The Social

At sunset, the beachfront Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel resort, home to this year's WebbyConnect conference.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

DANA POINT, Calif.--When the economy heads south, anything involving beaches and luxury resorts is a terrific recipe for guaranteed bad press.

That's why there was a fine line to be walked at the WebbyConnect conference, the second annual retreat-slash-ideafest organized by the directors of the annual Webby Awards. In the diverse vegetable patch of media conferences, this one is the organic arugula. The venue was the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel resort, a sprawling beachfront complex and occasional filming spot for MTV's haute-reality soap Laguna Beach, just down the road from the St. Regis hotel where American International Group executives famously spent $440,000 on a spa getaway days after an $85 billion government bailout.

But even with wallets shrinking and belts tightening across technology, digital media, and advertising, the people who shelled out more than $2,000 for a WebbyConnect ticket insisted on one thing: this event, unlike so many others on the industry's calendar, is worth the price tag.

"What an amazing, diverse group of people we have gathered under this roof, and I know that's a cliche but like most cliches, it's true," Jamie Pallot, editorial director of Conde Nast's CondeNet, observed while moderating a panel on Wednesday. "We all work for a bunch of very different companies, we play wildly different roles in those companies...what brings us all together here and what we are excited about is the innovation that technology can bring, and how that can change the places where we work, and what we can do in those places."

An oceanview deck at the Ritz-Carlton that hosted a WebbyConnect reception on Tuesday night.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

Getting to the intimate, 200-person conference from the entrance to the Ritz involved winding through groves of palm trees and ponds of bright orange and white koi, past stunning ocean vistas dotted with surfers and pools surrounded by the resort's usual clientele, wealthy retirees in town for Orange County's famed golfing. The three half-days worth of conference panels featured a slew of digital media's glitterati, from The Huffington Post CEO Betsy Morgan to The New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., to Aaron Koblin, the Google Creative Labs designer who worked on the video for Radiohead's "House of Cards."

In the afternoon, the attendees--mostly from media and digital advertising companies, or "digital strategies" types from entertainment and fashion--were encouraged to network, mingle, and spend time at the beach before the conference reconvened for evening activities. Those included cocktail receptions, dinners, or on Thursday, a heated geek-culture trivia competition. (Sample questions: name the five noble gases, name Pitchfork Media's top band of the 1990s, name the most-viewed video on YouTube.)

People at WebbyConnect were not oblivious to the image issues. "I feel like we'll be seen as the next Camp Cyprus," said one conference-goer, who works for a digital marketing agency in New York. He was referring to the recent gathering of spry young dot-commers (many of whom work at Facebook) on vacation in Turkish Cyprus, who demonstrated an extraordinary amount of pluck but a mild case of bad timing when they posted to the Web a video of them dancing and lip-synching to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the global financial markets were in crisis mode. The media gossip press went ballistic.

But the same attendee who brought up "Camp Cyprus" insisted that under the surface, the only similarities between WebbyConnect and the goofball geek vacation were the ocean views and the after-hours parties (which, truth be told, did get fairly Spring Break-worthy among a few of WebbyConnect's younger attendees, who caroused into the early morning hours in Webby President Rodger Berman's deluxe suite.) Though WebbyConnect is only in its second year, people who go have already come to expect an exciting conversation, fresh ideas, and a chance to connect with smart people--on the beach.

"When I go to conferences I just can't do a whole day of panels," Webby Awards executive director and conference organizer David-Michel Davies said in an interview with CNET News, sitting in a beach chair and watching the dozens of surfers in the water. He added that WebbyConnect, planned months before the financial crisis took root, did not see cancellations or cutbacks after Wall Street's woes began to hit the media and tech industries.

WebbyConnect is consciously highbrow, carefully avoiding anything too corporate. At a pre-dinner reception at the resort's Dana Point Lawn, as bartenders poured California wine and waiters passed around canapes like truffled chicken on endive lettuce, a Webbys representative explained to me that the conference was designed as a civilized alternative to the brashness of large-scale tech and media expositions, where business cards are passed around like currency and the magic word is invariably "monetize." That, she said, gets in the way of ideas and discussion. "Every panel's discreetly about making money," the Webbys employee told me, "but we purposely don't use the word 'monetize' or anything like it."

Anecdotally, there were signs that the retreat-y vibe of WebbyConnect was working. On the beach on Wednesday afternoon, a marketing director for an online video production company giddily announced to one of her colleagues that she'd met some of the digital-strategies representatives from big fashion brands and that they were interested in hearing about sponsorship and advertising possibilities. A few yards away, two start-up founders in sunglasses and swim trunks were debating whether it was more cost-effective to hire an external public relations firm or to employ someone in-house.

