Of course, the Pure Internet Publishing part is what we do. We publish magazines on the net. We're not a mixed media company, shoveling the same old content from our world-weary paper publications onto the Internet. No way. Our publications are designed from the ground up, proud to be online only, proud to be Pure Internet Publishing. ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing.

Back to our story. On Monday, we were at the New Jersey Technology Council's Venture Fair. We were showing off. We're so darned thrilled with this new name and our oh-so-sexy double-Z logo with the at-sign floating above. You can ogle our logo, shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Check out our hot, new ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing logo. Click picture for a larger image.

Our three-foot square, black, white, and yellow sign stood out like a beacon among a sea of corporate look-alikes. And so did we. All five of us (Denise, Heather, Meggan, Donna, and I) were wearing our brand-new black ZATZ T-shirts and black jeans. I had on a black leather vest and Denise was wearing a black velvet, shortened version of a top hat. With everyone else, thousands of people -- attendees and exhibitors alike -- clad in standard-issue, indistinguishable corporate suits, we stood out like a powerful lighthouse in a pea-soup fog.

Not only did we look good (and we looked GOOD!), but we also have a great story to tell. We made it through three passes of judges. The judges were members of the investment community and their job was to evaluate each exhibiting company based on their potential for success. At the end of the day, plaques were awarded to the few companies that managed to stand out.

Guess who stood out?

We were in an auditorium with five hundred of New York and New Jersey's investment elite. A speaker would go to the podium, the audience would politely try to stay awake, and then the speaker would sit down. Five minutes later, try as you might, there'd be no way to tell the latest speaker from everyone else in the room.

And then, a guy got up to announce the one entrepreneurial technology company in New Jersey that was judged to have the Best Sales and Marketing Strategy. He mumbled a few words about the importance of strategy and marketing and then said "The award for Best Sales and Marketing Strategy goes to ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing".

Har. Har. Har.

We stood up. The five of us marched down to the stage. All eyes were on us. You couldn't miss us. Denise Amrich and Heather McDaniel were on one side of me. Donna Rose and Meggan Durst were on the other. All were wearing the ZATZ T-shirts and black jeans. We were different. We were audacious. We had it together. And no one, not one person in that huge auditorium, could possibly mistake any of us for someone from another company.

Then it was my turn to give a speech. I've always wanted to say one thing at an awards presentation and this time I did. I said, "This is so cool!" I went on to say a few nice things about New Jersey and the people involved. After all, this was sponsored by the New Jersey Technology Council and we really appreciated the work they'd done to give us a venue to strut our stuff.