Brother can you spare a job?

The lines were around the block and over 3000 people darkened the doorway at Madison Square Garden's Expo Center on February 28th looking for work. It was daunting but the largely brick and mortar exhibitors were raking in the people they lost during the dot-com boom a year ago. Big guys like Accenture, AIG, Deloitte and Touche were present along with a variety of other companies like Random Walk Computing, Metropolitan Jewish Health System and Toureau. Hotjobs.com rose to the top of the heap, though, as "the source" for job-related resources.

Kickstart Redux

Back down in Battery City Park, KickStart officially opened their Wall Street location. Covered originally in the Downtown Alliance's Bits, Byte and Bar, I saw many of the same people, but got to check out more of the space. Near the copy machine/pantry area (this evening's makeshift bar) Kickstart's Jessica Handy looked smashing in her silk rose blouse and silvery eye makeup. It went quite well with her martini, and she introduced me to Connectivity Services' VP/General Manager Kareem El-Heneidi, who in turn introduced me to Kickstart's Matthew Karp, who gave me another tour. CAP Gemini Ernst & Young's Julio Cassels and Michael Lee introduced me to Michael DeMartinis. Shop.com's Alexander Jacobson and I caught up. He told me that are good - he's still in business, which in these times is a good sign! This time around, I got to spy through a window into the Ssrver room, where clients can put their own equipment. In addition to this expanded rack space, KickStart's Wall Street space differs from its Midtown space in the larger spaces for clients and secretarial services. The frosted walls and doors created a cool atmosphere, and all the youngsters and savvy networkers jammed to the final strains of upbeat reggae music before the lights came up and the music went down.

Clicks and Mortar meet WebMortar

Near the beautifully redone City Hall lies a beautiful restaurant called City Hall. And inside and downstairs this lovely establishment were the good people at WebMortar, hosting their launch party for clients, friends and associates on Tuesday, February 27. WebMortar's Barbara Frerichs greeted me at the door and introduced me to Jared Begun and Mike Newman, who was sporting some fabulously colorful Mardi Gras beads. Necks of others were also clad in necklaces for the festivities, and a band started playing some Dixieland tunes to keep spirits high. Jeremy Kagan was chatting with WebMortar's partner Andy Gonzalez and 20 eggs' Darren Jer, while over by the bar, sampling some very fine wines, was Pfizer's Todd Greeno and Entertaining Ideas Catering's Diane Gordon. WebMortar partner John Kendall and I compared venue options for Austin, TX, where he lived for about three months, and tried to convince Senior Partner Mike Alford of this city's attributes. Fellow Skidmore alum and WebMortar Associate Justin Model and I chatted about our upcoming reunion before he introduced me to Nancy Byrne, who planned the event. Belinda Horton of CIBC Worldmarkets and her husband, City Salvage's President David Topkins, told me about his unique business. He has found a niche picking up people's unwanted household and personal items, and getting them into the hands of charities who can use them. Redwood Partners' Kailah Rovin and LAK PR's Lisa Novitt was chatting up a storm alongside the smoothly polished bar, where the barkeep kept drinks fresh. Sadly all good things come to an end. Although the WebMortar party was winding down this Mardi Gras night, the company is just winding up for lots of business. So, stay tuned!

Working Grrl

Comparisons to Jack Kerouac, Charles Kuralt and MTV's Road Rules were tossed around, but Aliza Sherman's road trip across the country and back in her RV was slightly different from them all. While her next book coming out will be entirely devoted to her RVGirl.com exploits, her 2nd book, Cybergrrl @ Work, was the true focus of Tuesday night's sake and wine-tasting soiree at the Upper East Side's Hi-Life. Flooz.com's CEO Robert Levitan and Aliza shared stories of their all-expense-paid speaking engagement in Florida. Meanwhile, Mindarray's Tery Spataro and Starvest Partners' Rachel Masters met and met up with other Webgrrls who came out in support of Aliza. I arrived in typical fashion after all the yummy treats were gone, but Aliza was quick to point out that the vegetarian options and regular sushi were divine. Cybergrrl's man-of-the-house Kevin Kennedy came over to greet me, and though I stayed for only a bit, I could sense plenty of sustained enthusiasm for the original Cybergrrl and her works as she pursues future ventures.

What VCs Want

As NYC got blanketed in the snow Thursday night, February 22nd, more than 200 hearty souls braved the elements to attend a grand panel and presentation by the MIT Club of New York, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, MIT Enterprise Forum of New York, MIT Sloan Club of New York and the NYU Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies! The evening's topic was "What Venture Capitalists are Looking for in the Current Market." It was answered in a roundabout way by a few of the presenters. NYU Stern School of Business Dean George Daly introduced MIT Sloan School of Management Dean Richard Schmalensee, who then introduced MIT Entrepreneurship Center MD Kenneth Morse. Mr. Morse spoke on "Critical Success Factors in High-Tech Entrepreneurship," and he ruffled the feathers of a few of the VCs in the audience (and upcoming panel).

Starting off his talk, he mentioned that he loves bad weather because it keeps the riff-raff away, similar to being in a place like Route 128 as opposed to Silicon Valley. Mr. Morse said that he feels this shakeout will bring out the good talent and he reminded us that "failure is the mother of all success." His points for success were: have an "A" team that knows how to execute; everyone needs to know the technology; have a "value proposition;" and it's B2B (Back to Basics). For entrepreneurs looking for a VC, select one that will add value to your business. Look for one that's active in your space, has the essential impressive Rolodex/network, has cool limited partners, deep pockets and a lot of guts. Then we got the "Gloom and Doom" speech: the next round is a Bear market; the market's are terrible; plenty of plugs will get pulled; and there will be jewels and junk in the marketplace. Back to the success points: Morse's "A" team analogy continued. "A" teams recruit "A" people, "B" teams hire "B" people and "C" teams fill positions with dogs. The 50 percent rule is that everyone you hire should be better than the people currently there. Then we learned the 3K's: your "A" team people should know the market, know people in the market and be well known. The best business is repeat business. Ken finished his talk with "CFIMITYM:" Cash Flow Is More Important Than Your Mother.

A bit off the mark with the audience he was addressing, NYU Stern Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Christopher Tucci spoke on "Development Webs: A New Paradigm in Product Development." While his talk was detailed and thorough -- all based on a paper he wrote with two collaborators -- it was micro-focused on new product-development processes, and new team organization and boundaries. The areas that will experience the biggest changes are: team organization and boundaries, relationship management, and coordination of interdependencies. Overall, the points he made were that development processes will be more fluid, dynamic and alive inside and outside an organization.

