22nd
The Alltop/Kirtsy Party: Guy Kawasaki is the Hugh Hefner of Female Bloggers
This was the second “brilliant Guy Kawasaki event” I’ve attended.
This one was brilliant because Guy recognized the power of the female blogosphere early and he’s been working to win the hearts and minds of women bloggers before the space really heats up. In fact, it’s already happening (btw: huge congrats to Lisa, Elisa and Jory).
Much of Guy’s affection has been appropriately directed to the Kirtsy chicks: Gabrielle Blair, Laura Mayes and Laurie Smithwick. And for good reason. In the she-blog universe, Kirtsy is rapidly developing its own solar system, drawing some of the best and brightest into its orbit. (I’m admittedly drawn in myself—the trio is a force of nature). Plus, Kirtsy’s aggregation model is a close cousin to Alltop.
It’s not yet clear exactly what Guy has in mind, but we shouldn’t be surprised if he soon takes a more active position in the space.
The first “brilliant Guy event” I attended was ten years ago—the launch party for Garage.com, later renamed Garage Technology Ventures (see “Avoid the trendy” in this post on rules for naming). The event was larger than life and yet cost him next to nothing, thanks to brilliant deal making. It was held at the Autobahn Motors car dealership in Belmont (“garage” get it?). The service bays were chock full of vendors like caterers and massage therapists who donated their services for the opportunity to reach the audience of VCs and other valley movers and shakers he assembled. The highlight was a raffle for a free Mercedes. Well, I think it was really a one-year lease, but it still created plenty of “ooohs and aaahs.” You can read more about the party here.
I attended both events with one of my best friends in the world, John Holland of SearchMe. John knows Guy from way back. His gift to Guy at the Kirtsy party was appropriately recycled shwag from the Garage.com launch. John’s daughter Elinor fashioned a backpack out of a t-shirt.
It should be noted that—from a morality perspective—Guy is the antithesis of Hef. It’s just that Laura’s reference (and Guy’s hat) were just too irresistable to pass up.
Be sure to check out Guy’s post about the party (with some killer pics) here.
A huge thanks to Guy and Beth for hosting a pretty magical evening. And of course thanks to Kirtsy for co-hosting. And to sponsors ListenShare and YouData.
A few more fun clips from the event…
