Dot-com party madness

Clearly, it hasn't always been this way. Historically, companies may have treated their employees and clients to dinner, golf and other perks, but never have they included such a broad public -- footing the bill for people with whom they have little or no relationship. Executives pampered themselves, says Koehn, the Harvard Business School professor, creating elite networking groups like the Lunar Society of 18th century industrial Britain, or the Duquesne Club, a fraternity of Pittsburgh barons.

Even the most recent boom, the go-go '80s, didn't include the same garish outlays of cash. The Gordon Geckos of the world may have spent time at the Racquet Club or the Metropolitan, and it wasn't uncommon to find SoHo restaurants jammed with loudmouthed young brokers whose companies entertained them with elegant entrees and shots of tequila. But Wall Street never thought to invite half of Manhattan.

And until recently, no one in the Bay Area would have thought of it either. Before the big money rolled in, companies tended to sponsor little more than the annual Christmas party and young people went to nightclubs, not networking events. Tech types who wanted to meet up with their peers went to industry conferences like Comdex or PC Forum. Of course, there were corporate parties before the Internet gold rush, but Keenan, a 10-year veteran of the party-planning industry, says they took place half as often as today, cost one-third (or less) of today's events and usually entertained fewer than 150 people -- people who might have a direct effect on company business. The parties of the past tended to "err on the conservative or upscale side," says Susie Marino, founder of Marino & Associates, a public relations and marketing firm. There were more prawns and jazz trios, she says -- fewer DJs and flashing lights.

Still, people like Muoto, Marino and others did find them useful, downright important. They went to every one, even started lists to keep friends and contacts apprised of the meeting-and-greeting opportunities.

"Three years ago, industry events weren't prolific like now, and with so few events it was important to be there for networking purposes and to talk shop in a more relaxed environment," Marino says. "I wanted my friends to have this opportunity and thought it was worthwhile."

The worth started to wane when dot-com stocks started to boom, making lavish launch parties as common as nonsensical domain names and quick IPOs. There was no seminal event, no single outlandish kickoff that launched the trend, but by early 1999, the pace had clearly quickened. Party planners like Keenan were suddenly doing as much business with dot-coms as with larger established clients like Oracle or Microsoft. By the fall, venues like Mercury and Club NV, two nightclubs in San Francisco's South of Market District, were getting daily calls from dot-coms, all looking for room to host a party. Mercury shut down a month ago because of a dispute with its landlord, but other locations remain busy. The Bubble Lounge, in San Francisco's Financial District, books as many as three parties a night in its different party rooms. Foreign Cinema, a hip restaurant in the Mission District that shows international films outdoors for patio diners, instituted a policy of not hosting a party for less than $30,000 -- but that didn't deter the flashy dot-coms.

"The parties have really accelerated far beyond what they were," says Michael Whalen, director of sales for Club NV and three other venues in San Francisco. "My business has doubled or tripled. Now, we have a dot-com party here just about every night of the week except weekends."

It's become a whirlwind, says Hillary Adams, events manager for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Of the museum's 105 functions last year, 38 were paid for by Web companies, among them Guru.com, SmartAge.com, Xoom.com, WholealePortal.com, GoToMyDoc.com and Epiphany.com. Keeping track of each one has proven virtually impossible. "It's unbelievable," Adams says. "I used to have a pretty good handle of the corporate business, but now with every other event I'm forced to ask who are they and what they do."

The more, the merrier

Not every company goes over the top; there are still some small gatherings. But each night seems to have its hot spot, the place with lines outside the door. Last Thursday, the busiest night of the dot-com party week, it was Napster, the maker of the controversial MP3-swapping software and defendant in several lawsuits; the week before that it was Luminant, an e-business solutions company that has 18 employees in San Francisco but entertained 800 guests.

One reason for the crowds is that it's easier to get in than ever before. When parties were rare, Marino and others say, companies screened guests. But these days at the average dot-com party, many of the folks wolfing down canapes and sloshing their drinks never even got an invite. Often, no one checks to see if you're on the guest list.

If they do, "Just say you're from a magazine who they really want there, like the Industry Standard, and they'll let you in," says Mark Sikes, an editor at PC World and regular partygoer. Other tricks include impersonating high-level executives with their business cards, and claiming to be CEO of a nonexistent dot-com. Getting on the guest list isn't that hard anyway; most invitations are electronic, so invitees pass them on via e-mail or post them to Web sites and anyone can RSVP.

There's a whole bevy of party sites that offer lists of high-tech events and "mixers." Muoto and Marino, who've run informal lists for years, have scaled back, but now there's YABA.net, the DrinkExchange, WorkIt and SFgirl.com -- which has over 2,000 members and offers party listings, party reviews and a bulletin board for messages. The A-List, run by Valerie Britt, a high-tech recruiter, has grown from 180 subscribers in 1998, when most of the listings related to charity, to 8,000 subscribers. Crolick used it to find the Digital Island and Beenz.com parties.

A lot of companies know that their parties are swollen with guests they didn't invite, but no one seems to mind. Digital Island, Beenz.com and Luminant all raved about how their guest lists grew, doubled, even tripled after the invites went out. "We sent out 300 invites and had interest from over 1,000," gushed Jennifer Keller, director of public relations for Luminant's Seattle office.

Interested, yes, but in what? Not necessarily the company. Of the 100 or so people I've talked to at parties in the past month -- hosted by Digital Island, Beenz.com, Salesforce.com, Business 2.0, Military.com, Luminant, WiredPlanet, Napster and others -- the vast majority didn't show much interest in who was footing the bill.

"I've heard of Napster," said Suzannah Saidy, a merchandising assistant for the Gap, who was at last week's Napster affair at the Bubble Lounge. "To be honest, I'm here to meet people and have a good time."

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