Calacanis and Kristof: And who are you again?

One of my favorite things about Media Center events is that I get to play host and make lots of introductions.

So, at the We Media conference last week, I decide to sneak off for some caffeine at the Starbucks in the AP lobby (nice setup, right?). Waiting for the elevator, I see two of our speakers, NY Times columnist Nick Kristof and Weblogs Inc. Chairman Jason Calacanis, sitting across from each other, deeply into their laptops.

I take the opportunity to say "hi" to Nick, who pretends to remember me in the nicest way possible (we’d met a couple of times when both of us were living in Tokyo). I call over to Jason, "Hey Jason, I don’t know if you know Nick Kristof. Nick, this is Jason Calacanis." Then my elevator arrives, I jump in, and here’s the fun part: As the doors are closing, I see them shaking hands, brown head and blond head leaning into each other, and I hear Jason say, "So what do you do, Nick?"

I don’t hear Nick’s response, but I would lay money down that he doesn’t know who Jason is either.

At The Media Center, we hear and talk about these two guys all the time, guys who are tremendously respected and well known in their respective fields, guys so famous that Doesn’t Everyone Know Them? I guess not, because they didn’t know each other.

And I introduced them. Cool…