History

The History of the Social Media #Soiree

The Social Media #Soiree was created by Kay Ballard and Rebecca Regnier in response to their sincere wish to honor and celebrate the bold career success of their friend Deb Puchalla, who was leaving an executive editor’s position with Matha Stewart Omni Vision for a leadership position in new media with Scripps Publishing. Kay realized many of Deb’s friends felt the same way that she did—that if they lived in the same city, they’d get together for a drink to celebrate. But since Deb’s online friends lived literally in every corner of the world, a big online party was the next best thing—or maybe even the best next thing.

When Kay told Rebecca her idea for a party by webcast, Rebecca immediately signed on to co-host. And it was Rebecca who came up with the swanky #Soiree name and the idea to simultaneously host a Twitter live stream hashtag party.

But in the end, the reason the #Soiree happened and the person who made it happen were one and the same—Deb Puchalla herself. She graciously consented to being honored, with the enthusiastic statement, “Why not? Eveyone loves a celebration! I will be your Party Girl 2.0!”

And so, the Social Media #Soiree for the Fabulous Deb Puchalla was held on Sunday evening, March 22, 2009. Kay and Rebecca were the hosts, Deb the guest of honor, and Margaret Roach, Laura Fitton and Wendy Piersoll were guests. Several of Deb’s celebrity foodie friends were also on hand via pre-recorded audio messages. The live webcast was attended by several hundred partygoers and the webcast replay by several hundred more. And the live Twitter stream hashtag party made #Soiree the trending topic on Twitter for over two hours.

Afterwards, Kay and Rebecca realized that while their collaboration on the #Soiree was spectacularly fun and successful, holding future #Soirees wasn’t necessarily in line with Rebecca’s career interests. Rebecca, after all, was, and is, poised to become thenationally known diet humorist. So Rebecca stepped aside, and Kay embraced the opportunity to bring her new vision of the Social Media #Soiree to the future.