And then the clowns came in! Not really, of course, but things got more lively and interesting on "What VCs Want." Flatiron Partners Managing Partner Bob Greene, Starting Point Venture Partners's John Hector, GSVentures' Co-Head John Mahoney, I-Hatch Ventures' David Shrier and Draper Fisher Juvertson Gotham Ventures' Managing Partner and Co-Founder Daniel Schultz were the illustrious panelists, each with golden nuggets of information. Recalling one of Ken Morse's points, Bob admitted that he'd rather back an "A" team with a "C" idea than a "C" team with an "A" idea. Investments they would look at must have a large market opportunity, something that's not done before. It must also have a great leader. Mahoney mentioned that if they look at a B2C, which isn't the most favorable model right now, they better not be paying retail for their customers. A strong proprietary business with technology is what interests David and Daniel, who said flat out that they're not looking at B2Cs right now. He added that he thinks consumer sites should charge more-the Internet is about convenience; it doesn't need to be the cheapest option. The VCs said they are looking for companies that will grow massively, not just incrementally. They must fill a need and exit multiple are really important. When pressed about what they're looking for, each responded sheepishly, but directly. Bob likes data mining and DRM. Hector likes intuitive computing, voice-activated servers and interactive TV. Mahoney doesn't do pure tech investing; so, he's looking at the insurance industry and CRM. David replied with "if you read about it in the news, it's too late for VCs to be investing," meaning, they're looking at things that aren't in the news yet. Danny said he likes wireless (on the enterprise side), telcom, commerce and infrastructure.

Closing points were similar to what we've heard before: be smart about partnerships, be stealth, be careful, watch the money you have and cut your burn. Bob provided a historical reference and cited the confidence that returned after the Gulf War. While this is the worst time he's seen in 13 years of VC work, he expects things to pick up in the 3rd quarter. So, hunker down and get ready for an interesting Spring!

Yada Yada, Blah Blah, Hush! Shhhhh!

Just around the corner, at (shhh!) Hush, Yada Yada threw a classic bash like it was 1999! Disco lights flashing, Madonna's "Holiday" blasting, and strong, stocky guys and gals mingling with the intent of meeting up and networking! I strolled over to say "hello" to Sun Microsystems' Felix Knoll, who introduced me to Yada Yada Director of Business Development Daniel Alvarez. Daniel dazzled me with a display of Yada Yada's hard and software as he called up an espn.com site. Unlike competitors' browsers, which force sites to develop WAP sites to be viewed on their unites, Yada Yada's PDA/Phone can support web pages in frames, graphics and text. EMC2's Jesse Childs and Tim Merrigan seemed to be having a jolly good time and remarked that "Jack Kemp said there are fine looking chicks." I didn't realize there was an incubator for chickens in the same club, but took them at their word.

Fast talking filmmakers and Fins

While the rest of the town was fast talking about wireless and content delivery solutions, Fast Company was talking about "Community Service for the Over-Committed - How Can We Best Give Back" at Doubleclick's offices on 33rd Street. And on the other end of the spectrum, RsvpNYCity and Skyy Vodka hosted an exclusive event celebrating short form cinema for the SKYY Vodka Short Film Awards at the Lansky Lounge on the Lower East Side. And back uptown again, OmniSky was entertaining gadget-lovers at Light on Park and 54th. The Grimaldi Group hosted a panel discussion and networking cocktail party on the Finland-U.S. Wireless Connection. Sponsored by FinPro and Holtron, the event gave guests speaches from Proximity, Result Venture and Thin Air Apps, while the gurgle of foam trickled down the lava walls at the Lava Lounge. One thing's for certain-wireless is hot and making permanent marks, like Lava! There was a great turnout and lots of talented Fins and Americans exchanging cards and enjoying the atmosphere.

A Second report on the LA Cyber Scene ~ by Krysten Johnson

The first event of the Layoff Lounge took place in downtown LA's SoHo Nightclub on February 22nd. This newly-reopened joint used to be known as Glam Slam, Prince's favorite space to jam. The polished wood walls and clean lines gave the place a refined appeal, and the art-deco wavy metal "walls" performed a function while offering a funky modern look to the space. There was a large bar in the back area of the club, so I wandered over to grab an Evian before I headed over to the Sponsor tables. Before I could pay the bartender, I was inquired about what sort of resources I was looking for by two well-dressed gentleman. They knew to ask me because the red button on my nametag told them I was an employer, as opposed to a job-seeker or a VC -- a nice, easy flagging system for people to know more about a person with a simple glance at a nametag. I informed them I was indeed looking for software and web developers, and before the night was over I had a dozen business cards and a few resumes to sort through.

Over 250 people attended this kickoff party, created by Jeremy Gocke and Kelly Perdew, including over 20 recruiters and many local companies looking for talented people. A big draw for the night was the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to VC types -- Angels, Business Accelerators and Seed Funding entities. Sixteen lucky entrepreneurs signed up on the Lounge's website before the event and won the chance to deliver a five-minute "elevator pitch" to a VC. This format proved very exciting for both entrepreneurs and investors. The entrepreneurs got significant face time with investors, constructive feedback, and a chance to polish their pitch. The investors had a very structured environment in which to listen to pitches, provide constructive feedback and move on to the next idea. I'm sure this one-to-one face time will prove a big draw at the upcoming events if it's continually offered.

I was briefly able to meet one of the event's sponsors, CEO Dan Guerrero of eCRUITING (www.ecruitinginc.com), and also recruiters at the event tables like Racquel Neidhold of Technical Connections (www.tci-la.com). Other sponsors included the Sales Athlete and MobileContact Media (www.mobilecontact.net).

Two speakers took the mike during the evening: Dave Lavinsky, President and Founder of GrowThink%

Oh Joy! A crazymadwildfrenzy

Ah yes! These are the parties I remember from the early days of the Internet. Walking into a nightclub with low lighting, lights flashing, a DJ spinning blasting music, smoke in the air and football teams of young men primed for "discussion." Well, thank goodness I've grown up and can now just waltz in, take a quick look around and leave before too much smoke gets in my hair or too many drinks gets spilled on me. Upoc and Unstrung came together for a wild night, produced by iLounge, to draw out throngs of young wireless community users and Wireless show attendees on Wednesday, February 21st at the club Joy. CEO, President and Co-founder Gordon Gould was on his way out as I arrived, but I did get to spend some quality time with the ever-sharp and witty Vice President of Operations and Co-founder Alex LeVine. ADIAGlobal.com's Managing Partner Shuja Keen and Matthew Keddy introduced me to Managing Partner Srikant Sarda. The trio was on the scene! As we chatted, Mr. Charming Alex LeVine introduced me to equally charming Upoc Chief Software Architect and Co-founder Harris Wulfson. So much charm and so little time! What's a girl to do?!

A Mirror Image of Exodus

The space was white, but the noise wasn't. The Whitespace studio on 37th street contained all the elements of a wild party, but things remained calm. Mirror Image and their partner Exodus jointly hosted a hospitality event on Wednesday, February 21st , during the Content Delivery Networks Conference at Javits Center. Mirror Image's Hope Cunningham greeted me and Yopa.com's Manel Sweetmore, who was in town from LA. We meandered about and chatted with Storageway's Paul O'Dell and Donald Moran. Storageway is a platinum partner of Exodus. Rick Tacelli of Clearway was in good spirits, considering his company, Clearway, was acquired by Mirror Image, and he "intends to make [a lot] of money." Nearby we met SpeedEra's Jeffrey Brathwaite and Brendan Sheehan, who told me about their many locations-Atlanta, Charlotte, DC, Orlando, Santa Clara and now New York! Entertaining a small following of guests, Exodus' VP of Research Niel Robertson told us about his history within the industry and Exodus. Having started with NetGenesis, he left only to form his own company and compete with firms like Keynote. In 1998, as CTO of Service Metrix, which measures the performance and speed of sites, he became VP of Research when Exodus bought the company in 1999. Part of Niel's success could be attributed to his motto: "in performance, the devil is in the details." This multitalented gent also has a trendy restaurant called Triana in Boulder, and another in Boston called Limbo. Whew! We've got two new places to check out - and we know the owner!

