I was excited to represent Gather Your Crowd last night as the best of the Bay’s social media mavens, masters, and –yes– mophos came out in full force at Mashable‘s SummerMash networking event at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.
A hodgepodge of PR professionals, social media junkies, tech nerds, and hopefuls looking for employment mixed and mingled while grabbing swag bags from sponsors and vying for face time with Mashable’s top dogs like COO Adam Hirsch, Tech Reporter Jolie O’Dell, and Co-Editor Ben Parr. Many people wrote their Twitter handles on their name tags, most had business cards in hand, and some could be seen practicing their elevator pitches to themselves. I noticed a lot of unique business cards in terms of shape and size – creativity practically oozed from the socially savvy group.
CEO Pete Cashmore was in high demand, and many guests opted to snap a pic with a life size cutout of the social media mogul rather than jockey for a spot in the long, slow line to meet him. (We met cut-out Pete’s creator and watched her repeatedly fend off Cashmore groupies trying to steal her handsome cardboard creation!) I got lucky and managed to snag a minute of conversation as well as a few pictures with the real Pete. A soft-spoken, gracious host, he’s only 24 years old and his company already has 2 million Twitter followers and 10 million monthly readers. Don’t get too excited ladies – he appeared to be taken!
There was a great flow to the event as we meandered in laps around the room. The open bar served as the nucleus while the sponsor’s booths were placed strategically on the edges. Companies like Bing, Intel, Weber & Shandwick, Mopho, and Gotelo enticed attendees with tricked out booths, fun freebies, as well as opportunities to win big prizes in the raffle. For example, Mopho, a location-based photography site, brought in a panda mascot for people to take pictures with and gave out free shirts. Bing had a flashy, high-tech photo booth and provided bags. Weber & Shandwick had trays of delicious mini cupcakes and held a drawing for free airline tickets. Gotelo, a start-up networking company, lured in new customers by putting us in the running for a free iPad if we signed up for their website. Yours truly was the lucky winner of a netbook from sponsor Intel – SO glad I threw my business card in the bowl at the last minute! I should note that some of the sponsors prominently displayed their QR codes at their booths, possibly a sign that the new networking trend is picking up speed?
Most people stayed for the entire three hours until the drawings for the prizes, then scampered off to the much-hyped after party. Unfortunately, we couldn’t risk missing BART so we skipped out on the karaoke, but no doubt the fun continued until the wee hours of the morning. Ultimately, it was a great event and I’d definitely attend a Mashable party again!