This year I had the chance to film some conversations with those that attended.  This week on the I am showcasing my conversation with SEM and Contextual Advertising guru, Jennifer Slegg.  We had the opportunity to sit down and discuss her background, views on the industry and other SEM/Contextual gems.  Be sure to check out Jennifer’s blogs a http://www.jenniferslegg.com/ and http://www.jensense.com/.

Despite the loss, it was an exciting game and included yet another storied late inning heroic HR by our best off season acquisition Kosuke Foukudome. What a game he had. That was about the only highlight as Kerry Wood failed miserably in his new role as closer. It’s still early, so we’ll see how that experiment pans out.

I found a real gem online of the Fukudome HR and I’m posting it here using the new Silverlight streaming service from Microsoft. It’s a real ass kicker, and I definitely will be slowly transitioning to hosting all my videos using this new technology. It’s got a pretty big learning curve and they are going to have to make it easier (Youtube easy), if they want to penetrate the market, but it certainly is some fancy tech. Be sure to download the Silverlight plug in if you haven’t done so already as some major sites are already jumping on board.

The site provides Microsoft adCenter customers the ability to interact with Microsoft employees and peers through blog posts and forums.  It’s a great and simple way for advertisers to get answers to their questions quickly and easily whether it be from an employee or a site user.  The site also showcases the multimedia efforts that I am driving from employee and customer interviews to some other creative plans I have up my sleeve.

It will be interesting to see how successful the site becomes.  The launch was hugely successful with lots of traffic, so I hope that momentum continues.  We still have a lot to prove, but there’s never been a more exiting time to be working not only at Microsoft, but in the online advertising industry as a whole.

I’ve got lots of post video work to do, but keep your eyes peeled for all the SES videos on the adCenter Community site next week.  I had the opportunity to shoot some discussion panels with a few of our NY account teams as well as some “man on the street” shots at our booth.  It will be interesting to see how these turn out as this is my first go around with this.  Traveling with camera equipment is an incredible pain in the ass, so I’m not looking forward to having to lug that around all the time, but it’s worth it because I’d much rather be doing the video thing then attending tradeshow sessions.  Been there done that.

Then we had the grand daddy responsibility in running the adCenter Community site launch party.  I ended up choosing Slate Plus which was a high end pool hall.  We had our own room and early word on the street is that it was a good time had by all.  I lined up pool tables, ping pong, casino table and karaoke for all to enjoy.  Food wasn’t too shabby either.  Be sure to check out all the photos here.

Like most NY trips, lots of fine dining.  One of my favorite spots is Plataforma which is a Brazilian steakhouse.  Nothing like having different cuts of meat served to you throughout the night.  As you can see, my good friend Matt Roberts was down for the count relatively early in the meal.  It’s OK, he’s old and his teeth don’t work like they used to.

Finally got around to getting some food from a street vendor.  There’s this one right by the Hilton where we stay that ALWAYS has a line.  Around 3am one of the nights, another partner in crime, Media Specialist superstar Kristen Cline desperately wanted nachos, but we settled for what ended up being bowls of deliciousness.  Some combination of chicken, lettuce, sauce, and what we originally thought was cheese, but actually turned out to be rice.  Either way, it was amazing.  Now I know what the lines are all about.

Good food, great meeting and catching up with industry folks, and lots of fun to boot.  Be sure to check out www.adCenterCommunity.com for more on what’s going down and how SES went for some other folks.  Also be sure to check out the SES NY Flickr group for all the photos I was able to take and scrounge up.