, this week was relatively quiet with only a few phat events scattered throughout. Okay, enough of the hip-talk... let's get down to business, which is exactly what Michael Wolff did on Monday at the NYNMA/Wharton School of Business joint event. Wolff, a lively and humorous writer, took a much more dour tone this September 28th night at the Citicorp building. His outlook for the future of the Internet was not hopeful. Meanwhile, in the spacious loft of Larry Aronson (of "HTML 3 Manual of Style" fame) and Lynn Thigpen (of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" fame) was a WWWAC board meeting. I mention this as I am a board member, but am not running for the next year. This final meeting of inaugural board members conveyed to me that the next year's board will need lots of energy and commitment to take this trade organization to the next level of professional association status.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)