The Cyber Scene in Denver ~ by Suzanne Lainson

On February 21 it was the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, this time held in Boulder at the Spice of Life Event Center. Everyone was already sitting at tables when I got there, so I plopped my stuff down next to some familiar faces: Lauri Harrison, president, and Donna Crafton, VP, of LH3. I didn't get much networking in, but among the women I spotted were Kathy Simon, director of the University of Colorado's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Donna Auguste, president/CEO of Freshwater Software, Catharine Merigold, general partner with Vista Ventures, and Karyn German, VP of product development at WideForce Systems.
We had a light dinner of soup, salad, and dessert, and then listened to Barbara Mowry, former CEO of Requisite Technology. Among her comments:

*Cash is king. Get money when you don't need it. Going public is not a business plan.

*Check out your VCs. Do they have industry knowledge? Will they be there for you? If you pull together money from several different VCs, keep in mind that they may have different agendas and may not be able to work together on your board.

*VCs never pay attention to the numbers. They don't believe them. They love transaction models (i.e., where businesses can collect on every transaction). If possible, get customers to pay up-front (which becomes much easier if you have high caliber VCs backing you).

* When pitching to corporate partners, tell them what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. Use a live demo rather than a PowerPoint presentation.

*Keep your employees, but on the other hand, every year get rid of the bottom 10%, the non-performers. If you don't, morale will suffer.

On February 23 I went to the first annual Telecom Professional of the Year award ceremony, organized by the Denver Telecom Professionals. The event was held at the Brown Palace, one of Denver's most famous landmarks. (For Titanic fans, the hotel is not named after the unsinkable Molly Brown, although she frequently stayed there.) When we arrived, we were greeted by a jazz combo and a generous bar. I spotted Sheila O'Neill, VP of The Weber Group, handling some PR duties for the event. Deborah Kenly, director of PR and client relations for the Meritage Private Equity Fund, came over to say hi and mentioned that she had just gotten married. I also ran into Benjamin Gochman, COO of LATGO (Latin America Trade and Technology Group).

During dinner I was seated next to Kelly Brandner, VP, and Eric Beteille, manager, of PR firm Citigate Cunningham, and Kristine Swain, VP of The Citibank Private Bank. We heard brief speeches from quite a few people and I noted that Denver was called THE telecom capital of the world by those who live here, but ONE of the major telecom capitals by those from other states. I kept wondering what other telecom capitals they had in mind. Between Denver's long history as a cable television center and current home to Qwest, Level 3, and ATT Broadband, is there any other place?

Gary Gaessler, DTP cofounder and former president, said community interest in the event was high. The 250 tickets sold out immediately and sponsorship interest was more than could be accommodated. Then he introduced the award winner, Art Zeile, CEO and cofounder of Inflow, an advanced colocation and managed services business. Inflow has raised more than $225 million in venture capital. His words of wisdom: "The first people you hire are the most important."

On February 24, I attended a TiE-Rockies brunch at Denver's Adam's Mark Hotel. Tie-Rockies has no equal in lining up outstanding speakers (which should indicate just how important a resource this organization is to Colorado). The past three speakers have been Vinod Khosla (cofounder of Sun, general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), Jim Crowe (CEO of Level 3), and Jagdeep Singh (cofounder/CEO of OnFiber, cofounder/CEO of Lightera Networks). This time it was none other than Sun cofounder/CEO Scott McNealy, who said he was at the event to hire, to sell hardware, and to encourage people to write software for Sun.

Approximately 200 people turned out, including Gary Gaessler of DTP, Catharine Merigold of Vista Ventures. Dilpreet Jammu, director of business development for Nortel, Andre Pettigrew, VP of marketing for FastIdeas, and Rita Coltrane, VP of consulting at Xpedior, Wayne Citrin, director of software engineering at Latis, and Deborah Arhelger, managing partner of DuoVoce Group. Vipanj Patel, managing partner/cofounder of iSherpa, introduced me to Manavendra Misra, director of business intelligence, and Shawn Davison, VP of technology, for K.Bkids.com.

Scott (who was dressed in blue jeans and chose to stand on the floor rather than at the podium) started his speech by saying the economy "ain't looking good" and that no one knows what it is going to do. There are some serious, fundamental problems about to go bad: high energy costs and no energy strategy, high interest rates, high taxes, and bloated government. We are starting to get layoffs. This means money will go out to them in the form of entitlements rather than coming back from them in the form of taxes. Aggressive action needs to be taken to prevent massive layoffs. Among his other points:

*The Internet bubble popped and it should have. It was almost like stealing: HowcanIlosemoney.com. Now productivity enhancement is the place to be. For example, someday a car will monitor its fuel level and then run an auction among local gas stations to obtain the lowest available price.

*One of Sun's goals is to have every appliance connected to every other appliance and have them run on a Sun ONE stack. Another is to make web tone more reliable than dial tone. This can be accomplished by having the control network separate from the data network.

*People will stop buying computers and will store their data with professionals. Therefore, Sun is targeting data centers like Level 3 and AOL. The big losers will be commercial real estate offices because people will be able to move from location to location and still have access to their data (i.e, more people can use fewer offices). Sun will soon average 1 1/2 people per office and eventually 10 people per office.

*Sun was started by Scott, Vinod Khosla, and Andy Bechtolsheim. They were all 27. "We didn't know any better. Vinod and I were business school buddies. We were always the last two guys left at the parties. He was the entrepreneur of the group and spending his last six months of school working for a start-up; I spent my last six months of school on the golf course."

*Sun's strength is its board of directors. The hardest thing to staff is your board.

*Integrity is very important. You can never break character because everyone will find out. You have to be a role model. That's why they pay you the big bucks. "I have to stomp all over that little guy [inside me] that never grew up." Darwin is at work. You can be a roman candle for awhile, but eventually you'll be found out.

*As an entrepreneur, be prepared for more hours than you ever expected. It's a young person's game. Do it before you have a family or be prepared for major stress. "I didn't get married until I was 39 and didn't have kids until I was in my forties." There are big trade-offs.

*If you want to start a company, do it. There is no risk except for your time. If you fail, it's a feature on your resume, not a blemish. The risk comes later, when 43,000 people are counting on you for a pay check. Once your company becomes big, that's when you think "How many ways can I screw up now?"

*When he started, he was literally assembling hardware. Then he moved into managing. Now, "I've been relegated to being an icon. Most of my decisions now are about style and culture."

At the conclusion of the talk, Scott had to go and the rest of us enjoyed the buffet, which in typical TiE-Rockies fashion was quite impressive. (Among the offerings were several salads, several types of burritos, and a choice of desserts including Key Lime pie.)

