If you ever doubt the power of people, you haven’t been to Philly. This weekend I attended the one-year anniversary bash of Indy Hall in cool “Old City” Philly, PA.

Ever-clever Indy Hall founder and coworking guru Alex Hillman convinced some fine folks to sponsor the food and booze. The drink tickets and apps were endless and no one was shy about digging in. It was a real treat for me to meet some of the folks that I’ve been connecting with online, particularly Alex, Tony “Be Goode” Bacigalupo of New Work City (among other things) and marketing soc-med “it” girl and bleach blond coworking soul sista Tara Hunt. The coworking crew vets have been a tremendous help for me and my partner with group88.

The party was a kicked back good time and it also totally kicked my creativity in the butt about a few projects that are cooking. I’m so jazzed to be a part of the coworking movement, however small my contribution. I’m also really psyched I could meet some killer smarties. We chilled, we laughed, we philosophized, we drank, we ate (who can go wrong with piles of chicken on a stick teepees?) we watched Alex break every glass in the joint, we drew phallic symbols, we gave up the woohoo shoutouts when called for, we snapped shots (some to be flickred, some not), we made bets of which I am sure to win, we got cool free T-shirts and we made plans to kill the corporate world with coworking.

I’m sure I’ll forget someone, and I apologize in advance, but I have to mention a few guys and gals that really made the night for me and have inspired me to get my arse in gear on a few things . . .

Alex: You kill when it comes to getting schnizit done and motivating others. I can’t wait to see what you can do. Just make sure you do it in a plastic cup because glass is just not your bag baby.

Tony: Do us all a favor and stop drawing phallic symbols. I don’t know what biology class you took but that teacher has some explaining to do. I can’t wait to hash out Indie Mentorship with you, Alex and the crew. Interning, schminterning!

Tara: Strength, beauty and vision. I cannot wait for your book release party!

Erica: You are the ultimate image connection girl. In just seconds you gave me tons to think about, and hopefully a great solution to our videoconferencing woes via Oovoo.

Bart: Careful with the Sniffy Sniff. You’re just a little toooo into it.

Jonathan: Your five bucks is in the mail. Dang it!

Mark: Tell your mom I said hi.

Geoff: I am still seriously impressed that you called up “group88″ as soon as I introduced myself. If you ever find yourself back in Stafford looking up your ancestry, give me a shout.

Carlos: Good ideas with the corporate training. We’ll chat soon for sure.

Kevin: At some point we’ll chat about our approaches to brand strategy for our clients. I would really like to be more of a wing it strategist, at least partly, and I’m sure we can swap ideas about adding a bit more structure to your process (or help you get a process if needbe).

Blake: You’re sure to make a name for yourself and Anthillz is a great start.

Rachel: Keep on spreading that energy girl, hot pink hair and all.

There were tons more folks that I’m not mentioning but to all of you at the Indy Hall bash, I just want to say thanks for welcoming me with such open arms. This event has encouraged me to increase my travel budget. Connecting online is great for every day mojo. Connecting face to face is the only way to take my creative mojo up to the next notch.

Yesterday I attended a Hasbro vendor fair at their Pawtucket, Rhode Island headquarters. If you think hanging out all day at the birthplace of Mr. Potato Head is all candy canes, pumpkin pie and green apple licorice . . . Yahtzee! You’re right.

The purpose of the fair is to connect freelancers (writers like me, product and package designers, molders, illustrators, photographers, etc.) with in-house Hasbroites. I have been doing some work with excellent copywriter Kara Parlin at the East Longmeadow, Mass. location and was really psyched to attend this one-day only event. I invited my graphic design co-hort, Amanda Bedard of Spielman Design. Amanda does incredible work and she’s a networking hound like me so it was a perfect fit.

First things first, I need to give some major props to our organizer, Susan Algeo. Susan has more energy than Spiderman on speed and could give lessons on how to keep an event ticking while dealing with 800 interruptions, competition with the buzz of daily life at headquarters and a four-hour window to ensure a productive day for 50+ folks who have traveled as far as Portland, Oregon. At one point, I caught Susan attempting to fill up a plate for lunch and told her that I had a question for her when she was done. Nonsense! We chatted while she tried to eat and then, of course, also took care of a few more interruptions along the way. Along with a catalog of all vendors, a fab hot lunch, an afternoon snack of kettle corn, access to the discounted Hasbro boutique (Christmas for my nephew is done!), we also received either Scrabble or Yahtzee! as a parting gift. It was better than spending the day in Candy Land.

