If you thought this was the title to my new Italian mobster flick that I'm directing, you'd be wrong. It actually were some keywords from a fantastic day I got to spend in Boston's North End on Tuesday. Social media is all the rage today, and if you ever thought it kept people from "real" interaction, you'll see that this event is far from that.
Giovanni Decunto and Blanco teamed up to bring a local group of designers who are active on social media together for a great night of networking.
We started out at dinner, at Ristorante Villa Francesca for some fantastic wine, mussels and dinner.
After dinner, Christy Emens from Blanco told us about some great new faucets and sinks from Blanco. In addition, we learned about Blanco history. Blanco is a very old German company that has a history of designing and manufacturing it's products in Germany. They take great pride in the quality of their products. As a kitchen designer, I've always regarded Blanco's quality a lot higher than most, but I never realized that they had the great manufacturing pedigree that they do!
Next it was over to the artist gallery of Giovanni Decunto. His paintings were described to be before we got there, and I'd share that description with you, but it would really do it no justice. These paintings were layered in a way that I'd never seen. Some of the paintings, by my guess had 1/4" of paint on them! This gave them a really amazing texture and depth that just doesn't translate to pictures.
This picture of Steve Jobs was about 8 foot square, and featured glow-in-the-dark paint. I would have bought it, something seemed wrong about carting a painting that was worth twice as much as the car it was riding in...
It wasn't just the food, wine, steel and art that made this a great evening, it was meeting all these like minded folks who have been brought together by social media. Had it not been for Twitter and Facebook, I never would have met these people. Because of social media we were all able to not only expand our connections, but our knowledge.
This night wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and support from Blanco, Chirsty Emens, Andie Day, Todd Venditouli, & Giovanno Decunto, and for that I like to thank them! These events are hard to put together, and even harder to make successful. I've been to a fair amount of these types of gatherings, and my experienced opinion says it was quite the success!
If you'd like to follow more about this event, search for #InStyleTour on Twitter!