In a KEYE-TV Austin evening news segment, reporter Mark Johnson covers the informal networking event "Cocktails with Courtney" held during South by Southwest Interactive in 2000. The segment introduces the event as a low‑key gathering designed to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, and industry movers. Startup founder Lane Becker, whose company Deep Leap focuses on internet products, appears on camera describing his need for exposure, investors, and guidance as a first‑time businessman. Courtney Pulitzer, the event host, explains that the gathering often results in deals being signed, checks exchanged, or new partnerships formed on the spot. Johnson emphasizes the value of a real handshake in the otherwise sterile online world, positioning the event as a potential "networking jackpot" for emerging media entrepreneurs.
Chapters
Employees, George Costanza's handicapped bathroom on the 16th floor is now open to all.
Southwest can really make the difference.
Here at the Paramount, the South by Southwest Film Festival continues to roll on, but Monday night was also important for South by Southwest Interactive, a more casual setting and an opportunity to meet, greet, and and hopefully seal the deal.
I'll take anything I can get right now.
Lane Becker isn't shy about needing attention. His new internet startup company called Deep Leap needs investors and exposure.
Well, the thing is, like, my background is product design. Who have I gotta write to? What have I gotta talk to? Being a businessman, that's relatively new.
Becker is learning the ropes as he goes along, and Monday night he and other new media entrepreneurs may have hit the networking jackpot.
You know, everywhere you go, whoever you're talking to, that sort of determines the next step.
It's called Cocktails with Courtney, a low-key event that's designed to draw the movers and shakers together.
People have come here and sort of signed the deal with their venture capitalist, or have come with the check in hand, or people who have left sort of arm in arm with their new business partner.
It's a place where the next big idea website you'll visit may take hold.
What will this person want to see next? You know, what can I send them? What can I give them that's going to make them want to, you know, keep interacting with me? How can I impress them?
Oh, hey, good to meet you. That's proof that proof that in the sometimes technical and all too often sterile world of the internet, a real handshake can pay off. Mark Johnson, KIWT News.
Alright, now the South by Southwest Interactive Festival wraps up tomorrow. The film festival runs through the 18th, and don't forget, the musical side of South by Southwest fires up this Wednesday.
