by Brian Solis

The conference circuit is abuzz this time around with the latest addition to the lineup. But, before you hit your head and say, “NOT ANOTHER CONFERENCE PLEASE,” don’t worry, you’re not invited.

The Lobby, dubbed a new media salon, is currently underway in Hawaii and it boasts some of the most powerful, influential, and visionary people from a variety, but intertwined, industries – with an emphaisis Web 2.0.

Organized by August Capital’s David Hornik, the pseudo conference/schmooze fest takes place, of all places, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Lobby, in a sense, has built a conference around lobbycon, the valuable conversations and newly forged relationships that take place in the hallways outside of any given conference. Over the years, lobbycon as evolved to become its own mashup that combines the official attendees of any given conference with those who simply show up to be part of the action without paying (or being invited) to participate. It is the lobby, however, where the deals are made.

This year’s Web 2.0 Summit demonstrated the incredible volume, allure, and velocity of lobbycon, creating an almost mob-like crowd that spilled into every corner of the Palace hotel including nearby bars and restaurants. It was something truly unique to witness.

Here’s the official conference description:

Why do you attend conferences? Is it to learn about industry trends or hear keynote speakers or watch powerpoint presentations? Or do you attend conferences to spend time in the lobby? In a great conference, the conversation in the lobby is the content. The Lobby aims to turn the traditional conference on its head. There will be no panels, no keynotes, no distractions from the real task at hand – engaging in meaningful conversation and building deeper relationships with other thought-leaders in the new media universe. For two and a half days, the individuals driving innovation and strategic development throughout the online media world will gather for an extended conversation.

Kara Swisher, who seems to be everywhere these days, described her initial experience this way:

So what was the talk last night at the opening cocktail party? The Facebook deal, of course, with most people being alternately incredulous, dubious and in awe of the $15 billion valuation that Mark Zuckerberg snagged from Microsoft.

In general, people were worried about the impact on their own companies, most agreeing that it would make the bubble even more bubblicious and that it marked the return of that frothy but queasy feeling of the first Internet bubble when AOL somehow managed to grab Time Warner in a deal that, as it turned out, will now live in infamy.

Honestly, I would truly have enjoyed participating at The Lobby, and no, not just because it’s in Hawaii, well maybe just a little bit. I believe the future of online media shouldn’t be dictated by only industry players, movers, and shakers. It needs different voices, congressmen if you will, to represent citizen journalists and consumers who are equally qualified to contribute to its direction.

So, who was invited? The list is below, courtesy of Valleywag:

