Thursday, November 02, 2000

An Artful Dot-Start

Scrims, projections, theatrical lighting, dramatic flowers and giant-sized hors d'oeuvres were some of the elements of Startups.com's Art of the Startup party on Thursday, November 2nd, at the Altman Building. Various sponsors had artistic exhibits for viewing - like Sun Microsystems' dot and Silvia Franco sculpting live for Art Assets. IBM had a massive, wooden-ring-like sculpture, and Digital Hatchery was riling up some quests with two live chicks in a fish-tank (sans water) on display. New media-ites slinked sexily around while laughing, power handshaking and card-swapping. 

Flashing her sparkly smile, Digital Hatchery's Chairperson and CEO Tami Gaines came over to chat with me and slim-trim ClicVu.com Co-founders Justin Green and Michael Cassara. Mobilee's Director of Content and Commerce Philip Trauring introduced himself, and then Startup.com's CEO Justin Segal stopped over to snap a photo. New York Business Forums Chairman Burt Alimansky came over to introduce me to his Manager of Business Development Lily Yacobi. I've usually only witnessed true debauchery at Razorfish parties, but this time the "Cyber Lounge" was the stage for streaming interviews, ala e-media. Hand-picked for the night, 10 CEOs got to be interviewed for posterity. I wonder if the crew, particularly one woman, knew that their sound-checks were being streamed two hours before the party. Apparently some early viewers caught a bit of self-felt indulgence! Despite any friskiness of pre-party efforts, the event was beautifully produced and held a fresh perspective on the art of starting a company.