By Danny Davis
In celebration of XO’s newly launched 100G coast-to-coast high-speed, high-capacity optical transport and business Ethernet services, VIP guests came together at a beautiful location on the cliffs of the Hollywood hills overlooking the lights of the media savvy households of Southern California.
XO Senior Vice President Michael Cromwell spent the first part of the night greeting attendees and shaking hands with executives from The Big 6: Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount, Fox, Disney and NBC Universal. While Mike discussed the application of high bandwidth long-haul transport with the studios, VP of Strategic Accounts, Olen Scott, was busy learning about the recent record setting success of “Call of Duty Black Ops 2” from Activision execs.
Chef Tony DiSalvo kept the appetizers coming as poolside conversations between Live Nation/Ticketmaster and venue startup EventUp chatted about the future of the event entertainment space and its relation to the digital world. With the driveway and street free of cars thanks to transportation partner UBER, additional guests including Creative Artist Agency and J2 Global continued to arrive. Right before we sat down for an amazing dinner, attendees viewed a 3 minute XO and Ciena video on the topic of the evening, 100G Transport. After blowing the minds of the IT teams in the room, the 40 of us sat down for Tony’s custom 4-course menu:
1st - Celery Root Velouté, Black Truffle Agnolotti, Butterscotch, Sage
2nd - Butter Poached Lobster, Thai Broth, Apple, Kaffir Lime and Mint
3rd - Roasted Squab, Sweetbreads, Chestnuts, Pumpkin
4th - Chocolate Palette, Coconut, Salted Caramel, Pecans
As the food continued to disappear and reappear in an almost uniform and perfectly timed display of edible efficiency, thanks to our friends at Kitchit, the conversations bounced from Film/TV/Studio to Gaming to New Media. Perhaps one of the best examples of the latter, was guest Evan White, CMO of Viddy. If you are unfamiliar with what has been lazily labeled the “Instagram for Video”, this extremely fresh media company first turned heads in “Silicon Beach” and is now dominating video in the social media space. Check out one of Evan’s Viddy’s from the event here. Other leaders in the So Cal tech space included Avesta Rasouli, CEO of CoLoft, Chris Lyman, CEO of Fonality and VC Chris Hollod and Abe Burns from A-Grade Investments.
The resulting vibe of the evening ended up being great food with great people interested in amazing technology. Director of National Accounts West, Tony Rivalie stressed “It’s important that the evening keeps the attention of the target audience as well as their guests, and tonight I truly believe we did that. This was a great event for anyone who appreciates great food at a 5-star venue and understands that the demand for new media is exciting and growing exponentially”.
As the glasses of wine began to sit half full, cigars turned to ash, and guests filtered out the large moderns steel doors, it was a great moment to reflect on the last 4 hours. It is rare that all 40 guests that RSVP’d show up to a vendor event, but XO and Ciena along with event partners Uber, Kitchit and Eventup, put on an night that XO customers, prospects, partners and friends will not soon forget. A special thanks goes out to XO event organizer/partner relationship manager, Zehra Zaidi and social media evangelist Ronan Keane (@RonanKeane). One final toast to the competition “A great XO team with meaningful events to celebrate advanced technology, focused on the new media experience has arrived”.
Check back for a big announcement around XO Communications and its commitment to the Media & Entertainment industry…