Talking with the Hasbroites was really refreshing. These people love what they do. I talked with copywriter Danielle Slawsby who has great war stories from the dotcom days and is working on some cool web stuff for Hasbro, Joanna Kalafarski who manages packaging and product copy and was kind enough to let me bend her ear while I could tell she was swamped with work, Art Director Kathleen Murray who apparently loves pop culture more than me (although I think it might be a tie) and Design Director Melissa Mips who began with Hasbro at the East Longmeadow branch and seems to know just about everyone in Hasbro’s extensive network of past and current employees. I also met tons of designers like a kid (I think he was older than 12 but I’ll still call him a kid) who designs GI Joe and a guy who’s worked on Play-Doh for ions.

Equally cool was hanging with the other vendors. Here’s a list of my favs:

Fuszion - Killer design company located in Virginia. Rick and Jeff let me babble on about branding and marketing so I loved them even more. How can you go wrong with a name like Fuszion? These guys have awesome years ahead of them.

Smith Design - Mr. and Mrs. Smith are green-concerned packaging and product designers out of New Jersey. Their daughter Jenna, an ex-Silicon Valley girl, represented the fam and did a great job of showcasing their excellent work.

Gary Leveille, Berkshire Creative - Gary is a fellow writer who has quite an extensive list of experience in the biz. He had some great writer-to-writer advice for me which I will keep to myself.

Smartshape Design - Did you know Cleveland is really just an old ‘burb of Connecticut? These guys did - they know everything! Smartshape are innovative engineers who can also hook clients up with tooling and manufacturing. Smart.

Gary & Maggie Houston, A Printer’s Film Service, inc. - Gary and Maggie are a husband and wife duo who met in Providence, RI and worked for Hasbro “back in the day” and now live in North Carolina. Spunk doesn’t begin to describe them.

Philip Hatter, Thistledown Puppets - You have not seen puppets until you’ve met Philip and his puppet posse. His work is incredible and his love for puppet theater really shows in his designs. I kept meaning to ask him why he went with the name Thistledown versus a play on Mad Hatter. For another day.

Pumpkin Pie - Jennifer and Sheridan specialize in branding, logos and package design. They practice what they preach and have done some of the best branding for their own company that I’ve seen in a long time.

Adam Gillespie, Night Light Graphics - Adam is an extremely talented illustrator and graphic designer of cool other worlds. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

Floating Pear Productions - Digital animation experts, Floating Pear were our neighbors and Hasbro’s too since they are based out of Providence, RI. Co-founder Dee Boyd’s bubbly personality and their cool mug give-aways kept the traffic flowing our way. Thanks Dee!

And last but absolutely not least . . .

The Linnett Sisters - A long-forgotten ’50s pop band? Nope. Two creative New Hampshire gals, Katie and Patti, daughters of illustrator Charles Linnett (also an ex-Hasbroite) and owners of Linnett Studios. The Linnett Sisters are talented illustrators and innovative package and product designers.

All in all a great networking event. I’m sure Susan will be looking for feedback on how to make the day better and I really only have one suggestion:

The Catalog - The catalog of vendors was not distributed to Hasbroites unless they strolled down to the event. I would flip this entirely. Why not offer up an electronic catalog teaser to those groups (Design, Creative, etc.) one week ahead of time? In the teaser, I would allow the vendors a quick promo paragraph and also a chance for them to say which Hasbro projects (or types of projects) they’d like to work on.

Life gets in the way - meetings, sick days, unexpected work issues - if someone isn’t able to meet with the vendors on the day we’re there or from the 10-2 time frame, it’s possible that Hasbro staff might want to meet with vendors before or after the event. I say promote the folks who are traveling to Pawtucket, RI as much as possible. There was a lot of talent hanging out in that Hasbro hallway. Keeping us a secret is like telling kids about this great movie where funky fighting, car-morphing machines attempt to destroy the world versus showing them this.

Either way, I’ll be back again next year. To those vendors who declined to attend because they considered it a Trivial Pursuit: you’ll be Sorry! next year if you Boggle an opportunity to Connect Four hours with folks that could move you along in The Game of Life. And let’s not forget the kettle corn. That’s worth the trip to Pawtucket alone.

A few months ago, I wrote about the Coworking trend and gave Betahouse a bit of flack for structuring their Coworking space versus going the hippie “free love for all” path that most casual groups have adopted. Time to eat my words.

I am currently embarking on helping The Donaldson Group, a very cool Simsbury, CT design and ad agency, set up a structured Coworking space within their building. The space has 2,500 square feet, a kitchen, bathrooms and raw space that will be outfitted with office areas, conference rooms and open hang-out corners for us couch potatoes.