Oceans of Opportunity

The very swank new residential tower Ocean is home to one of the city's forward-moving office-space support centers-Kickstart. After a successful launch in Midtown, this group formed their Kickstart Wall Street and hosted a pre-opening Bits, Bytes and Bar with the Downtown Alliance on Tuesday, February 20th. After checking in, I chatted for a bit with David Murrow, who told me that he's now working with Schwartz PR Interactive. He introduced me to artist Debra Lee Johansen. The City of Yokohama's Assistant Director Justin Zimmerman, along with his posse, was hanging out in one of the back rooms, where I also met up with RadGuard's Nora Mongardi and Ashok Pai, who explained his new socially conscious LBO media company (more on this in the coming weeks). Kickstart's EVP Carmel Kashani and EVP of Bizdev Jonathan Mensch told me that they've got 20,000 square feet of space available for 12 companies. Jodie Kahn, formerly of 24/7 Media, came over to say "hello" and to tell me that she's now working at Arbitron on their webcasting ratings. NetShoot's Tim Walker and Jennifer Grant were among the guests who came out on this chilly night to network!

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

Miller Joins e-bitda
Masio on the Lookout
Proxicom Announces New Leaders
Businesses Need Help with Lost Carts
Get Ready to Pay
Yack Tires Licensing/Syndication
Passlogix Gets Secure
Ubi Soft Acquires Blue Byte
ClicVU Launches Anonymous Email Service, Spamex
Net Technologies and Voquette Partner
iSyndicate to Acquire Kurion

The Cyber Scene in Denver ~ by Suzanne Lainson

On February 6 I hit First Tuesday's, again held at Brooklyn's across from the Pepsi Center. It's a great location for an event: a two-story building that is the perfect size to hold the more than 650 who showed up. (According to the after-event tally, it was 55% entrepreneurs, 18% investors, 27% service providers and 7% "unknown"). The atmosphere can best be described as "Recession? What recession?" A high energy group and gauging by the number of men arriving in suits and top coats, an affluent one.

The food was quite good (a buffet which included two kinds of pasta and fresh berries) and the bar fully equipped (any event where my free drink ticket gets me a whiskey sour automatically falls into my plus column). Everything -- the people, the setting, the free food/libations -- added up to a great party. I talked to Gary Gaessler, past president/co-founder, and Lucy Vento, president, of the Denver Telecom Professionals, about their upcoming Telecom Professional of the Year awards ceremony. I said hello to Dilpreet Jammu, Nortel's director of business development, who is relatively new to the area and is busy checking things out. Jeff Jensen, CEO/president of Dealer Parts Online, and I were talking about the need to bring together old and new economies. Jim Kloberdanz, VP/sales and marketing at Absolute Performance, told me what he's been up to lately. I also chatted with Boulder-area friends John Hill, CTO of Capture Logic, and Patty Rivera, founder/CEO of Kiditcard.

Cate Lawrence, CEO/president of Warrior Solutions, Erich Stein, president of Erich Stein Communications, and I sat down to catch the presentation of the evening, "3G and The Wireless World - Hype vs. Reality," given by Vipanj Patel and Gary Rohr, co-founders of iSherpa Capital. Rather than recount everything they covered, I'll point you to the pdf version.

At the end of the evening I found myself with the SpireMedia crowd CEO Mike Gellman introduced me to Doug Meer, VP/sales and marketing. Then Donna Crafton, PR VP at LH3, and I talked clothes with recent Spire-hire Brett Madden (who sported a striking orange shearling bag). The big question, "Can we wear leather to the next First Tuesday?" And the big news is that Spire is expanding its offline business to become a full-service creative solutions agency.

On February 8 I attended the Colorado Internet Kieretsu meeting. It was at Trilogy in Boulder. Since the weather was nasty, it was mostly a Boulder crowd, although Mike Gellman did make it up from Denver. Dan Feld, head of SOFTBANK Venture Capital's Colorado incubator, HOTBANK, was there to begin the process of new board member elections. Terri Douglas, Guy Murrel, and Sara Yelton from Catapult PR were also there (CIK is a client). Mark Weakley was representing event sponsor Holme Roberts & Owen. Among others making the rounds were Larry Nelson and Pat Nelson, hosts of The World Wide Web radio show, and Joyce Colson, of Colson Quinn.

I also met Debra Miller, CEO/founder of Summit Voice Solutions, Scott Weiss, president of , and Charles Stirk, president of Bosonics. One reason CIK is such a popular networking group is the number of start-ups which are represented.

On Friday I saw Mark Weakley again because he and Susan Thevenet invited me to the annual HRO Winter Park ski trip. Since it is one of the largest law firms in the Rocky Mountain region, there are too many lawyers for all of them to fit on the train. Therefore different divisions take turns hosting the event. This year the emerging business group got the opportunity. Both Susan and Mark serve as special counsels in the Boulder office and work closely with a number of high tech clients.

Mark, Susan, James Maynard, product manager for Biostar, and I met at Mark's house at 5:45 AM to carpool down to Denver's Union Station where we caught the ski train which makes a round-trip to Winter Park every Saturday and Sunday during the season. We traveled in style, riding in three private luxury cars, equipped with a kitchen, a bar, sleeping compartments, and a two-story glass-domed observatory. On the way up we were served breakfast and on the way back, cocktails and a buffet (I loaded up on the salmon and sushi). It was about two hours each way so there was plenty of time to talk. Among those I met were Nancy Gegenheimer, managing partner of the Boulder office, Greg Holloway, a partner in the Colorado Springs office, and Liza Gonzalez, an associate in the Denver office. I asked Charlie Bruce, a partner in the Boulder office, about the current economic climate and he reassured me that "deals are getting done." Everyone was commiserating with him because as soon as he returned from the ski trip, he was then going to drive to Aspen the same night. Life is tough in Colorado.

The weather had been had been bad the day before, but it was sunny and clear for our outing. The view from the dome was breathtaking - deep blue skies above and white snow on the ground. Once we got to Winter Park, people broke up into groups of downhill skiers, cross-county skiers, and snowshoers. Among those enjoying the outing were Jon Hollman, who is with US Bank's Colorado Springs office, Catherine Merigold, general partner with Vista Ventures, Andy Murray, CFO of SignalSoft, and Bernadette Hill and John Keffer, from Expanet's Salt Lake City office. (Just the day before, it was announced that the company, with revenue of $1.4 billion, is moving its headquarters to the Denver area.) It was a great trip and we got even got our own HRO fleece mittens and headband to take home.

Speaking of ski trips, Kristin Johnston, director of corporate communications and media communications for GetGo, filled me in on the DUET trip that I missed the week before. The group of business leaders, performing artists, and international dignitaries traveled by bus to Copper Mountain and were served breakfast burritos, bloody Mary's, and mimosas. "Elevator stories consisted of participants introducing themselves and giving short summations of their roles at DUET. The stories ranged from acquisition opportunities to new business strategies, with a little of everything else in between. The mood was fun and lighthearted until a green SUV lost control on I-70 and crashed into the bus, sending it swerving sideways. As the bus started to tilt, the driver skillfully kept it upright. The SUV bounced off the bus and hit it two more times before coming to a stop." Once it was determined that the SUV occupants were okay, and the state patrol contacted, the bus continued on its way to Copper Mountain, all occupants safe and sound. As Kristen put it, "DUET 2001 Ski Patrollers just can't be stopped."

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Publisher's Note ~ En Francais

Il fait beau! Et chaque soir a l'energie et l'anticipation pour des affairs le societie et des affairs l'amour. The days were mild and the nights at Cannes were alive with parties and activity during its famed MILIA event during February 10th through 14th.