It was impossible to find anyone at WebbyConnect who didn't sing the event's praises. "This was the most productive conference I went to last year. I met more people and sold more work than at any other conference," said Rick Webb, co-founder of Internet marketing firm The Barbarian Group, which sponsored this year's WebbyConnect. "I'm coming for life, man."

At traditional conferences, "the speakers come, they talk, they promote their thing, they leave," David-Michel Davies said. "Coming here, people don't want to leave. It's a much deeper sort of conversation than you would have otherwise."

Davies continued: "I'd rather have the room be really full, and have people really interested, than have people just getting conference fatigue." His logic: in tough times, people will be more likely to pay $2,000 for a high-quality experience than $750 or $1,000 for a crowded expo that will be more hit-or-miss.

The tough question is whether by this time next year the recession will mean they choose not to pay for either, or whether a lack of sponsorship dollars will preempt or tone down many industry conferences in the first place.

"I think some conferences will disappear, and some conferences will totally thrive," said Betsy Morgan, CEO of liberal news site Huffington Post and one of the WebbyConnect speakers, "and you're going to be much more discriminating as an executive or manager who decides who in your company goes to conferences."

But Morgan said that for an industry like digital media, gathering and sharing ideas is particularly crucial. "I think the medium is still hugely evolving and we're still trying, whether you're a start-up company or a big media company, you're still trying to figure out how it's all going to work, and so actually gathering people to talk through that process, and see other businesses, and see how other people are doing it, is enormously valuable," she explained. "I just feel like it would be too depressing to go into 2009 saying the sky is falling on all fronts."

Sunset over the Pacific on Thursday night.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

Some people, however, would say that it is. Outside the stucco walls of the Ritz-Carlton, tech and media companies were laying off dozens of employees in order to get costs down, and stay in the business, and big tech companies like Yahoo, eBay and Xerox were announcing major layoffs.

So where does that leave the conference? This year's WebbyConnect was put together and paid for before Wall Street started to collapse, which won't be the case for next year's conference, or for the next Webby Awards early next summer for that matter. In 2003 and 2004, with the deep pockets that fund the lavish Webby Awards crippled by shrapnel from the dot-com bubble, the ceremony was canceled and replaced with an online awards presentation.

"Organizationally, I think we're much smarter and more professional than we used to be," said Davies, who was not in charge of the Webbys until 2005. But he wouldn't speculate too much about an uncertain future.

"We want to be reflective of what's going on," he mused, looking out at the ocean and a few WebbyConnect attendees who were trying to surf, their heads bobbing above waves that quickly flipped them back underwater. "We'll see where we are at that time."

Glam Media, that digital-ad company that keeps expanding beyond its original base of celebrity gossip and fashion, has launched a new section: Glam Luxury, targeting high-end brand enthusiasts and the ad dollars that love them.

At launch, the headlining advertiser is (you guessed it), Swarovski, the jewel manufacturer that spawned a zillion awful iPhone cases.

So far, there are 35 participating sites geared toward affluent audiences that have agreed to be part of Glam Luxury and run its ads in exchange for some perks, like syndication in a Glam e-newsletter and access to a revenue-sharing video platform. Among the third-party sites are BlackBook.com, Travels in Taste, and Luxique, as well as existing Glam participants such as Apartment Therapy and Refinery 29.

It might seem a little bit silly, even tasteless, to be launching a luxury brand ad network in the face of a serious economic crisis, but Glam's stance is that Glam Luxury should actually help. Pinpointing audiences still willing to splurge on jewelry, handbags, and vacations, the company said, will be financially efficient and ultimately help profits.

"Glam Luxury is more relevant for luxury marketers than ever before," Joe Lagani, Glam's vice president of brand sales, said in a release. "The words, images, and thoughts that surround a luxury brand must reflect the current times, with a speed and adaptability the high-end marketer requires. Glam Media provides marketers with the right audience, environment, and reach, and enough flexibility to change with marketplace dynamics."

But perhaps in a sign of economic belt tightening, Glam hasn't hired a new "editor" for Glam Luxury, as it has with new content areas launched in the recent past. Instead, Glam Living's editorial director, Erika Lenkert, will oversee Glam Luxury as well.

Since the new-media press has been gushing about e-newsletter start-ups for the past few hours, here's another tidbit: UrbanDaddy, a daily missive about luxury culture for the young and hedonistic, is set to announce its Miami regional edition, adding to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and a "Jetset" travel edition. (For the record, that's "daddy" as in "mack daddy," as this e-newsletter clearly has zilch to do with parenting.)

