Friday, May 26, 2000

The Cyber Scene in Atlanta ~ by Frank Wrenn


There’s nothing like a perfect spring night, a fabulous outdoor party and a full moon to bring out the Atlanta cyber crowd. The “Spring Fling” Happy Hour, held at the Park Tavern on Piedmont Park, got happier and happier as the night progressed. Co-hosted by the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (www.atlantaima.org) and the AMA Young Professionals, the event was a networking haven for dot-coms, I-agencies, ad agencies and interactive marketing professionals. Perhaps the perfect weather was due to the presence of folks from Weather.com who were out in full force.

Making the rounds with Park Tavern’s delicious Amber in hand, I talked with Chris Holland of Prism Communications (www.redconnect.com) about his company’s rollout into the Atlanta market. Then, I made my way over to Toby Bloomberg of Bloomberg Marketing Services who was chatting with Louis Lewow, New Media Account Executive at radio station 99X (www.99x.com). Victoria Trestrail of Manhattan Associates (www.manhattanassociates.com) told me about her firm’s e-fulfillment and warehouse/distribution center management. Seeing a familiar face from a few years ago, I walked over to Donovan Panone, a partner with InterAsk (www.interask.com.) We caught up on our respective jobs, Donovan talking about InterAsk’s unique approach to Internet Marketing and I telling him about Yankelovich Partners (www.y-interactive.com) and its new marketing ASP, decisionDOMAIN (www.decisionDOMAIN.com.) Donovan introduced me to his college buddy Scott Luchkowec, technical recruiter for DRAC SSC Information Technology Consulting, and Scott’s fiancée Kristie Kluge of GO Network. Also at their table were Jennifer Nemec of Go Network and Tonya Madden of DRAC SSC.

Some interesting party buzz: folks seem to be very happy with Webvan (www.webvan.com), the online grocer that just started serving the Atlanta market.

Other Atlanta News:
Stephen Stratz tells me that Atlanta based Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) has formed an alliance with CollegeGear.com. The partnership with CLC positions CollegeGear.com as a major online source of officially licensed collegiate products. Based in Atlanta, CLC serves as the exclusive licensing representative for more than 180 colleges, universities, bowl games, athletic conference, the NCAA, and the Heisman Trophy.

And speaking of licensing, Atlanta’s LicensingZone (www.LicensingZone.com ), a web-based eProcurement site that enables retailers to search for and purchase licensed products directly from manufacturers, has received $2 million in funding from Technest, (owned by Atlanta-based JP Carey and Southridge Capital, Inc.) and Atlas Commerce.

In the just released 1999 Metro Atlanta Market Report, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce reveals that E*Trade, which moved its operations center to Atlanta in 1998, is now the area’s largest dot-com employer with over 2,000 people. The Chamber’s Hans Gant comments that “Companies such as Exodus, Earthlink, E*Trade, UUNET/MCIWorldCom and Philips Electronics are reaping the first mover advantage of discovering Atlanta’s rich technology talent pool.” The report also points out that in 1999, there were 5,471 startups founded in Atlanta and that the number of technology incubators jumped from 12 to 18.

If you have information on Atlanta news and events, send it to me at frank@thecyberscene.com.