We’re looking to build the space with the folks that will join the group. We want a mix of 4-5 anchors (members that have dedicated office space) and floaters (mobile workers who plan on using the space part-time). Currently, we’re conducting market research to garner interest level from various industries. Ideally, we would like an environment that mixes industry – IT, creatives, road warriors, start-ups, legal beagles – anyone that is interesting in networking outside their circles and requires office space that won’t kill their budget.

Know of anyone in the Simsbury, Farmington, West Hartford, Avon areas that might be interested in joining? Contact me at suzi[at]wallflymarketing.com.

Right now I’m driving back to my little house in CT from the Geezeo ZoomInfo Compete + sponsored Tech Cocktail event in Bostonian MA. Cool event. Probably 500+ folks chatting, drinking, hanging.

This is the type of event that I like. Nothing planned except for a few fun events - particularly, a raffle coordinated with a money machine (fitting for Geezeo) where folks had to enter a booth and grab as much fake money as possible as it blew around their heads. I totally rocked this game (which didn’t matter because you didn’t win anything except for the chance to drop your biz card into the raffle - blah) but my strategy was killer. I’d tell you but then if we ever were to encounter each other at another geek networking event with a money-blowing-around-your-head machine competition, you’d totally trump me. Not cool. A Wii, of course, was also present. First time playing a Wii for me and I totally stink so it will probably be the last. There were probably a few other things that I didn’t pay much attention to. I was too busy chatting folks up.

At the bar I ran into Mark from MarksGuide, a guy my buddy Matt has been trying to connect me with for sometime. He has an awesome concept for a hyperlocal, biz event happening site and I’ve already got some great ideas for how he can build up some excitement and get some Craig’s List type hype. I also had several fabulous conversations with Jill from Fashion Public. Her mission is to get boutique fashion directly into the hands of fashionistas. Another awesome concept. Jill is currently in the fund gathering stage. If there’s anyone out there that would like to invest in a sure-fire hit company, please contact Jill and give her your money. I’d love to work with her and the funds will make this happen. Thanks.

I also ran into BzzAgent reps. BzzAgent and I go way back. Pete from Geezeo will tell you that I told him about BzzAgent like four years ago. It was great to meet the folks face-to-face. Awesome WOM company and I’m excited to learn more about their new Frog Pond adventure. I haven’t participated in one of their campaigns in a while but I will be sure to hook up with one ASAP.

Honestly, if every conference and seminar out there was replaced with a straight out networking event, I think they’d be 30% more successful. Maybe even 38%. It’s the right environment to make things happen - people hanging out, talking, getting to know each other. It just makes sense. Thanks TechCocktail funders - looking forward to the next one.

The latest thing in networking and working, if you haven’t heard, is Jelly. Started by Amit Gupta of ChangeThis and BarCamp fame, Jelly-type gatherings bring solo entreprenuers and freelancers together to work out of somone’s home once a week or whenever. The result is a mutt environment of social hanging out, idea storming and actual working - all sans office politics.

Jelly is the hippie, laidback sister-in-law to the evergrowing Coworking trend where independents pay to come and go at jointly-funded office space. A local example of this is Betahouse in Boston. From what I’ve heard, the slots are for established techies versus just-starting-outs. A colleague of mine is dying to get in to Betahouse because of the networking potential. I’m sure Betahouse serves its renters well but the whole concept of how this developed intrigues me. I am always fascinated by how trends take shape and sometimes morph into the very thing they were getting away from. In this case, one of the goals of creating non-traditional work spaces through Coworking was to stave off office politics and create an open environment. Betahouse only has so many desks (12, I believe). It makes sense that they would limit those slots to folks that would most benefit from working in close quarters, but by channeling the networking, has an environment of exclusivity been created, similar to those found in traditional office politics? This isn’t a rhetorical question, I’m really asking. If anyone in Betahouse or any other Coworking space stumbles on this post, I’d like your thoughts.

Note that I have no idea if someone would be turned away from Betahouse if they didn’t fit the typical characteristics of that crowd - and, if they did, so be it. They have every right to do whatever they want with their rental space. I just find the evolution of certain types of social networking intriguing. No matter how organic an idea begins, it’s bound to get formalized. Rules follow, opinions clash and pretty soon bloggers like me start jumping all over it.

Pals of mine recently started a Jelly in Connecticut, Jam At Work, and so far I’ve only attended one afternoon. I liked it - I actually did get some work done and had a few laughs in the process. I’m sure I’ll return in the future. I doubt, however, that I will rent a coworking space anytime soon but I won’t discount it down the road.