A night of action

No time for jet lag! Thursday night kept me busy with a full itinerary of events that started with Fashion Week's Richard Tyler Couture show. Lumina Americas hosted an employment party at their offices on Broadway, and KPE celebrated their fifth year anniversary at their space further up on the same avenue. The NYC branch of the Environmental Entrepreneurs, an NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) initiative had a networking party in the lovely home of Jeanne and John Sullivan. Notable successful entrepreneurs with a passion for our environment, including Bob Epstein (founder of Sybase) and Techspace's Chairman Bruce Bockmann, were enjoying the camaraderie of other interested guests. Starvest's Jeanne Sullivan and AT&T's John Sullivan (who's partially heading up the NY branch) made sure all the guests got to know each other. They were the perfect hosts. Later that night, I stopped over to Centrofly, where KPE held their after-party for staff and friends. Martinis flowed and hors d'ouevres kept a'coming; and with pulsating music, the young hipsters of the night were in a sensory sensation. Even the blue-painted face and branded KPE man didn't seem out of place!

Valentine's For Many ~ Cocktails with Courtney Valentine's Party

Waking up in Cannes, flying eight hours, landing in New York and going from the airport to a trendy nightclub for our Valentine's Soiree was on my schedule for Wednesday, February 14th. It was a whirlwind, but someone has to do it, oui? Intimate and romantic our Cocktails with Courtney soiree was in the sexy lounge Serena. We had couples come for a special martini, and a few found new dates! A few gents were decked in festive red jackets and ties, and some of the ladies revealed sexy legs in fashionable fishnet stockings. At the end of the appointed hour, each man received a pair of Cocktails with Courtney boxers and the women got cute baby-tees. Something festive and fun for later perhaps? You can see all the action online!

MILIA - A report on a new state of the industry

MILIA - the interactive content conference with a focus on broadband Internet, interactive TV, wireless and interactive entertainment - is a festival itself in the City of Festivals, Cannes. In past years, Silicon Alley's jet set flew out to rub shoulders with the international jet set, and this year was no exception. There were rows and rows of exhibit booths from companies around the world displaying their technology, CDs and services. There was a focus on educational CDs and interactive sites. Wireless companies held press conferences on new developments and made a huge impact on the major companies present. W-HA focused on new online payment solutions, and Vivendi-Universal officially launched their new portal, Education.com. Gamegate is extending their reach into wireless, while TV and Electronic Arts' president and COO spoke on moving gaming online and across platforms. Infogrames, which also co-hosted one of the major cocktail parties of the show, hosted a press conference on "The Game Nation." The exhibition hall also had a Developers and Gaming area, where lots of people spent time playing and sharing tips.

For the second year running, Forrester coordinated the Think Tank Summit during the conference. This summit focused on an in-depth appraisal of the industry, with keynotes and panels on technology innovation and new business models. Forrester Research, USA's Vice President Mary Modahl spoke about serving your customers, and Bertelsmann ecommerce Group, Germany's, President and CEO Andreas Schmidt addressed the social impact of technology change. Panels on interactive content strategies and technology trends were the focus of discussion on Saturday, February 10th and in the afternoon the Start-Up competition featured 10 European startups vying for investment, service and technology partners. Among the lucky pitchers were France's La Cantoche Production CEO Benoit Morel, the Netherlands' Jaytown CEO Erik Spin and Germany's Net-Games AG CEO Jurgen Stehle.

No conference would be complete without a series of cocktail parties to keep all the busy networkers drunk and happy. Accenture hosted the Think.Tank Summit cocktail on Saturday at the Palais des Festivals. Vivendi Universal and Flipside took over the entire ground floor and outside grounds of l'hotel Majestic on Sunday, and Microsoft DirectX and Infogrames took over l'hotel Martinez on Tuesday. New York-based United Digital Artists co-produced their annual Net Zapping Festival, where 15 designers and developers have three minutes to show their wares and dazzle the audience. Monday iFinger and Toon8 hosted soirees at their booths, and each night Intel and WEM poured champagne for guests who stopped by their stand. Monday was also the night of the Eccsell (European Computer & Console Software Edutainment and Leisure Leaders) Awards, organized by Sell in partnership with GfK, Chart-Track and Game One. Awards were presented for best titles sold during the year 2000 and for the best publishers in terms of turnover for 2000. The competition categories were: video games, reference/leisure and edutainment. With all these activities, the thousands of attendees had more than their share of options for leisure and work. The 2001 MILIA conference was by far a smashing success, with impressive excitement during the days and nights, and one of the most beautiful locations in the world!

Cocktails on a Yacht - C'est tres agreeable!

The stars were sparkling and the lights along the shore dotted the landscape of tiny hills, giving them the effect of a beaded scarf. In the Port de Cannes, behind the Palais de Festival, several companies put their banners out on their yachts and hosted small, intimate soirees for those in the know. AzurTV, one of the most distinquished online TV webcasting companies in l'industrie Internet hosted a small soiree for my premiere Cocktails with Courtney en Cannes. Our affair came to fruition in large part due to the talents and efforts of StockOnWeb's Monsieur Victor Le Brouissois. Hailing from Paris, this European Internet and entertainment consultancy and Victor are classic networkers who make it their business to know who's who and what's going on. He brought in French Southeastern digital development association L'Agence Rhone Alpes du Numeric and introduced me to the charming and successful businessman Frederic Vidal of Media Business Partners, who agreed to be a part this event. Vidal and his firm have organized the NRJ Music Awards (www.nrjmusicawards.com ) and other notable entertainment events in Cannes. Azur.tv's yacht was the perfect venue, and the firm's talented crew handled all the webcasting interviews - all streamed from the ship. PhotoReflex.com CTO Benoit "James Bond" Pinguet was our stylish and dashing photographer for the evening. And Selfmobile brought along technology that ensured utilization of the Palm and Pocket PC for pictures and videos of the soiree.

Azur.TV PDG (President Director General) Ludovic Saurat played his role of host and leader of the affair with ample introductions among guests. And the fashionable Communications Director Florence Bernardon was essential in making sure conversation flowed and guests were happy. Et moi? I did my best parler en francaise with all the guests! Of course, I couldn't resist a little camp a la American and brought over a selection of Cocktails with Courtney branded boxer shorts. They were a hit! Among the guests I met were Adgensite's Maxime Kaeppelin, who formed his company just six months ago. He introduced me to 1,2,3,4...'s Rodolphe Frering and XL Studio's Pierre Emmanuel Brunet. UK-based Xav Adams of his own firm introduced me to his father when they arrived. Norway-based Djuice, part of Telnor Mobil, was well represented by Jan Stala and Hogne Gulla. Jean-Louis Courleux of Jemmapes Communication introduced me around, and France Telecom's Jean-Claude Bouisson introduced me to quite a few attendees. First he introduced me to Sophia Antipolis-based Pauline Weber of the Chambre de Commerce et D'industrie Nice Cote D'Azur and Olivier Kleindiers, also of de Chambre de Commerce, with the Poles de Competence Technologiques. Both were tres helpful in their invitation to help me with future events in Sophie Antipolis, the high-tech center of France.