UrbanDaddy, which has about 315,000 subscribers and says it's doubling that year-over-year, is particularly notable for two quirky reasons: one, you have to be referred by a friend to join, which puts a choke on viral growth and keeps subscriber numbers on the low end, but gives it cachet. Two, it's a New York-based newsletter start-up that's never been affiliated with the Pilot Group--more unusual than you might think. That investment firm, headed by former MTV and AOL exec Bob Pittman, has quite the penchant for the newsletter niche: it took a majority stake in and then flipped Ideal Bite to Disney earlier this year, and reportedly has just sold DailyCandy to Comcast for $125 million.

It's likely that a sizeable portion of UrbanDaddy's readership can't actually afford the bottle-service nightclubs, private islands in the Baltic, and travel packages to eco-friendly Caribbean golf resorts that are detailed in its daily e-mails. But the company can score advertisements from high-end fashion and liquor brands that are within reach of the guys who want Ferraris, and that's what brings in the cash. (The site has not disclosed revenues.)

UrbanDaddy also operates a small men's fashion blog, Kempt.

The easiest way to describe Spire, a new community site that made its debut Monday, is as a more grown-up, cultured Yelp: the latter offers expert advice on the best dive bars in Brooklyn, whereas the former focuses on four-star restaurants and hotels across the river in Manhattan. Calling itself a "social resource," it's devoted to advice and recommendations on topics like luxury vacations and dining, high-end shopping, and spa getaways.

When you're signing up for Spire, you're asked to fill out a profile. The lowest option for the "age" field is "under 35," and for the "income" field it's "under $100K." That should fill you in on their target audience.

But unlike some of its luxury-lifestyle brethren (Asmallworld comes to mind) it's not invite-only and hence loses a bit of the prestige that some members (and advertisers) might crave. Yet Spire has launched with $9 million in venture funding, 60,000 beta users, and the acquisition of Suzanne's Files, a London-based editorial start-up that's perhaps best summed up as a DailyCandy for the jet set. The site clearly takes its "resource" role seriously.

Sites targeting high-income audiences have been talked up quite a bit because of a pretty simple fact: you can charge more for advertising. But Spire has other revenue plans as well: in September, it'll be launching an "Expert Connect" section for referring members to vacation rentals and other niche travel services, taking a commission in the process.

And early in 2009, Spire plans to launch its "Marketplace," a sort of high-end Craigslist, where you can find that sublet in London or yacht rental in St. Tropez without having to sift through all those "FREE COUCH! Only a few stains!" listings.

You'd think the parent company of $1,500 Louis Vuitton handbags would be able to tolerate a few fakes on eBay. Not so.

And a French court agreed on Monday, ordering the online auction giant to pay $61 million (38.6 million euros) to luxury goods powerhouse LVMH, according to Reuters. LVMH, along with other luxury-brand groups like Tiffany & Co. and Hermes, has claimed that eBay isn't strict enough about policing the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.

eBay promptly appealed the court decision, saying that LVMH was simply trying to crack down on competition; eBay makes money off any LVMH goods sold on its site, real or fake, whereas LVMH itself does not.

LVMH has an impressive portfolio containing a whole lot of brands that Kanye West has probably name-dropped in multiple songs, like Louis Vuitton, Acqua di Parma, Thomas Pink, Dior, Givenchy, Moet & Chandon, De Beers, and Marc Jacobs.

Monday's ruling encompassed a number of individual cases brought by LVMH brands like Dior Couture, Guerlain, Givenchy, and Kenzo. The 38.6 million euros awarded fell short of the 50 million euros that the luxury goods house had claimed in damages.

Love by Cartier, an ad campaign that's not exactly for the emo-teen demographic.

When you think about "bling" on MySpace, you probably think about glitter text on profiles, or maybe Swarovski-studded Sidekicks, not Cartier jewelry. But that hasn't stopped the legendary luxury brand from launching a promotional campaign on News Corp.'s social network.

Starting Thursday, Cartier began featuring branded pages for its "Love by Cartier" product line for MySpace's English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese sites. They'll be online for a year, and will feature new music from 12 artists, including Phoenix, Grand National, and Lou Reed.

Considering MySpace got its start as a hub for music lovers, the Love by Cartier campaign is appropriate in that respect. But considering MySpace is also best known as a youth site, the advertising of luxury brands seems out-of-place--you wouldn't think the audience would be there. Love by Cartier, after all, also has a campaign on the elite, invite-only social network Asmallworld, which has a jet-set user base that seems a much more appropriate target for a pricey jewelry brand.

But MySpace representatives say the site's image is a bit misleading, citing ComScore statistics that estimate a quarter of its traffic comes from households with annual incomes over $100,000. Scoring a brand partner like Cartier, they say, is indicative of its transformation from a social network to a global Web portal.

