Pub Club "Mixer" for Press and PR at Fenway Park

The Publicity Club of New England had a nice event last night, inviting the PR folks who make up the club and a group of local media from the business and trade press, to attend a networking event at Fenway Park followed by a Red Sox game. 

There were 110 people total who piled into the Players Club, one of the event rooms.  I was standing at the bar waiting for my drink when one of the attendees ran up to me and handed me her cell phone, demanding, "Tell him where I am!"  I said to the unknown person on the phone, "Fenway Park."  She persisted, "Tell him where at Fenway Park."  I summoned the name of the event room, which is very nice, but probably isn't where Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon hang out, for my silent phone pal:  "The Players Club."  She wandered off, trilling how exciting it was to be there.

I shouldn't be so smug about it.  Getting into Fenway Park these days is not easy.  Tickets are scarce and usually expensive.  So the Pub Club did a great thing by making this game available, including a buffet and drink tickets.  I would bet many of the people attending haven't been to Fenway before.  Some brought family members, including some very excited kids who were set to see their heroes.

It was nice to catch up with some of the press who attended -- Barb Darrow of TechTarget, Martin LaMonica of CNET, Rick Whiting of VARBusiness, Eric Lundquist of eWEEK, and Scott Bradner of Network World.  With both my PR industry colleagues and the media, there was a constant sharing of data regarding the "r" word.  Although many of the publications are contracting or reorganizing these days, the general tone of the PR people assembled was positive and business seems to be good. 

I also took the opportunity to ask around about the use of Twitter.  Martin LaMonica is registered for Twitter, but isn't using it a lot.  Dan Farber, his boss, really only "Tweets" when he has a particularly interesting tidbit or link to share.  I can relate to that approach to this new tool.  Eric Lundquist seems to be still in the mode of finding it amusing.  Eric is hilarious, so he can make anything sound funny.

There also were representatives from People magazine, the Today Show and Popular Mechanics, in addition to local daily reporters from the Boston Herald and Boston Globe.  It just shows how much of a media center Boston has become in recent years, which is great to see.

All in all, it was a good night except for the 3-0 win for the Blue Jays.