Brian Solis, bub.blicio.us, PR 2.0 (OK, not really, but maybe next year)
Frank Addante, CEO, the Rubicon Project
Jay Adelson, CEO, Digg
J Allard, VP, Microsoft
Dave Alles, Media Center Extender team, Microsoft
Dr. Phillip Alvelda, Chairman and CEO, MobiTV
Chris Anderson, Editor In Chief, Wired Magazine
Marc Andreessen, Founder, Ning
Andrew Anker, SVP, Six Apart
Mike Arrington, Founder and Editor In Chief, TechCrunch
Adam Bain, EVP Technology, Fox Interactive Media
Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla
Jim Bankoff, Former EVP Product, AOL
Raanan Bar-Cohen, Director of Product Strategy, Dow Jones
Jeff Barr, Web Services Evangelist, Amazon
Peter Barrett, CTO, MSTV, Microsoft
John Battelle, CEO, FM Publishing
Joe Belfiore, Corporate VP, eHome Group, Microsoft
Chris Bell, Director of iTunes, Apple
Rob Bennett, GM, MSN Entertainment, Microsoft
Brad Berens, Editor, iMedia
Shana Berger, Founder, Readymade
Barak Berkowitz, CEO, Six Apart
Jeff Berman, SVP, MySpace (Fox)
Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon
Angela Biever, Vice President, Intel Capital
Jeff Blackburn, VP Worldwide Business Development, Amazon
Michael Bloom, VP, Digital Music, MTV Networks
Shelby Bonnie, Co-Founder, CNET
Steve Boom, SVP, Broadband & Mobile, Yahoo
Emmanuelle Borde, Vice President, Sony Pictures Digital
Danah Boyd, PhD Candidate, School of Information (SIMS) at Berkeley
Paul Bricault, SVP, William Morris Consultants
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology, Google
Don Buckley, SVP of Interactive Marketing, Warner Brothers
Michael Buhr, Sr. Director of Corporate Strategy, eBay
Brett Bullington, Board Member, Flickr, JotSpot, Oodle, Wink
Katie Burke Mitic, VP, Mareting and Operations, Skyrider
Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder, Flickr (Yahoo)
Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur in Action, Sequoia Capital
Garrett Camp, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
John Caplan, President, Ford Models
Sean Carey, EVP of Digital Distribution and Production Acquisition, Sony
David Carson, CEO, Heavy
Mike Cassidy, CEO, Xfire (Viacom)
Stan Chudnowski, CTO, Ooga Labs
Jeff Clavier, Founder, SoftTech VC
Betty Cohen, President and CEO, Lifetime Entertainment Services
June Cohen, Director of Media, TED Conference
Kevin Cohen, SVP, Strategic Planning, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Matt Cohler, VP Strategy and Business Operations, Facebook
Beth Comstock, President, Digital Media and Market Developement NBC Universal
Tony Conrad, CEO, Sphere
Tom Conrad, CTO, Pandora
Kevin Conroy, EVP of Product, Marketing and Distribution, AOL
Andrew Conru, Founder and CEO, Friend Finder Network
Ron Conway, Founder, Angel Investors
Toby Coppel, SVP Corporate Development, Yahoo
Dick Costolo, Co-Founder and CEO, Feedburner
Jonathan Coulton, Founder, JonathanCoulton.com
James Currier, CEO, Ooga Labs
Sky Dayton, CEO, Helio
Ethan Diamond, Co-Founder, Oddpost (Yahoo)
Craig Donato, Founder and CEO, Oodle
Rael Dornfest, Founder and CEO, Stikit
Lisa Ellis, EVP, Sony BMG
Tony Fadell, SVP, iPod Division, Apple
Caterina Fake, Co-Founder, Flickr (Yahoo)
Iggy Fanlo, CEO, AdBright
Josh Felser, Co-Founder and CEO, Grouper (Sony)
Shana Fisher, SVP of Strategy and M&A, Interactive Corp.
Erik Flannigan, VP of Programming, AOL
Jason Flom, Chairman and CEO, Virgin Records
Bill Flora, Designer, Zune, Microsoft
Tod Francis, General Partner, Shasta Ventures
Lisa Gansky, Co-Founder, Ofoto, GNN
Brad Garlinghouse, SVP, Yahoo
Dave Geary, SVP Business Development, BetZip
Bernard Gershon, SVP and General Manager, ABC News Digital Media
John Girard, CEO, Clickability
Steve Glenn, Founder and CEO, LivingHomes
Tom Glocer, CEO, Reuters
Shawn Gold, SVP, Marketing and Content, MySpace (Fox)
Seth Goldstein, Founder, AttentionSoft
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Martin Green, SVP, CNET
Jordan Greenhall, CEO, Divx
Joe Greenstein, CEO, Flixster
