John Fischer's Philadelphia
Vol. 1 - Number 38 - 08/23/99
Far too often we get stuck in our insular existence that we don't realize some of the amazing things that are right there in front of us.
Over the weekend I attended an About.com Guide gathering in Tarrytown, New York. Approximately fifty About.com Guides who reside in the Northeast as well as a large number of New York staff, attended. To quote the weather report, it was raw with heavy rain which forced the cancellation of outdoor recreational activities which probably was not a bad thing. Saturday afternoon's meetings were extended throughout the entire afternoon which enabled even more discussion groups and feedback sessions.
For me the most amazing part of the weekend, was the opportunity to meet so many other Guides for the first time and to renew a number of friendships from past trips to New York City.
I had a great conversation at dinner with our Harlem/Uptown Guide, Karen Nicolini who I learned is originally from the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. We discussed the common problems that we have in dealing with metropolitan areas where so many businesses do not yet have a web presence. I have noticed this with many businesses, schools, and community groups in West and North Philadelphia. Karen encounters the same problems in doing a site on Harlem and the New York City Uptown area.
Good friend, Kimberly Knox, our Guide to New England for Visitors as well as being our local Guide to Hartford, Connecticut hosted an after dinner gathering attended by several old friends and some new ones as well. Where else but at a gathering of About.com Guides could you have a party where one of the Internet's experts on wine, Lisa Shea, our About.com Guide to Wine, brings several bottles of local wines for tasting and our Guide to Magic and Illusion, Bryan Toder, who is also a professional magician, puts on a magic show?
Where else in one room could you meet experts in fields as diverse as our neighbor city to the south, Baltimore whose Guide Gloria Dasch was in attendance. Gloria is also our Guide to the daytime drama All My Children. Also at the party were Lee Seats, our amazing Guide to Freebies whose site is definitely one you should not miss.
Tiffany Refoir, our Guide to Vegetarian Cuisine was there. We had previously met at an investor and advertising reception in Soho last year. Our About.com Guide to Casino Gambling, Bill Burton stopped by. I'm sure that we'll all be needing his help when our Guides next gather together in Las Vegas this fall. It was also great to meet Nancy Martin our Guide to The Simpsons.
If you'd like to see some photos of the party, Lisa has put some photos on her personal web site.
The breadth and wealth of talent at About.com continues to amaze me, but no more than when I actually have an opportunity to meet my fellow Guides.
It was announced on Friday, that About.com is now the #1 News/Info/Entertainment site on the Web, ahead of MSNBC and ZDNET as measured by the July Media Metrix numbers. My weekend in Tarrytown showed me that this is no fluke.
I recommend that all of you take time to explore some of the other 700 or so Guide sites here at About.com. Why not start with some of the ones I've mentioned in today's column.
Well, that's my spin on things. I hope that you all had a great weekend. You can join me in our chat room almost every evening - Philly Chat - or drop me a note at philadelphia.guide@about.com. Also, be sure to check out our new Philadelphia Forum where you can share your comments and feelings, ask questions, post classifieds and much more
If you missed any of our recent columns you can still catch them:
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/09/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/12/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/13/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/16/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/18/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 08/20/99