M. Bouisson also introduced me to ConcertAndCo.com's Jean-Phillipe Malicet and StepStone's Karim Ghali. Exciting news was coming from Valkira Bank Director Eric Charbit and I chatted for quite some time with Accenture's Pierre Rouve and Association Anima Presidente Fondatrice de l'Association Nicoise du Marketing Muriel Martin. Before leaving Florence, Bernardon made sure I met the famous photographer Frederic Beig, who in a moment of ingenuity gave me his email on a roll (for lack of a business card). L'inspiration! The soiree was wonderful, and learning about all the Internet activity in France - in Lyon, Cannes, Paris and Sophie Antipolis - was fantastic. Plans are already in the works for future events with the savvy set of French digerati!

ADV ~ NYNMA's E-Business Institute

Want to make better presentations? Terrified of speaking in public but your job requires it? NYNMA's E-BUSINESS INSTITUTE PRESENTS ITS 2001 "CORE SKILLS SERIES" - "Presentation Skills for New Media/IT Professionals." Mon., Feb. 12: Registration: 8:15AM, Workshop: 9AM-5PM (includes lunch) Globix, 139 Centre Street (between Walker & White) 2nd floor. A must for mid to senior level executives who make presentations to investors, potential partners or customers, boards and the media. Register online. Email us at workshop@nynma.org or call 212.785.7898 ext 268. http://www.nynma.org/

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

Net Technologies Appoints Wolkowitz
Clark Moving on Up
A World of Media Visits the Classroom
SPIREknowledge, Inc. Settles in San Francisco.
Consumer Solutions Site Launched by Bestfoods
Uproar Lands on the Flipside
Staying Informed En Route
ORB to Provide Online Ad Tracking for Budget Rent a Car
Banish Spam
What a Scream!
Razorfish Meets Revised Expectations
Aesiq Announces Enhanced Service Offering
UBI Soft ACquires Blue Byte

The Cyber Scene in Denver ~ by Suzanne Lainson

On January 31 I attended the Internet Chamber of Commerce After Hours at the Denver Design Center, which by day is open to interior decorators wanting to visit showrooms and by night is available for events. It was the liveliest ICC gathering I have been to in months so either the Design Center energizes people or lots of them are looking forward to the new year. Nearly 1000 registered for the event and by the looks of it, most showed up.

I ran into Brandon Shevin, director of marketing and business development for SpireMedia, who told me CEO Mike Gellman was out celebrating his birthday. I spotted CEO Sherri Leopard and business development manager Lisa Sundling over by the Leopard Communications table. I also noticed Joe Samuel, formerly deputy director of the Governor's Office of Policy and Initiatives, who now handles global strategic alliances for FirstWorld Communications. And I said hello to Carl Kalin, CEO of the Jedi Group. Most of my time was spent talking to FrogMagic's marketing/PR director Marci Gower and business development director Chris Lear. Marci told me about FrogMagic's merger with ZipSend and about a recent promotion involving free mini-gift-packs that grew from 20 names to 30,000 in just one weekend. Chris told me that he's also a sports writer and that his book "Running with the Buffaloes" has gotten some great national press. (According to USA Today, "The book is to cross country what John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink is to college basketball.") Then, Brad Spirrison, editor of a new online business publication, eMileHigh, sat down to join us. He had just the week before moved from Chicago, where he had been managing editor of ePrairie. The link between FrogMagic and eMileHigh/ePrairie is BlueMountain.com founder Jared Polis, who has invested in both projects. Later I introduced Brad to Andre Pettigrew, marketing VP for FastIdeas, and Erich Stein, president of PR firm Erich Stein Communications.

On February 1 I attended the opening night of the DUET Conference, a black tie event held at the historic Paramount Theater in downtown Denver. Since most of the women arrived in long dresses, the valet parking was a godsend. The evening started out with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the upstairs lounge. As I was eating my crabcakes and salmon, I was joined by Deborah Kenly, director of PR and client relations for the Meritage Private Equity Fund. She told me about the non-profit she is also involved with, 911families, which provides support for the families of emergency workers. Then we went back downstairs and into the theater to hear a presentation by Dan Nica, Romania's Minister of Communications and Information Technology. The evening also featured entertainment by New York soprano Lynne Vardaman and pianist Marc Peloquin.

The next day I attended the telecom conference, which was held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Denver. I had a chance to talk to Heather Lindemann, account director at PR firm AlexanderOgilvy, about national press coverage for the Convergence Corridor campaign.

One of the conference presenters was Masood Jabbar, Sun's executive VP for global sales operations. He had the following to say:

* Sun's old slogan was, "We put the dot in dot.com." Now, he joked, it's, "We put the old in old economy."
* Sun has evolved from being about work stations to servers to network computing. In 1995 Sun bet the company on three anticipated trends: the Internet, bandwidth, and Java. The company focuses on a knowledge-based workforce and will go to great lengths to pull together a team. When Sun acquires a company, it buys small teams and then protects what matters most.
* The industry isn't about computers anymore; it's about services. Anything with a digital heartbeat will be on the net. The telecom model of today will be the computing model of tomorrow. The future will bring: 1. Massive scale. 2. Continuous real-time computing. 3. An integratable stack. Sun will spend $6 billion dedicated to these three bets.

I had a chance to talk one-on-one with Don Nica, who was only making two stops during this visit to the US: Washington, DC. and Denver. He told me that Romania is attracting considerable investment attention as companies are looking for new markets in Eastern Europe. His country supports multiple cable companies and is highly competitive. Then he told me something that really got my attention. Romania will be the first country in the world to offer 3G wireless. Lucent is the company behind this.

At lunch I sat with Tracy Ehlers, Sally Hamilton, and James LaVita from the University of Denver who were there to find funding for an Internet project in Costa Rica. Tracy and I work together on the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs. On my way out, I stopped to talk to Nikki Maloney, economic development specialist for the city of Denver. Because of the energy crisis, our conversation centered around environmental issues. The next day there was a ski trip to Copper Mountain, which I regretfully had to pass on. But Erika Brown, founder/principal of NetGodess, said it was great.

ADV ~ Stacy Horn's New Book

"Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir " by Stac Horn A book about death, TV, music, single life and cats. "Horn's thoroughly honest appraisal of herself and her life will so endear her to readers that many will wish they could hang out in the tiny Greenwich Village apartment with her, the cats, and the resident ghost. Indeed, to read these moving, surprisingly funny essays is to see the world through Horn's intelligent, caring, if death-obsessed, eyes and remarkably, to enjoy the view. For someone who can't stop talking about death, Horn makes a strong and lovely statement about the joy of life." Available in bookstores now.

ADV ~ Courtney Pulitzer Venture Circle

Courtney Pulitzer Venture Circle
Interested in a Web3D company leading the way in development in this still largely uncharted area? We represent a company that is ready to capitalize on an untapped market. Start-Up company seeking funding. For more information please contact Contact us for details!

