by Rachel Sklar via Nokia Technology
ETP had the pleasure of dropping in briefly at the New Yorker Conference yesterday, and while we wouldn't say we got our $1,200 worth — kidding, we were there as a "Guest" — we did enjoy strolling around the spiffy new IAC headquarters on West 18th St. (pictured) and quaffing some sparkling grapefruit juice (elswhere we would have just been slugging it back, but there we were quaffing it, because it was a very rarefied crowd). While we weren't there long enough to learn what the future holds, we were there long enough to observe the crowd milling around between presentations, and here's an irony: It was thronging with women. Women, women everywhere (especially in line for the ladies' room!), excited participants in the day's (and, presumably, weekend's) events, in numbers at least as great as men if not greater (woo hoo, a whole harem for Malcolm Gladwell!).*
For those of you unacquainted with the backstory, ETP wrote disapprovingly last month of the New Yorker Conference's slate of speakers, which was erudite and impressive but also happened to be comprised of over 80% men. That seemed a rather lopsided view of "the minds that will make a difference in the coming years," we thought. In the interim, they added another mind, a difference-maker and a 
woman — our boss, Arianna Huffington, who joined panelists like Barry Diller, David Byrne, Craig Newmark, Sims creator Will Wright, Newark mayor Cory Booker, Pritzker Prize-winner Zaha Hadid, Katrina development pioneer Marianne Cusato, plus Larissa MacFarquhar, Susan Morrison, Judith Thurman, David Remnick, the aforementioned Gladwell, James Suriowiecki, Ken Auletta, Bill Buford, and Jeffrey Toobin (plus Toronto singer Isaa, who counts as both a woman and a Canadian). We're not sure who else was added — the numbers don't seem that swelled, but then again, we can't count — but we were glad to see that the New Yorker is slavishly reading ETP.
Anyhow, we just found it interesting that so many women were in attendance, and noticeably so (noticeably insofar as we noticed ourselves noticing). Perhaps this is a great first step towards women learning enough about what the future holds to someday be consulted in equal numbers on what that might be! Or perhaps they were seduced by the delicious little strawberry-glazed cookies they served at the afternoon recess. Damn, those things were tasty.
In between prowling around assessing the ratio of women to men (joking! We leave that to the experts, like WomenTK), we enjoyed saying hello to Craig Newmark, who was punching away at some sort of doo-hicky Sidekick-type thing (it was black and shiny**); Jeff Toobin, who spoke with excitement about making TVNewser (and whose upcoming book, The Nine: Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court sounds just as exciting, though you just know the WaPo review by Bob Woodward will have some sort of disclaimer about how he was secretly behind the Roberts nomination and probably could have written the book better himself if he weren't so gosh-darn busy having access to everybody important). Alas, 
our cabbie decided to take the scenic route in from the airport so we missed Arianna's panel (the coolest-sounding one: Web 2012 with Barry Diller and Craig Newmark, moderated by Ken Auletta; luckily, Staci Kramer — whom we met and enjoyed speaking with very much — wrote it up for paidContent here). We did, however, catch a bit of David Remnick interviewing Cory Booker, conveniently beamed out to non-sitting audience members in the airy front foyer of the IAC building — the pic above is of the presentation space; we found out after that we actually weren't supposed to be taking photos — even with cameraphones — nor was live-blogging from the event permitted. Nor, apparently, were questions from the audience permitted. However, everyone was invited to accost speakers after in the atrium, which they cheerfully did.
The other fun thing about the conference was the Microsoft lounge area, be-couched and be-X-Boxed for the comfort and enjoyment of the crowd (this was nearby to the bank of laptops for conference-goer use, itself always well-attended). The friendly staffers there showed me their Zunes, and demonstrated how one Zune can connect to another Zune wirelessly and send music files back and forth. Fun! There was a bowl filled with business cards for some fun giveaways, including Zunes and the latest version of X-Box, plus some other products including a t-shirt emblazoned with the word "geek." That was a badge of honor, considering the people dropping by: Craig Newmark, Sims creator Wright, hotshot game developer Eric Peterson (president and co-founder of Vicious Cycle Software, Inc. developer of games like "Robotech: Battlecry" and "Spy vs. Spy"), and special-effects wizard Dennis Muren of ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) whose credits include Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and — wait for it — Star Wars. Geek, wear thy mantle with pride.
There was a cocktail party later followed by a fancy dinner at Milk Studios that evening but we did not attend those, instead scooping up a few more cookies on our way out (but completely forgetting to palm a few gratis New Yorkers in ready supply — a double issue too! Sigh). We look forward to next year, when we can look back and see if the future actually happened.
*This is not to suggest that Malcolm Gladwell actually had a harem, or sought a harem, or that at any time the throngs of people surrounding him seemed in danger of tipping into a harem. But, if he'd wanted to, he probably could have gotten a few dates.
**Newmark was using an Oqo Model 2 which reminds us of our favorite Family Ties quote ever.
