Friday, November 26, 1999


Time for Holiday shopping -- but compare those prices first at any one of those great price scanning places: Pricescan, DealPilot or any one of the others!

Ark Restaurants launched their site with event planning info, an interactive food fight, views of the restaurants like Bryant Park Grill, a meet the chef and ability to make reservations.

Centerseat LLC (www.centerseat.com), a broadband entertainment company launching first quarter, announced that it is expanding its U.S. operations by establishing a west coast bureau. Television veteran Larry Struber, whose credits include Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Saturday Night Live, will run the office, located in Hollywood. In his position as Vice President of West Coast Operations, Mr. Struber will oversee all Centerseat production work on the west coast.

Thinking Media, Inc., a veteran of Silicon Alley and creator of the Sonata Device Platform, announced $5 million in financing from three leading New York City venture capitalists. The investor group is led by Prospect Street Ventures and includes Flatiron Partners and Travelers/CitiGroup. The investment positions Thinking Media as a primary catalyst for the "pervasive computing" movement.

The deadline of Veon's interactive video design competition has been extended from December 1st to December 15th. Veon is welcoming submissions from advertising and entertainment professionals, as well as news journalists. Entries will be judged on overall creativity and best use of the Veon platform, and the grand prize winner will be awarded a digital camcorder. An entry form and additional details are available at www.echonyc.com/~mjfahey/veon/tutorial.

Mark Hurst (Creative Good) just launched http://www.goodexperience.com as a web log for all online customer experience news and commentary I come across. There's quite a bit of it on some days!

Patricia McDonough, 28, joined Corporate Social Solutions, corporatesocial.com, a public affairs and marketing agency that designs public relations, marketing and corporate social responsibility programs particularly for internet start-ups. Previously, Patricia worked on assignments in Ukraine, Uganda, London and Washington D.C. She specializes in marketing, public education, community affairs and high-tech public relations consulting.