ADV ~ StockOnWeb & Cocktails with Courtney

StockOnWeb, a European business consultancy with a focus on Internet and entertainment, has initiated high-level players in these industries for Courtney Pulitzer and the first Cocktails with Courtney event in France! Principal sponsor L'Agence Rhone Alpes du Numeric, a digital development association in the South East of France, will present startups for this area. Media Business Partners has created a partnership with StockOnWeb for this the Cannes Market Club (1200 m2) during the festival. Azur.tv are offering their ship and talents for High Tech streaming video webcasts from the ship. Photoprestigue will also assure that the event will be documented on their Web site and Selfmobile's technology will allow utilization of the Palm and Pocket PC to show the pictures and videos of the soiree. Thank you from all the parties and we hope to see you at this first historic event!
Date: Tuesday, February 13.
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Place: Navire L'AzurTV, Quai Albert Edouard, Port de Cannes

Publisher's Note ~ Cocktails with Courtney in Cannes

With February marching on, I'll be marching (or rather flying) out to Cannes for the MILIA conference. It will be an exciting display of broadband, wireless, digital media and interactive TV, entertainment and games. And, we'll be coordinating a Cocktails with Courtney event on a lovely boat compliments of Azur.tv. The party will be sponsored by Media Business Partner (Vidal), StockOnWeb & Azur.tv and will be on February 13th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Without missing a beat I fly back on Valentine's Day to bring French Kisses to all my lovelies with a special Valentine's Cocktails with Courtney. We've got presents for all the gentlemen and ladies, so Rsvp today at: www.CocktailsWithCourtney.com! Then we've got our Morning Circle as a recap of what we learned during Fashion Week. I'll be reporting for the WebSet magazine (UK-based) so it will be an interesting roundtable discussion certainement!

Soiree for new PR 21's CEO

On a tree-lined street still lit with holiday lights Renee Edelman hosted another lovely reception in her home for PR 21's new CEO Gus Weill. A great round of guests gathered to celebrate, and I got to catch up with FullAudio's Debbie Newman, I-Hatch's Chip Austin and Consultant Kate Berg. MOUSE's Andrew Raisej and Sarah Holloway were there catching up with MSNBC's Lisa Napoli and The New York Times' Saul Hansell. Flooz's Robert Levitan was upstairs chatting quietly with others, as was Yahoo/Yoyodyne's Jerry Shereshewsky. @NY's Erin Joyce was mingling along with @NY founder Tom Watson, San Jose Mercury News NY Correspondent Maureen Fan and I talked a bit, and before leaving I spoke en Francaise un peu with NYNMA's Director of Educational Programs Ellen Auwarter and Unplugged Games' Eric Goldberg. Sumptuous food and delicious treats, plenty of wine and boites for the guests, and sparkling conversation made the evening tres enjoyable.

An alt.sho-wy night

Come out from behind your safe websites and ho-hum reruns of South Park. There's a whole new crop of alternative media for you to sink your browsers into. At MTV's Lodge on Thursday, February 8th, Showtime Networks presented their alt.SHO.com Alternative Media Festival, where content creators could submit their work to SHO-off new entertainment using the latest in Web technology. In fact, the Best SHO award went to a piece created entirely using Quake's engine.

"Whose Line is it Anyway" comedian Greg Proops opened up the show and attempted to entertain the tough NY crowd with his LA humor. There were a few laughs, but Showtime Networks Inc. Chairman and CEO Matthew Blank got more when he told us that his team phonetically spelled alt-dot-sho-dot-com for him, to emphasize the branding for the night. He went on to convey his enthusiasm for the awards and the winners. More than 200 pieces were judged by an illustrious panel, including Electronic Hollywood's Jaime Levy, actor Michael Rappaport, Wassup Budweiser/Superfriends Co-creators Graham Robertson and Philip Stark, writer Aliza Sherman, ChickClick Founder Heidi Swanson, ICONOCAST CEO and Founder Michael Tchong and Comedy Central Director of Talent and Development Chris Young. Yours truly was the lucky presenter of the awards. I was assisted by the very dashing Showtime Digital Media Group SVP Gene Falk, who handed out the awards to the lucky winners. Not only did they get the nice Lucite-carved award, but they each walked off with $10,000! The Best SHO grand prizewinner also received $20,000. Not bad for using a Quake engine, eh?

Of course, the party was a blast, situated at MTV's Lodge on Broadway. The Time Square lights and screens added color and movement to the already hopping night. I chatted with some of the judges - Aliza, Heidi and Chris -- and met a few new people too, like Showtime's New Media Business Development Manager Loiett Gore and Medium Blend's Frank Dellario.

Legal Eagles

When the gavel came in the mail, I knew that something was going on. And sure enough, Lawyers.com decided to get people's attention by sending a hard, wooden invitation for their event on Thursday, February 8th. Their motive? To pound out a few points, most notably that a study they had conducted by Yankelovich Partners revealed that more Americans spend more time researching furniture and major appliances than they do attorneys. In fact, a majority only spend two hours or less! Yikes! Most people use friends and family (75%) and the Yellow Pages (50%) for finding a lawyer, a process most find difficult and at times intimidating. Here's where the gavel dropped - 81% wished there was a resource where they could look up lawyers and their credentials, while 62% wanted access to legal resources on the Internet. Tada! Enter Laywers.com. There are a few other legal resource sites online, too - like LawyerAccess.com. But it seems like they're running into trouble getting folks over there. Perhaps banner ads on Sears.com might help?

Hopeful Discussions ~ a special report by Tery Spataro

Over the past couple of weeks I've been attending various seminars on the state of the new economy. Most recently Grant Thornton, LAIRD, and Pillsbury Winthrop hosted a seminar at the Princeton Club Wednesday, Feb 7. At 8:00 am it started with an hour of networking and went till 11:30am. Though--there was something very different about this crowd. Maybe it was the suits and ties? Having been in the industry since its early days, it's not something I'm not accustomed to seeing all the time.
The free interactive seminar was titled "What business models work best in today's capital markets?" What an appropriate subject to discuss. Sidney A. Staunton, Chairman and CEO of LAIRD & Co, opened the seminar and introduced the three panels. Panel one: Grant Thorton NY e*tech Practice Partner-in-Charge Mark Oster moderated panelists including Venture Capital Investing JW Seligman managing director Thomas Hirschfeld; Angel Society Co-CEO Andrew Moore; Updata Venture Associates general partner Conor Mullett and Milestone Venture Partners partner Todd Pietri.

The second panel was moderated by Pillsbury Winthrop Emerging Eompanies Group partner Lori Hoberman. She made sure the conversation flowed between Lucent New Ventures CFO Tony Abrahams; Easton Hunt Capital Partners partner Mark Chen; Epsen, Fuller & Associates CEO Thomas Fuller; Vantage-Point Venture Partners Principal John Kain.

Rounding out the morning we heard from Tradescape.com chairman & CEO Omar Amanat; PayForView.com COO Marc Pitcher; AppliedTheory CEO Danny Stroud and deltathree, Inc. CFO Paul White. Pillsbury Winthrop Emerging Companies Group Ron Flemming moderated. The panel discussions were very informative; the panelists very generous with their knowledge.

I took away some very important points, which I would like to share: It's back to business basics, build your business first, know what you're good at and stick with it, an experienced management team is important, raise capital even if you don't need it right away (it takes more time it make it happen), the internet is just beginning! I walked away feeling we are on the road to the next economy, and we are much smarter.