Jim Greer, Founder and CEO, Kongregate
Andre Haddad, SVP Product, eBay
Brad Handler, Co-Founder, Exclusive Resorts
Heather Harde, CEO, TechCrunch
Matt Haughey, Founder, MetaFilter
Rob Hayes, General Partner, First Round Capital
Marc Hedlund, Co-Founder, Wesabe
Scott Heiferman, CEO, Meetup
Jay Higginbotham, VP New Initiatives, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Brent Hoberman, Chairman and Chief Strategic Officer, Lastminute.com
Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn
Auren Hoffman, Founder and CEO, Rapleaf
James Hong, Founder, HotOrNot
Bradley Horowitz, VP Product Strategy, Yahoo
Arriana Huffington, CEO, Huffington Post
Chad Hurley, Co-Founder and CEO, YouTube (Google)
Joi Ito, Board Member, Mozilla, Creative Commons
Michael Jackson, President of Programming, Interactive Corp.
Mark Jacobsen, Managing General Partner, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures
Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings
James Joaquin, Venture Partner, Bridgescale
Rob Kalin, Founder and CEO, Etsy
Mitch Kapor, Chairman, Open Source Applications Foundation
Philip Kaplan, Founder, AdBright
Alex Kazim, SVP, Skype (eBay)
Patrick Keane, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, CBS Interactive
Kourosh Kharimkany, GM, Wired.com
Ben Kilgore, Xbox Live, Microsoft
Zach Klein, VP Development, CollegeHumor (IAC)
George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer, NBC Universal
Josh Kopelman, Managing Director, First Round Capital
Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot (Google)
Tariq Krim, Founder and CEO, Netvibes
Justin LaFrance, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
Roger Lang, CEO, TransAria
Jim Lanzone, CEO, Ask.com
Doug Leeds, VP Products, Ask.com
Max Levchin, Founder and CEO, Slide
Jordan Levin, Partner, Generate
Ross Levinsohn, Former President, Fox Interactive Media
Peter Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media
Ellen Levy, Director, MediaX (Stanford)
Jeremy Liew, General Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
John Lilly, COO, Mozilla
Jakob Lodwick, CTO, CollegeHumor (IAC)
Rob Lord, Founder and CEO, Songbird
Nancy Lublin, CEO, Do Something
Zander Lurie, SVP, Strategy and Development, CNET
Eric Lunt, Co-Founder and CTO, FeedBurner
Joel Makower, CEO, Green World Media
Om Malik, Founder and CEO, GigaOm
Mike Marquez, VP Corporate Development, CBS Interactive
Chris Maxcy, VP Business Development, YouTube (Google)
Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products and User Experience, Google
Ian McCarthy, VP Product Marketing, Orb Networks
Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks
Fred McIntyre, VP of Video Products, AOL
Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Vivek Mehra, General Partner, August Capital
Rick Mueller, President, LiveNation
Chris Michel, CEO, Affinity Labs
Jon Miller, Former CEO, AOL
Perkins Miller, SVP, NBC Universal
Louis Monier, Distinguished Engineer, Google
Bob Morgan, VP and GM, Shozu
Sean Moriarty, President and CEO, Ticketmaster
Steve Mosko, President, Sony Pictures Television
Walt Mossberg, Founder, D: All Things Digital
Rajeev Motwani, Professor, Stanford Universirty, Advisor, Google
Matt Mullenweg, Founder, Wordpress
Ashwin Navin, President and COO, BitTorrent
Steve Newhouse, Chairman, CondeNet
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craig’s List
Kent Nichols, Creator, Ask A Ninja
Martin Nisenholtz, SVP Digital Media, New York Times
Elliot Noss, CEO, Tuckows
Mathieu Nouzareth, CEO, Boonty
Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay
Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Publishing
Thomas Oscherwitz, Chief Privacy Officer, ID Analytics
Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products, Google
DJ Patil, Corporate Architect, eBay
Sunil Paul, Angel Investor
Gil Penchina, CEO, Wikia
Chris Petrovic, VP Busines Development, Playboy
Peter Pham, VP Business Development, Photobucket
