Big thanks go out to Dan Murphy (above) and Adrian D’Souza (along with Matthew Goldstein – more on that later) for organizing the first meeting of the leaders of digital advertising operations from most of the leading players in the industry at C|Net’s offices in San Francisco last week. The discussion was relevant, engaging and well worth our time – and highlights how important our challenges are as more and more revenue is brought to bear on our not-so-‘new’-media. I’m looking forward to our next meeting. For now, here are a few quick snaps from the Monday night dinner at Hawthorne Lane, sponsored by Rapt, a pricing/optimization vendor for the interactive industry. We missed having Matthew in attendance, as he’s left Viacom for a new gig at Tacoda – for now, we’re publisher-only in this group, so Matt was unable to attend after helping organize the event in the first place.
Well, not actually the country, but the family. I had a chance to spend the afternoon with my old buddy Shane and his family. Vicki’s parents have left chilly Connecticut and relocated permanently to the Bay Area, and were enjoying time with Ian (now 2-ish) and Max, who only arrived a few months ago. Boy are those kids cute! Click here for the gallery featuring the kids, with a good dose of grandparents thrown in as well!
Actually, to my own amazement, I don’t think I left anything behind. But I did have a great time visiting that most civilized of cities last week. Here is a gallery of shots, scenic and otherwise, I shot while there. My base of operations was the lovely Hotel Vitale on the Embarcadero, with my room overlooking the Bay Bridge. The weather was cool (mid-60s), and the fog came and went, adding to the experience. As I noted to my fellow Atlanta-bound travellers as we entered SFO when leaving, that’s the last time I’m likely to feel those sorts of temps at midday until October or so at home.
Wow – I’m thrilled this morning to learn that one of the big projects I directed for roughly 18 months has been announced as a finalist for the 2005-06 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television (exclusively reported Tuesday morning by [itvt]). CNN Enhanced on Echostar/Dish currently reaches over 11M households; I blogged the launch back in February, and the extensive interview by Interactive TV Today last month. Winners will reportedly be announced at the AFI event on July 26th, followed by the awards ceremony in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on August 19th. Full list of nominees for the Award for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced or Interactive Programming – Television:
AOL Music on Demand (broadband, cable and MCE versions): AOL/Time Warner Cable/Zetools
CNN Enhanced: CNN
DirecTV Interactive Sports (NFL Sunday Ticket, SportsMix and NCAA March Madness): DirecTV
TiVo Service: TiVo
The nominees for the Award for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced or Interactive Programming – New Delivery Platforms are:
ABC.com Full Episode Streaming Player: ABC
Danny Bowles and the Jade Treasure, Stranger Adventures: Riddle Productions/Red Car