"Given MySpace's breadth, depth, and technology, we're able to function as a global social portal empowering brands to effectively reach audiences across our 29 localized communities," Travis Katz, managing director of MySpace's international division. "Cartier has been quick to embrace the opportunities presented by community, by offering all lovers of the brand exclusive and innovative content."

But don't think that MySpace has gotten an Eliza Doolittle-esque makeover. The newly redesigned home page on Thursday afternoon was branded with a campaign for the Pixar robot adventure movie Wall-E.

If you read that chick-lit classic Bergdorf Blondes (I'm proud to admit that I did), you'll probably recall the scene in which the shopaholic female protagonists hold a military-style planning session in advance of the legendary Chanel sample sale--a chance for them to snag the high-end designer goods at staggering discounts, the only caveat being that hundreds of other viciously competitive Manhattan women were also hoping to get their hands on the same stuff.

It was only a matter of time before that sort of upper-crust cutthroat shopping hit the Web.

Enter Ideeli (pronounced "ideally"), which debuted Monday after several months of soft-launch. Described as a "red-rope online shopping community," Ideeli is an invite-only site that hosts high-speed sales of luxury goods (so far, just accessories) at 50 to 90 percent discounts and keeps its members in the loop through e-mail and mobile alerts to let them know when a sale has started.

Quantities are limited and can sell out within minutes--if this sounds familiar, it's because it's a model pioneered by rapid-fire sale sites like Woot.com, which has built up an enviable cult following, and the girlier Delight.com.

But as the luxury market warms up to the Web, the Woot model is being applied to sites that are more Sex and the City than Star Trek. Following in the vein of "velvet rope" social networks like ASmallWorld (for the jet set) and Metrofunk (for the club set), Ideeli and similar sites like Gilt Groupe (which hosts high-end online sample sales), are invite-only.

Ideeli has some twists thrown in the mix, too. The site offers a paid "first row" membership ($7.99 per month) that enables mobile alerts and also allows for an hour of early access to sales.

It's obviously not for everyone. Even considering the discounted prices, these are still luxury goods, and hence typically cost a few hundred dollars at the minimum. Some pragmatic shopaholics aren't willing to plunk down that kind of cash without seeing the item in person, or with that kind of impulse-buying required. But some money types are banking on success: Ideeli announced Monday that it has secured $3.8 million in capital from Kodiak Ventures and a handful of angel investors.

Snobbish? Totally. But so are Apple fanboys, for the record. We also happen to have Ideeli invites available for readers: go to ideeli.com and use "cnet" as your invitation code.

(Credit: twentyfour)

The coolest after-dark attractions just have to be across the pond, don't they? I'm drooling over screenshots of Twentyfour, which looks pretty darn awesome (though who knows what the crowd's like). With over a thousand LED color combinations available, this is one place where the decor won't get boring--and did I mention the walls are actually projection screens?

The video walls kind of remind me of the Nokia flagship store in Manhattan, but from what it sounds like, they're a lot more functional. Bar patrons can control, or even contribute their own scenery somehow--I should point out that this could get bad if alcohol's involved, you know, "You bloody wanker, why did you put the rainforest scene up there again?" Some of the projections are even interactive, responding in one way or another if you touch them or hold your drink up to them ("Ooh, the fish swim toward my martini!")

(Credit: twentyfour)

Here's the part I like the most--lay a hand on the bar, and it'll alert the bartender that you need another drink. Those of us used to crowded urban nightspots where it can take a full ten minutes for the bartender to even notice your existence can attest to the gravity of this breakthrough.

More photos at Geeksugar.

(Credit: Londonist)

Generally, when we hear about London nightclubs stateside, it's because Prince Harry was spotted dancing on a table in a sarong or because some flashy playboy racked up a ridiculous tab. This time, however, it's a little bit different. The Camden Town boite Koko has introduced a new high-tech system to keep tabs on partygoers who leave the club for smoke breaks. Upon leaving the establishment, their fingerprints are scanned; they're then allowed seven minutes to enjoy their cigs, and then afterward must re-enter by re-scanning. Makes the bouncer's job a whole lot easier, I'm sure.

Those Brits sure do come up with some innovative nightlife tech.

I'm not a smoker, but I'm familiar with the need to briefly leave a noisy nightclub in order to make a cell phone call and then attempt to regain access without waiting in line all over again, and I think fingerprint scanners show promise. Londonist thinks it's a tad "unnecessarily draconian," but if it replaces those impossible-to-wash-off hand stamps, I'll take it.

Nothing like walking into a Friday morning meeting with the remnants of a "21+ OPEN BAR THURSDAYS" streak on your hand. Let's just say it's not exactly the best way to express to your boss that you might be a little bit out of it that day.

(Londonist via PSFK)