What can you say about a trip where you get to attend three great tech/Internet events, see the floors of *both* the NYSE and the NASDAQ "MarketSite" (while schmoozing at two very nice receptions), experience some great fall weather in the Big City, ride cabs till your head spins, watch guys on bikes play suicide-squeeze, and meet some of the top players in the New Internet Economy?

Hey, it was a-w-e-s-o-m-e!....talk about bein' to the mountaintop!....shoulda known it'd be a good trip when it began with my booking a Northwest roundtrip airfare, online of course--four days in advance, for only $143 (then getting a total of 8000 Worldperks miles, with all the bonuses!--ain't online great?)....which helped make it a little easier to swallow the hotel rates--ouch!--as I splurged at The Roosevelt (a very classy place at 45th & Madison....yes, Teddy's original, nicely updated)....and the site of my first event...

1) "eRetailing '98"....

Which really turned out to be the highlight of my trip....an intimate, little two-day affair of some 300 mostly senior execs involved in online commerce, with a decidely merchant slant to the program, and really top-notch speakers...sponsored by a new association called Shop.org....a very well received first-year event, which no doubt will attract a much bigger crowd next year....anyway, once I saw the quality of the speakers and content at this event, I decided to skip the Fall Internet World pre-show conferences going on at the same time....and ended up covering almost this entire event Monday and Tuesday....except for a quick run over to another one I wanted to catch part of, on Monday afternoon....

2) "The Wall Street Journal Tech Summit"....

Which was a much bigger, more formal affair at the Marriott World Trade Center....featuring mostly CEO speakers from the big-cap players, telecoms, infrastructure cos, etc....with attendance tilting naturally more toward large-company types, institutional investors, money managers, etc (I even met one who wanted to know the difference between AOL and the Internet...hmmmm)....this event was well attended by other press and freelance writers (unlike eRetailing, which I practically had all to myself)...I wanted to be there specifically to hear what Tim Koogle, CEO of Yahoo! had to say, and to catch the E-Commerce panel, which included CEO Mark Kvamme of CKS Group (with whom I had an interview scheduled afterwards).....then it was off to a great reception on the floor of the nearby New York Stock Exchange (very close to a religious experience, friends, and quite informative--but no, doggone it, Maria Bartaromo wasn't there)...which I then had to cut short, splitting for the get-together I'd organized at a big sports bar near Times Square--for that huge Monday night Vikings-Packers game! ....then, back for more at eRetailing on Tuesday, followed by a *memorable* evening with the founder of an exciting new Internet startup (a guy originally from Mpls, now CA and Boston), pub-crawlin' our way through SOHO...then, early Wednesday morning, back to my third-and-final event of the week....

3) "Fall Internet World"....

A swarming horde of some 50,000-60,000 souls....and the place any self-respecting Internet dealmaker just *has* to be....quite reminiscent of Comdex in the early years....held in a very nice venue, actually--the Javits Center....really much nicer than you might think--pleasant, functional, easy to get around (better, I feel, than McCormick in Chicago, where Summer IW is held)....an event with a full schedule of conferences, a big contingent of press, media events galore, and a huge showfloor that gives new meaning to the term 'information overload' (as in, bring lots of headache remedy)....but in one day, I managed to attend two very good press events, meet lots of interesting folk (where else can you just 'run into' people like the co-creator of VisiCalc?), visit many booths, scan beaucoup press kits, and even find time for a couple more interviews....while also doing some email in the very well equipped press room several times during the day (let's put it this way: I got my excercise!)...finally capping it all off at a *very cool* reception, with limo chauffeuring even, sponsored by The Industry Standard...and featuring some of the best networking any Aussie-cum-Minnesotan could ever dream of...in a venue no less impressive than the new NASDAQ "Market Site" showfloor, which you often see on live-TV feeds...quite a visual experience! with all the wonderful big-screen charts, and that scrolling "logo ticker"....which, btw, wasn't displaying such great news at the time, gang (not a good week for tech stocks, till Friday's comeback)....but that didn't seem to have much effect at all, on what I generally perceived as 'high optimism' among the Internet crowd all during that week in New York....(their 'Silicon Alley' community, btw, is gaining a damn good share of respect from me!)....

....sooooo, what did I really learn during all this hoopla, you might ask? who had some interesting things to say? where is the industry going? what's the infamous, elusive 'buzz' these days? who's buying what online? etc, etc....well, faithful readers, I collected so much in the way of notes/quotes/& insights, it'd choke a horse, and I'd be happy to relate some of it to you...what's more, in the spirit of the Internet, you can even choose how you want to get it:

1) the Diet Plate... some very tasty little morsels I can email to you...or
2) the Blue-Plate Special... for those a bit hungrier (a more complete summary by email)....or even
3) the Whole Enchilada... for those who want it all--the full, seven-course briefing! available by old-fashioned,
face-to-face meeting--remember those? (a couple hours of my time)...

If you'd like either 1 or 2, just email me...or, for number 3, you can call me at 612-944-1672....

yours in intelligence gathering,
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Graeme Thickins, President
GT&A Strategic Marketing Inc.
*Minneapolis *St.Paul *Anywhere
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"Branding & Marketing to Win
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