Open Social Sunday

This past weekend was officially the first Open Social Sunday held by Hilary Rowland at Bobo, the en Vogue eatery over in the West Village. After ironing out a few issues with the restaurant, which seemed surprisingly stubborn and not that accommodating to simple requests, which I attribute to them just opening for brunch two weeks ago, members of the New York media and tech community sat down for a few spicy bloody marys, some croque monsieur's and some business card swapping. It's really intersting to hear all the paths that people take and how creative they get with their jobs. I'm always impressed.

The brunch hosts a wide variety of people. Everyone from an acupuncturist (sat next to me, the person most afraid of needles probably there and had me squirming the whole time talking about it), a freelance music blogger/great photographer, a film consultant/entrepreneur, an art rep for a very cool pop/expressionist artist, a venture capital guy from IACI, the SocialDiva (got it right this time ;-)), the New Faces CEO, a dealmaker from the UK Trade and Investment Department, the founder of an mobile based email question service and an editor from Conde Nast with a digital media background.

Once again the gathering was a very enjoyable event and I met a bunch of very interesting people. Two thumbs up again for Hilary.

Tech / Media Peeps CEO Brunch

I had a nice brunch yesterday with plenty of interesting people who work in Tech, Media and the investment community at Gemma in the Bowery Hotel set up by Hilary Rowland of New Faces. It's fascinating to hear how each side views the other and how each other can work together to fill gaps in experience or knowledge the other side may be lacking. I was really impressed with some of the accomplishments and I was excited to see other people venturing out on their own and making a living doing what they love.

Some of the guest were from the Gathering, Right Media (sold to Yahoo), Getty Images, Conde Nast, Matrix Partners, Editor of an Aviation Magazine/Corbis rep'ed Fashion photographer, SocialDiva CEO, New Faces CEO, IACI Private Equity, and Paltalk. That just hit on the list of people who were sitting next to me ;-)

"Participation TV" Event

I went to an interesting panel discussion put on by the Producers Guild of America last night at the New School here in NYC with my friend Hilary Roland. In between a bit of laughter, we learned more about Participation TV and how Game Participation media is a new genre of production in which "call-ins" from audience members, cell phone text messages, and online votes are incorporated into television shows, ranging from American Idol to So You Think You Can Dance.The industry is projected to be a $3 billion market in the United States within the next five years. That's a lot of text messages and should make you stand up and notice.

Chris Pfaff led the panel, which featured Jeff Miller of Telescope, Donna Campbell, Executive Director, Ericsson Mobility World North America and Rick Mandler, Vice President and General Manager, Walt Disney Internet Group and ABC's Enhanced TV.

I personally found some of it useful and it did trigger some ideas for Cutcaster but most of it wasn't that new and sometimes a bit dry. I think they could have spent less time on the presentations which lasted 15 minutes each and more time on the Q and A which lasted about 10 minutes in total and was a bit more lively.

For those of you that don't know, and I am including myself in that group until last night, The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is the premier industry association for entertainment producing professionals.

For the most up-to-date information on the PGA New Media Council East, visit the blog.

And for all you fashionistas out there, I am sure there are a few of you, check out Hilary's revamped New Faces site.

And great to finally put Bill Sobel's name to the face. We had traded emails and now we have met. I'm gald to be a part of the master connector's world ;-)