Social Media Week NY

social media week (round 2) finished last week with a bang. i had a really wonderful time, and i met some fantastic new people. here are my highlights:

Monday: smw opening celebration at elizabeth - walked in and spotted some friends immediately. happy to see @caro at the bar, and @AnnaOBrien waltzed in a few moments later. we got to enjoy the open bar and ordered, "the diddy." aka a ciroc [vodka] and lemonade. it was delicious, and i'll be serving some of those this summer!

soon thereafter, i spotted the infamous organizer of social media week, @tobyd, girlfriend @elspethjane, @emilygannett, and @jessekay. also spotted: @mizcity, @tffmariec, and ben scheim, who helped to organize smw. i also met @socialmedium, who wrote up a great post on her blog, just an online minute.

then, anna and i moved on to the SXSW mixer for interactive, being held at hifi. spotted a few people that we knew there, but it was packed. after utilizing the facilities and garnering a name tag, we decided to stroll down the street with @nmcglynn on our arms to the digital somethings event at destination bar.

that was the motherlode of social media friends, turns out! i saw @db, @TwittsMcgee, @CalebKramer, @justjon, @JocelynB81, @kylecameron, and i'm sure other people that i've forgotten to mention. (please forgive me!)

what a night that was to kick things off!

Tuesday: after getting lost trying to get to the ARF (that's the advertising research foundation), i finally made it to 432 SOUTH park ave. and the science of social media. what an interesting event that turned out to be! @aerocles was there, but missed him. @paullyoung's colleague @justjeff (Jeff Doak) was there presenting from converseon, and @djw2451 (Duncan J. Watts) from yahoo! reserach gave a fascinating presentation. here's the description of the presentations:

According to a study by a research team at Penn State, 20% of Tweets are about brands. And it's not only Twitter where people are talking about brands. It also happens on Facebook, online forums, blogs, online communities, and other social networks. What makes people share so much information online? How can you better understand consumer behavior online to virally spread your message? Why does social media work, and why has it become such an effective form of communication? Learn how social psychology, user experience, site design, and an effective marketing strategy play into social media participation-and why word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing.

i'd love to link you to audio of the presentations, but it would appear that you have to be an arf member to download it. perhaps fodder for an upcoming post, then. i took good notes. also met @lynneluvah, who does all social media related things at the ARF. love her profile pic on twitter, too.

later that evening, i headed over to the fashion goes social: the devil wears prada and tweets about it event at THOR at the rivington hotel. it was standing room only by the time i got there. i couldn't even get around the corner to see the panelists! all was well, and @emilygannett put on a great panel.

afterwards, digital divas (with @socialdiva (Peg Samuel)) happened right in the same spot! meanwhile, it started to snow outside ... did i dare change venues and ruin my gold marc jacobs boots? i decided to hang for a little while, and the open bar didn't hurt! met lots of new people, and saw some of my favorites, as well.

sunny of the blaq list took this fantastic photo for guest of a guest, featuring ryan dougherty, jd walsh, and yours truly. had a wonderful conversation with both of them. ryan hails from north carolina (NC!!), so we had plenty to discuss, and jd is just fascinating. he runs a basketball school, and he recently opened a branch in india!

i also saw the lovely @ncsuemme, hung with @mollsrawks, and chatted up @thedatecoach. also met @courtenaybird, who is also a southern belle. spotted @rachelsklar looking mighty fine at the beginning of the evening, as well. totally jealous of the twitter necklaces given out to the social divas in attendance. apparently i can score my own here from @thehippest: survival of the hippest.

skipped across the street to meet up with my boyfriend for a little bit at the magician, but then ended up across town at an entirely different bar. oh well! hopefully the crowd at social divas didn't miss me too much!

Wednesday: i intended to attend the oldest media goes social, hosted by booz and company, but i got tied up at work! i ended up at soundctrl a little later than expected, but mobilebehavior ran the text screens at the event, and being on the board (thanks to coworkers @lernmatt and @mattvandrick) - duty calls!

the event was held in a really neat space called no longer empty. it's located at the old tower records location near NYU, and it was filled to the brim with some awesome art. this was social media week's only music event, and it was absolutely fantastic. here's a video of one of the installations in full effect from a walk through a few weeks earlier involving flashing lights, a dj, and a ton of boomboxes.

back to the event - it got off to a slow start as we all awaited for @questlove to arrive. the house was PACKED, so much so that i was really worried that some of the art was going to get damaged. but we were able to move it all back enough to fit everyone in. finally ?uestlove arrived after finishing up his gig at jimmy kimmel, and we were able to get the panel started. here's a video of ?uestlove introducing himself. it was fascinating to hear ?uestlove give his opinion on how artists now not only have to be talented, but they now have to be able to sell themselves through social media.

the panel was moderated by james andrews (@keyinfluencer), and also featured marisa bangash (@mbangash), and andrew katz (@phillykatz) from pepsi - who was also a sponsor. also, excited to hear about pepsi's newest campaign - pepsi refresh. pepsi and soundctrl are hosting an event together at sxsw called, flashfwd. learn how you can win tickets to sxsw from soundctrl and pepsi, here! also got to meet some other soundctrl board members, including @JTHR3E.

i wish i could've made it to the suxorz. it's a panel that dissects the twelve worst social media and web 2.0 ad campaigns. maybe at sxsw!

Thursday: i wanted to attend pfsk presents good ideas salon with seth godin, but the tickets were way out of my price range. i ended up at the social media week obliterati party at R bar, hosted by citysearch and randomnightout.

had a great time connecting with some old friends. @misskatiemo, @thedatecoach, @emilyspearl, @justjon, @ncsuemme, and more! finally met THE oz (@ozsultan). had fun dancing with kristi evans (@twittsmcgee), and the infamous @mizcity and @db. thanks to nick mcglynn (@nmcglynn) for such a great party! shoutout to my boyfriend for walking my weenie dogs cause i was running late!

forgot to snag my gift bag at the end of the night, but, oh well! hope someone else got to enjoy it.

i kept spotting @holaphil in photos from every event that i attended, but i had not yet laid eyes on him! that was all to change, and we got to hang out on friday! in fact, this was happening a lot. there were tons of people i wanted to connect with but didn't have the opportunity to because events were completely packed.

Friday: would have loved to attended the women in digital media breakfast, hosted by gilt group. another maybe next year event. i couldn't score an invite, despite having friends inside. also heard the whole foods market event: afternoon snack went well.

i did manage to score a social media week closing party invitation, and i sure do count myself among the lucky! it was a fantastic party. more diddy's, and more great friends. my fave @lala5f and her friend (and my new friend!) @jovizi.

there was a GREAT photobooth setup at the event thanks to the polite in public photobooth (@politeinpublic). after having your photo taken with their fantastic props, all you had to do to secure your online copy was scoot over to their touchscreen computer and upload it directly to facebook, email it to yourself, or MMS it directly to your phone. what a GREAT mobile setup. not to mention, they give you hard copies right then and there, as well!

i also met the fascinating colin wright (@colinismyname). colin sold everything he owned - almost everything, and he moves to a different country every 4 months (voted on by his readers at exile lifestyle). he's sustains the lifestyle through his design business. smart kid, for sure!

excited to meet @GeorgeGSmithJr, who works for r/ga, and is, apparently, good friends with several people i already know! ah the degrees of separation are few!

thanks to @metromixny for capturing a lot of the moments with their photos.

all in all, it was a smashingly successful week for me. wanted to go to EventCamp on saturday, but instead i headed over to the brooklyn kitchen, where i got to see @ElizabethBard talk about her new book, Lunch in Paris. more on that in another post.