Film parties, interactive parties and a little bit of work
03/09/2003
I started the day off nicely, I had coffee and a bagel. A real NYC bagel, full on fresh from the bakery. Yummy. It was a good start and a sign of things to come.
I had to work a little this morning, one of my favorite tenants move back in. She is a cancer researcher, very smart, very pleasant and she is just a hoot to have around. I met up with her this morning, got the paperwork done and was on my way to the SXSW events.
I attended the keynote speech on interactive David Weinberger. I thought it was interesting. One of the topics that was bought up was the sharing on the web and how everyone links up. I never thought about the sharing of information in quite that way. In the Q&A section, one of the attendees made an analogy linking is similar to gossip. The speaker went into detail about building trust on the web. How do we gain it, how do you identify with it and how to tell if someone is Astroturfing. That was a whole new term to me.
I attended another panel about MP4 technology given by a guy from Apple computers Frank Casanova (Apple QuickTime). It sounds like there are some strides being made in the way we can stream information. It seems now that computers are so prevalent, the amount of bandwidth uses is becoming an issue. Seems to me there is this nifty technology that is in the process of being released, actually embedded in some of the new programs to be released, that will allow video to be streamed and will take about 1/3 of the bandwidth it currently takes.
I headed next to the SONY private party. I was working the party so it was part fun, part work. It was a press only party to promote the release of some of the shorts that were made using a grant or startup money from Sony. I didn’t stay for the screening but it was a nice party.
I headed out the door as soon as the film was seated and dashed to the interactive kick off party. It was held at GSD&M the big advertising agency here. It enjoyed this party a lot more. I ran into bunches of people that I only get to see once or twice a year. I did a bit of catching up on gossip, finding out who is where now and general socializing. I stayed until the very end. They were flicking the lights on and off trying to get the crowd to move along. I ran home and fed the dog, the cat and the fish.
I met back up with some of the interactive people for dinner and drinks. It was a real nice group of people. I hope to keep in contact with a couple of them. I like interacting with these folks. There is a lot of sharing of information. Stories of dot.com successes and dot com flame outs. I heard a neat one tonight about a company that sold fish on line. (The aquarium type.) Seems the guy who started it got it up and running and needed capitol to expand. He sold out to a pet store chain for a cash and stock deal. The Pets expanded the distribution channels build a warehouse sold out and the next buyer went bust. The original owner got to buy his business back with the original cash out money at a bargain basement price, re grew the company and sold it again. Not bad.
The group headed off to 6th street next and wound the evening up at an outdoor bar. My guest and I headed home when the clock started ticking towards one.
