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Geek Dinner!

Posted on September 8, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Geek Dinner - Sept 07, 2006Last night, I got a small group of geek friends together to grab a bite at a good San Francisco Thai restaurant (Koh Samui and the Monkey) in the city’s SOMA district.  The agenda?  Well, no real agenda, just a bunch of folks who could talk and debate about gadgets, products, Web 2.0, and the ever-important question of “what exactly does it take to become United Global Services anyway?”

Our gang (it’s a gang because one of our guys, who shall remain anonymous for his own safety and, well, credibility, can easily do the “blood” thing with his fingers, but he’s not really a gang member, so nobody come stab him with some prison shiv, ok?  thanks.), from left-to-right:

  • Ron Hirson (runs product management at Ingenio, the company behind Ether)
  • Noah Wintroub (VP of digital media for JP Morgan)
  • Brad Dietrich (CTO and cofounder of Mediabolic)
  • Isao Yagi (Lead Engineer at Adteractive)
  • Jason Whitt (Vice President at VantagePoint Venture Partners)
  • Ben Walter (Director – Relationship Marketing at Banana Republic) – Ben is the litmus test for good/bad ideas if you want to reach out to real consumers
  • Jeremy Toeman (VP of market development for Sling Media, and writer of this blog, in case you missed that little detail)
  • Nicholas Menaker (consumer technology expert and consultant)
  • Dave Mathews (“Forward Thinker” for Sling Media, also known as Dave Mathews Gadget Guy)

Was a great time, we had excellent food and talked about an interesting variety of topics.  We had a great debate about Zoom Shop (which I still just don’t get – who needs an empty iPod for a flight?) and how many doritos they sell per month.  We talked about Facebook, and whether or not they could get into more of a lifestyle brand, as opposed to 4 years of drunken commenting (assuming all the recent troubles don’t cause a massive desertion).

Long chats about traveling, as we had a couple of frequent fliers at the table.  Good discussion on why Boeing’s in-flight service is a failure (my two reasons: 1- way too expensive precluded non-business travelers, and 2- much of the primary market was asleep when they’d be using the service.  Nicholas also pointed out that at $500K per plane, there was quite the uphill battle).

Thanks for coming everyone, feel free to chime in on things I forgot to write about.

Oh, and in 364 days Dave Mathews will owe a few people $100 each.

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One thought on “Geek Dinner!”

  1. Jones says:
    September 9, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    You guys totally ditched me. You told me we were going to the other place! I spent the whole night circling the city on my Segway with my Nuvi looking for “the gang”.

    Sheesh. S’ok I guess, in the words of Ms. Stefani, I know we’re cool.

    Reply

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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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