CONFONZ — To be perfectly honest, Terra, just underneath the Bay bridge, is becomign the go-to spot for any and all PR firms to hold events for their clients. Unfortunately, this means that your humble narrator, the Conference Fonzerelli, has had some of his weaker moments in front of the wait-staff therein. Fortunately, they're a tight lipped bunch, and they didn't out the Fonz for who he really is at last night's Outcast PR CEO dinner. After the jump, we detail the high ratio of Press-to-CEO's, and dish some dirt on the WSJ.
While most PR events are packed with press, and only a few folks from the company paying for the soire, last night's dinner was supposed to be packed with high faluttin' CEO's from the likes of Cisco, EMC, and Salesforce. Instead, it was mostly a bunch of high level VP's, though some of the fabled CEOs did show up.
Mostly, though, this was an event at which the press talked shop amongst itself. Each dinner table held 5 press, one PR, two VCs, and one actual CEO. Certainly an event that didn't live up to its name. However, the food and booze made up for this. While the booze and crowd wasn't nearly as exciting as that which was served at the Wired Rave Awards at the St. Regis Hotel a few weeks back, anyone who really put their mind to it could get drunk. And frankly, all the major newspaper folks did just that.
And while the Wall Street Journal isn't a Valley institution, good gossip is good gossip. According to someone that works there (we're sure Gawker already knows all this stuff already), Mr. Murdock is just after the Journal for its name, and the ability to say that he owns it. Evidently, the bancroft family thinks Rupert is a complete jerk-off, and has no intention of selling out. But then, he is offering a metric fuck-ton of money. All of us here in the press world are saying prayers for you tonight, WSJ. Keep fighting the good fight, and don't take any guff from that swine.