Ingenuity Party (okay, clearly not the most exciting title on the planet)

I seem to be writing about my social life a little more than my fashion life lately. I’ve had some interesting stuff going on – I guess it's hard to separate the social life from business right now. They seem to be one in the same.

I was so busy on Thursday that I only ate a box of raisins – all day. Then I drank a bunch of margaritas at the Ingenuity party – clearly not a good idea.

I had a three hour meeting which turned from doing some branding work into acting as a business consultant in negotiations with a billion-dollar comapny. More on that later, but suffice to say that it is a BIG deal and there are many doors that can be opened through this opportunity. Yay me.

I had to rush off to the Ingenuity kickoff party at Fat Fish Blue. Sorry, it was an Ingenuity/Tech Czar party. Gotta give credit to the Czar - the guy can attract a crowd.

It was a terrific event. I was able to meet a lot of tremendous people.

I met Dan and Katrina Lallo. Dan’s older sister Melanie and brother-in-law Dave went to John Carroll with me. I knew that Dan and Katrina were recently married because of the pictures I receive regularly of Dave & Mel’s daughter Rowan (who shares my August 7th b-day - she's going to be 1 in a couple of weeks. And I will be.....?). I got to see several pictures from the wedding with the Rowan pics so I recognized "Aunt" Katrina. How funny.

Dan has a new job and is new to the world of networking so I was glad to be able to introduce him to people. Hey, that’s my job and I do it well :)

I met Peter Chakerian from Cool Cleveland. Finally I could put a face with the name. We’ve been trying to connect for my CC interview for months - literally. Finally, maybe – just maybe – we’ll do that interview this coming Tuesday. Let’s hope.

Saw the Czar, looking bureaucratic and GQ as always. At least someone in this town has good taste....besides me!! I saw George from Brewed Fresh Daily (hey, George! I’m blogging...look!!!), I finally met the man himself, Thomas Mulready, founder of Cool Cleveland and co-founder of Ingenuity. I’ve been seeing a lot of Jeff Friedman of Webtego lately. Last night he was without his wife Joelle. She is a life coach and one of the coolest and most centered people I have ever met. The life coach thing fascinates me, but that is an entirely other blog. I saw Brad Kleinman, who happens to be one of my Monday meetings this week. Brad is fascinated by robots. Apparently I missed the robots walking down Prospect. I got to see the robot video recap on Brad’s phone. Yes, Brad, fascinating……

Got to hang with my friend Michelle White-Grady as well as Patrick Manfroni.

(L-R) Brad Kleinman, me, Patrick Manfroni

All in all, it was a fun time and I’m really looking forward to the festival this weekend.

I had to be in Midtown the next morning for a Midtown Mornings meeting at Nead Brand Partners. Once again, I saw Jeff Friedman, this time with Joelle. I was specifically there to meet with Mark Nead about ways we can work together. They have a lot going on and I do as well, so it will be beneficial to bring some of the things we’re doing together. I’m very excited to see what happens.