Internet Week 2010: Selected Highlights

Internet Week 2010 is now over; however, the ideas and visions that are to come from the gathering of Internet industry professionals, content providers and online technology giants will be forthcoming. The festival which featured well over 200 events at Internet Week's headquarters and around New York City, June 7th through June 14th, 2010 provided the first showcase for the east coast's thriving online industry and community.

If there are any happenings from the get together to make news, parties would most certainly make the top of the list. A seemingly uncountable number of launch and sponsored parties that featured entertainment, name dropping, and of course product awareness occurred throughout the week. Of note, on June 8th, software giant Microsoft held a party to celebrate the launch of their 4th generation web development kit, Expression Studio 4. The software, which is intended to be a complete online development and creation solution, features technologies for web page coding, art work, and video encoding. Historically the suite has been a tough sell for Microsoft as it directly competes with the very popular Adobe CS suite of products.

The growing popularity of digital based entertainment such as shorts, productions, and series, have proven to be as entertaining as traditional television programming. IAC and CollegeHumor made news as a launch party to celebrate DumbDumb, a digital production company lead by comedians Will Arnett and Jason Bateman took place.

On a more serious note, there were plenty of meetings, presentations, and panel discussions. The Digital Media Summit took place during the week, with media giants, publishers, content providers, and more. Of interest from the summit: The future and direction of online content. Presentation and discussion topics from panel experts included eCommerce 2.0, and how Social Evolution is Spawning New Models. The Social Internet defines the modern Internet as we know it, and the social direction of related theories and technologies were up for discussion at a number of venues. On Friday June 11th, leaders in the digital forum discussed "How Social Media Marketing is Driving Business Results."

The Webby awards also took place during Internet Week. The awards ceremony which began during the Internet's public infancy in 1996 was held once again on June 14th, hosted by B.J. Novak (NBC's "The Office"). The star-studded event featured entertainment and some of the year's award winners included Zach Galifianakis (Best Actor), Ok GO! (Video Artist of the Year), Roger Ebert (Person of the Year), Andrey Ternovskiy (Breakout of the Year - chatroulette.com). A Lifetime Achievement award was given to Vinton Cerf, co-creator of the Internet.

Other featured happenings included Twtrcon, a discussion of Twitter's business use featuring Martha Stewart, foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, and Google's Dylan Casey. Mashable and CNN co presented a one-day conference that focused on the impact that social media has on the news industry, big brands and advertisers. Yahoo!'s Provoke Summit brought together a variety of professionals to discuss the trends and usage of new online technologies, and Time Warner Inc. hosted a breakfast panel discussion focused on the future of tablet technologies and content providing.

The most important message to perhaps come from the recent gathering wasn't, however, focused on any one particular technology or online strategy. More so, Internet Week 2010 has been rightfully proclaimed and idealized as the rise of New York as a technology capital, particularly in the growing digital space.

Resources:

For more information, including a viewable schedule of the events that took place, press releases, videos, and more, be sure to visit Internet Week 2010's official website.

For more information on the Webby Awards visit the Webby Awards website, or watch on Youtube.