I could start a jam or jelly or preserves of my own. Of course, this would require me to keep my dining room table free of papers, coffee mugs and random items that seem to crawl up out of nowhere. On second thought, I’ll preserve my workspace and keep the jelly in the fridge.

Once again, here’s my disclaimer: this is not my website. It’s the future home of my site that is currently under construction. Hopefully next week. Can’t wait!

Monday night, I attended a great geek gala in Cambridge, Mass., produced by the Web Innovators Group, hosted/founded by clever VCer David Beisel. Start-ups, VCs, hiring folk and the wannabe hired folk all gathered to listen to short “side dish” and “main dish” sessions on new companies and sites. Mostly, however, we were there to exhange whattayados. One thing I’ve come to understand about networking is that you have to go in without expectations. I talked to a lot of people that I may not work with but it doesn’t matter. I was able to partake in some great conversations that either sparked ideas for my business or allowed me to throw thoughts on the table for someone else’s. Either way, it was rare to have a conversation that didn’t lead to something interesting, even if it was another conversation.

One of the guys I talked to (and yes, there were mostly guys there - I’m hoping to encourage more gals to attend the next event to help raise the estrogen level in that place) . . . was Greg Perverill-Conti, a fellow writer and PR guru. His way-better write-up of the event can be found at his blog, Over the River. For the most part my thoughts on the presenters are pretty much in line with his - here’s my bonus commentary, for whatever it’s worth:

NextCat - My fav of the night. As a wannabe screenwriter and movie producer, I will be spending some time on this site fer sure. I talked with Richard Viard, a musician with lots of industry connections (although he also pointed out his funky-haired partner who is apparently even more embedded in connection cave). They are thinking big for next steps (packaging subscriptions - altho the subscription would have to offer even more insider connections to make the deal sweet) but they are also being smart about development and paying close attention to where they get the biggest bites before they blow it out or even up. I’m sure we’ll see them hook up with Variety or other traditional H’wood path in the near future (but hopefully not IMDB). They have a secondary layer, encouraging fans and “cool people” to connect to talent. Not so sure this element will take off, except for maybe the stalker market segs. But, hey, you never know how connections are made, as I’ve already alluded to in this post. It really is all about who you know.

Zync - Great concept, awesome site. Hope these guys do well. No doubt these guys, speaking of stalkers, will be stalked by major travel sites. They’re in private beta - sign up to be a tester if you’re in the Boston area.

GameBrix - I’m not a gamer but these guys just might convert me. Not a fan of their site but, once again, I’m not a gamer. Love the concept of collaboration and swapping game elements. Rock on.

BandDigs - Speaking of rocking on, groupies now have a new best friend. Fans can live chat with their bands and band folk, as well as get in on some live recordings. Not keen on the fact that you are required to purchase a copy of your chats. Blech.

Beacon Street Girls - I love seeing a property really exploit its full potential and touch its audience, online and offline. Founder Addy will be rolling in it before the decade is over - in apparel, cartoons, live productions, whatever pre-teen girls and their moms are willing to pay for. They say their age range is 9-13; I would say they’ll soon skew lower if they’re not careful but I’m guessing they’ve got a much better handle on their own audience than a 30-somethin’ non-Mom who’s not fond of pink.

Fafarazzi - I talked with co-founder Chris Keller about his fantasy celeb league. I am now hooked! Can’t wait to join a league. What a great freakin’ idea - wish I’d thought of it. Surprisingly, Chris says that his market is not exactly pre-teen girls or soccer moms. In fact, we were talking about the site in a group of about 4 guys that are pals of mine - most of them head up the cool finance site Geezeo. Before I knew it, all of these guys were talking about the strategy of building a team with Paris, the benefits of having an A lister or scoring Hilary Duff (so to speak) who, until Fafarazzi came along, they had no idea who she was. Chris tells me that he’s been blown away by the number of guys that are joining leagues. Go figure. Just when you think you’ve got your target markets nailed down.

Social Degree - This is a blog by Brian Balfour. Like Chris, Brian didn’t present but we chatted a bit (just a short bit) about marketing and social networking. But mostly we talked about his days in running events and his uncle out west who used to run event planning. Always cool to run into a fellow behind-the-scenes organizer and swap crazy stories. His blog is worth a gander and some great discussion points regarding how the right design, content and approach in social networking shapes a community’s development.

That’s all I got on the WebInno crowd. Can’t wait to attend in September to watch more folks sell themselves. Although the best part is absolutely hashing with clever folk. I wouldn’t call networking actual work. More like netplaying. It’s too much fun.