Paul Kapustka's Blog
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August 16, 2006
Everyone's watching YouTube
It's not just us here at planet Pulver who think that Video on the Net is a big, big idea. At Tuesday's Digital Hollywood Building Blocks confab, the cool kid in school was YouTube's Chad Hurley, who probably sprained a wrist shaking hands and exchanging business cards with his post-appearance throng o' groupies.
I don't think the crowd who wanted a piece of Hurley were waiting to talk about the company's service outage problems, nor were they particularly interested in what the new media it-exec had to say during his panel (I missed all but the end, but according to always-observant blogger and longtime industry journalist Dan Farber, Hurley didn't drop any new-think bombshells).
Mainly, they just wanted to grab that ultimate Silicon Valley face-time opp, to pass a business card and to try to impress in 10 words or less. Before he was hustled out of the room, Hurley seemed genial, kind and generally engaged with his crush of admirers. And lest you think the interest is only from those wishing to ride the coattails of the smoking-hot YouTube, be assured that the mainstream is watching Hurley as well.
When the panelists were asked what keeps them awake at night or what worries them about their business, Joe Michaels from Microsoft's MSN Entertainment division won points for honesty by declaring his biggest worry as "two words: You Tube."
More later on a good panel about advertising at the mini-conference, and watch for tomorrow's VONosphere show where you can see the throngs pressing Hurley like he was another Hurley or something.
Posted by paul at August 16, 2006 09:29 AM