Innovative Workspheres

The orange sneakers didn't phase me. Nor did the predominance of black, thick-rimmed, square eyeglasses. All the uber-trendy fashions weren't intimidating either. And although it wasn't a fashion event nor a dot-com event (where you might typically find such elements), it was an overwhelmingly trendy crowd that flocked to MOMA on Wednesday night, February 7th, for the opening night soiree of the new exhibit Workspheres. The exhibit includes six international design teams and their redefinition of the office, with newly conceived work environments and tools. One of Silicon Alley's own hard-working teams, Brad Paley and his Digital Image Design, was involved in a project that became the hit of the night. Their MINDSPACE workstation looked like a cross-section of a fossilized shell, with its semicolon, spiny shape. You'll have to see it for yourself to believe it, but here are some of the highlights that DID's Hai Ng explained to me:

* A trash receptacle that scans your documents before shredding them (in case you need to "undelete"/remove from trash bin).
* Real rocks (simple objects) to which you can assign projects, files, documents and processes, then simply bring to a co-workers desk and transfer the entire project along with all associated information.
* A touch screen desk space where you can drag and drop items by simply using your hands.
* If you want to move your phone, no problem. Simply begin dialing in a different place on your desk, and the computer-desk will redraw the phone for you (you're wearing a headset and there's no physical phone). Same thing with a calculator.
* While the desk space is your "Head's Down" area, store your concepts and ideas along the upper rim areas of the shell-desk (which naturally follows human action. We tend to lean back and muse about our thoughts/ideas/concepts that are far away or out in space, but bend over for our busy work).

Viant's Marylyn Dintenfass and a friend were amusing themselves with IDEO Japan's phone desk. I spoke with one of the designers, Naoto Fukasawa, who explained that when you pick up the phone the skylight (a lighting panel) takes on the atmosphere of your mood. Feeling Sunny? Bright, sunny sky. Feeling grumpy? Dark cloudy sky. When your call reaches the recipient, the light changes to match their mood. In this way, and others, issues on privacy and individuality are combated in open and strong corporate cultures. There can be many moods, all visible, but quietly expressed in a large, open workspace. Emerging from this area, I chatted with NY1's Liz Gerst, who looked positively stunning in a little black dress. As I wander throughout the museum, I also saw StartupNYC.com's Vittoria Frua, Constellation Ventures' Melissa Blau and Donna Karan's Director of Business Development Salman Khokhar. Vizible's President and Chief Interface Architect Anthony Gallo explained their 3D desktop organizational sphere. United Digital Artists' Stuart McBride introduced me to Mieke Gerritzen of NL Design and pointed out Tucker Viemeister (formerly of Razorfish), who was also involved in one of the pieces. They were all heading out to dinner and next week to MILIA.

Teach Me How to Fish

There's an old Japanese saying that if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach him to fish he will eat for a lifetime. The theory behind personal coaching is similar. By showing someone new career paths, you help them to make a better life. And to kick off Coaching Week, a once-a-year event when the coaching industry comes together to offer pro-bono lectures, book signing and manuals, Janice Caillet (nee Gersten) invited a few friends up to the Cabana Room at The Sagamore on Monday, February 5th, for some cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Hosted byCoachingCircles.com and sponsored by Coach Certification Institute and Executive Coach Academy, the room had a calm, centered feel to it, not the typical dissipated frenzy of dotcom gatherings.

I was greeted by Janice, who some of you may remember from Total NY days, and her baby girl. Her husband, organizational psychologist and executive coach Alexander Caillet, was nearby greeting guests and playing host. Over in one corner, by the huge platters of cucumber with brie and liverwurst sandwiches, Turm F's Christian Schaumann was chatting with Inside Solutions' Ronit Herzfed. She was telling us about how she's working with filmmaker Ken Wilber on his next project. On the other side, closer to the platter of cookies, was Earthweb's new Chairman Jack Hidary. Jack just stepped down from his CEO role and is enjoying his time by going to DAVOS in Switzerland and offering the company his expertise in an advisory role. Centrally situated Judy Burger, who's been using coaching as her management style for over 10 years, and Marie Forleo, a personal coach and certified yoga therapist for two years now, were chatting about the industry and how it's grown. Executive Coach Academy's Jeremy Robinson has seen the field grow during the last 15 years. I-Recall's Anselm Spoerri came over to tell me that he just sold his company, which he was rightly pleased about. Before leaving, I chatted with Todd Cherches of SpireMedia, who recently went into consulting, but will remain involved in the company.

P2P--Oh you know me

Let me tell you a little secret. Secrets are easy to tell when they're to just one person, right? Well, that's the whole point behind Peer-to-Peer technology, which was the topic of discussion at the Viant-sponsored MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC Monday, February 5th, at the Lighthouse International. The Accelerator Group's Director Clay Shirky moderated the panel of leading industry thinkers, which included Intel Capital's Chris Lawless, Datasynapse's Co-founder and COO Peter Lee and Groove Networks' evangelist Bob Anderson. Having reviewed more than 100 P2P companies, Intel has seen a variety of plans, as have RRE Ventures-as represented by associate Will Porteous. JPM Morgan Chase's head of high performance computing, Dr. Steve Neiman, and Viant's Technology Officer Andrew Frank rounded out the panel. Good, solid dialogue bantered between the men. The audience was savvy, too - questions were more about use and future developments, and less about definitions of the term.

Shakers & Stirrers and Bits & Bytes

Karnig Named CEO of Danilo Black
Profits and Growth Continue
Take NYU Courses Online
Controversial Documentary Film Debuts at Film Festival
iVillage Hits the Airwaves
New GMV Network Web Site Enables Online Purchases

The Cyber Scene in San Diego ~ by Lilia Phleger Benjamin

We have some really great weather out here in San Diego. And even though we know it, it often takes an Easterner to make us stop and truly appreciate it.

Such was the case earlier this week when I caught up with Marc Holden, newly relocated to San Diego from New York City. Marc, director of media sales for Madge.web, is also in charge of business development and new market alliances. Over lunch at the sunshine-filled Torrey Pines Café, I got a chance to hear why Madge.web is regarded as the "Largest Unknown Host" (WebHosting Magazine), and why he thinks that is about to change.

Madge.web, a European based content delivery provider, is setting up an office in San Diego after seeing the growth in our tech industry. Founder Robert Madge's strategy when he founded Madge Networks in 1986 was to enter and succeed in the European marketplace first, and then enter the US market as a solid contender. According to Marc, the strategy is now paying off, and Madge.web is winning awards and building some serious alliances, most notably with Inktomi (Madge.web is a founding member of the Content Bridge Alliance).

Marc is setting up a Madge.web Data Center here in San Diego, and despite our current energy crisis, he is looking forward to positive results from Madge.web's aggressive growth plan. In fact, he intends to use our energy "situation" to his advantage…as far as he is concerned, it's just one more reason to use Madge.web. Marc can be reached by email at Marc.Holden@madgeweb.com.

Search engine optimization was the buzz at the recent meeting of the San Diego eMarketers Association, a division of the San Diego Entrepreneurs Roundtable. (You may remember them as the San Diego Internet Roundtable…well, times have changed and to reflect San Diego's entrepreneurial spirit, AND include other tech industries, they have changed their name.) The eMarketers started about 1.5 years ago as a place for capital providers and senior officers to share information, and as one woman told me, "There are no account executives here, just the important people." Although apparently not qualified to join, I really enjoyed the presentation on search engine optimization by Dana Todd and Catherine Seda of Sitelab. As a matter of fact, it has been a long time since I have liked a presentation as much…Dana and Catherine play off each other in an entertaining vaudeville kind of way, and do they ever know their stuff! Luckily they passed out handouts, as not even my mother talks so fast.

And finally, rem