Jeremy Philips, SVP, News Corp.
Mark Pincus, Founder, Tribe
Anil Podduturi, Supervising Producer, MTV Digital Media
Ariel Poler, Founder and CEO, TextMarks
Will Poole, SVP, Microsoft
Geoff Prentice, VP Strategic Partners and Corporate Development, Skype
Arvind Rajan, President and CEO, Grassroots Enterprises
Ted Rheingold, Co-Founder and CEO, Dogster
David Richter, VP and General Counsel, Divx Networks
Danny Rimer, General Partner, Index Ventures
Narendra Rocherolle, CEO, 30 Boxes
Antonio Rodriguez, CEO, Tabblo
Scott Roesch, VP and General Manager, Atom Films
Kevin Rose, Founder and Chief Architect, Digg
Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO, Linden Labs (Second Life)
Steve Rosenbaum, CEO, Magnify Media
Richard Rosenblat, CEO, Demand Media
Bruce Rosenblum, President, Warner Brothers Television Group
Dan Rosensweig, Former COO, Yahoo
Sean Ryan, CEO, Meez
Kevin Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO, ShopWiki
Adam Rymer, SVP, Digital Platforms, Universal Pictures
Chris Sacca, Head, Special Initiatives, Google
Matt Sanchez, CEO, VideoEgg
Scott Sangster, Director, Strategy and Development, Disney Interactive Group
Chris Satchell, GM, Game Development, Xbox, Microsoft
Joshua Schachter, Founder, Delicious
Toni Schneider, CEO, Wordpress
Munjal Shah, Founder and CEO, Riya
Tina Sharkey, CEO, BabyCenter
Kevin Shields, GM, Media Center, Microsoft
Willy Shih, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
Ram Shriram, Board Member, Google
H.B. Siegel, Technical Director, IMDb (Amazon)
Dave Sifry, Founder and CEO, Technorati
Josh Silverman, CEO, Shopping.com
Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive
Geoff Smith, Co-Founder, StumbleUpon
Megan Smith, Director, New Business Development and Strategy, Google
Rick Smolan, CEO, Against All Odds Productions
Gregg Spiridellis, Co-Founder and CEO, JibJab
Danah Stalder, SVP, Marketing and Business Operations, PayPal
Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West
Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder and CEO, Meebo
Lisa Stone, Co-Founder, BlogHer
Jeremy Stoppleman, Founder and CEO, Yelp
Kara Swisher, Founder, D: All Things Digital
Dan Surratt, EVP Digital Media, Lifetime Networks
Craig Syverson, Founder and CEO, Grunt Media
David Sze, General Partner, Greylock Capital
Peter Thiel, President, Clarium Capital
Scott Teissler, CIO and CTO, Turner Broadcasting Systems
Selina Tobaccawala, SVP, Product and Technology, Ticketmaster Europe
Gina Trapani, Guru, LifeHacker
Bill Trenchard, Chairman, LiveOps
Ben Trott, Co-Founder and CTO, Six Apart
Mena Trott, Co-Founder and President, Six Apart
Owen Van Natta, COO, Facebook
Yossi Vardi, Chairman, International Technologies
Michael Van Swaaij, Chief Strategy Officer, eBay
Martin Varsavsky, Founder and CEO, Fon
Jeff Veen, Founder, MeasureMap (Google)
Steve Venuto, Partner, Orrick
Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
Charlie Walk, President, Epic Records
Hunter Walk, Manager, Google Video, Google
Ted Wang, Partner, Fenwick & West
Paul Wehrley, VP of Strategic Operations, Ask.com
Mark Weinberg, Director of Engineering, Zune, Microsoft
Jeff Weiner, SVP of Search, Yahoo
Steve Weinstein, President and CEO, MovieLabs
Alex Welch, Founder and CEO, Photobucket
Kara Welker, Partner, Generate
Denmark West, EVP, Chief of Operations, MTV Networks
Tim Westergren, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Pandora
Eric Wheeler, CEO, Neo@Ogilvy
Evan Williams, Founder, Obvious Corp. (Twitter)
Luke Wood, Head of A & R, Universal Music
Andrea Wong, EVP, Alternative Programming, ABC
Will Wright, Creator, The Sims, Spore
Sam Yagan, Co-Founder and CEO, OKCupid
Jerry Yang, Co-Founder and Chief Yahoo!, Yahoo
Jim Young, Co-Founder, HotOrNot
Niklas Zennstrom, Founder, Skype (eBay), Joost
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Mitch Zuklie, Partner, Orrick

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